midnight
Klea went quickly on towards the temple , without listening to Irene 's excuses . She paid no heed to the worshippers who filled the forecourt , praying either with heads bent low or with uplifted arms or , if they were of Egyptian extraction , kneeling on the smooth stone pavement , for , even as she entered , she had already begun to turn in supplication to the divinity . She crossed the great hall of the sanctuary , which was open only to the initiated and to the temple-servants , of whom she was one . Here all around her stood a crowd of slender columns , their shafts crowned with gracefully curved flower calyxes , like stems supporting lilies , over her head she saw in the ceiling an image of the midnight sky with the bright , unresting and ever-restful stars ; the planets and fixed stars in their golden barks looked down on her silently . Yes ! here were the twilight and stillness befitting a personal communion with the divinity . The pillars appeared to her fancy like a forest of giant growth , and it seemed to her that the perfume of the incense emanated from the gorgeous floral capitals that crowned them ; it penetrated her senses , which were rendered more acute by fasting and agitation , with a sort of intoxication .