noon
Or , was his aversion to marriage due solely to the fact that the right woman had not yet arrived ? These and many other questions had been asked and thoroughly discussed by the matrons and daughters of Santa Fé , especially by the latter , to all of whom he had made love and sent flowers and serenaded in turn until , out of sheer desperation , they called alternately upon God and the devil to keep or punish this gay Lothario who loved all and yet none , and who gave such exquisite _ fiestas _ in his beautiful _ hacienda _ . Now it so chanced that , at the same hour Don Felipe was conducting Blanch and Bessie to the cañon , Dick was returning to Santa Fé on horseback from his _ hacienda _ where he had passed the night . As there was no particular reason why he should reach the _ Posada _ before noon , he decided to indulge his fancy by lingering in the cooling shade of the cañon close to the river 's edge , where he might listen to the voices of the waters as they went singing by him on their way to the old town and thence to the sea . He accordingly dismounted , and after lighting a fresh cigar , stretched himself at full length upon the grass which grew on the river 's bank , allowing his horse to graze at will . Just behind him rose the abrupt wall of the cañon some thirty or forty feet in height which , at this hour of the morning , cast a deep shadow over the spot where he lay and halfway across the river in front of him . It was just the sort of place for an Indian or one of Dick 's nature to linger in and dream and muse .