noon
Her lithe graceful back and shoulders -- for she was a rebel against the fashion of the day in dress as well as in morals , and , believing in the natural stay of the muscles , had found them responsive to her trust -- the noble poise of her head , and the motions of her arms , easy yet decided , were ever present to him , though sometimes he could hardly have told whether his sight or his mind -- now in the radiance of the sun , now in the shadow of the wood , now against the green of the meadow , now against the blue of the sky , and now in the faint moonlight , through which he followed , as a ghost in the realms of Hades might follow the ever flitting phantom of his love . Day glided after day . Adventure came not near them . Soft and lovely as a dream the morning dawned , the noon flowed past , the evening came and the death that followed was yet sweeter than the life that had gone before . Through it all , daydream and nightly trance , radiant air and moony mist , before him glode the shape of Clementina , its every motion a charm . After that shape he could have been content , oh , how content ! to ride on and on through the ever unfolding vistas of an eternal succession .