noon
His great strength , fettered as it were by his loss of sight , now also began to stir . Fate itself withheld him from the labour which he loved , yet in return it offered him a wealth of varying pleasure , whose stimulating power he had learned the day before . He still relished the draught from the beaker of homage proffered by his fellow-citizens ; nay , it seemed as if it could not lose its sweetness for a long time . He joined the ladies before noon , and his newly awakened feeling of joy beamed upon them scarcely less radiantly than yesterday . Though Thyone might wonder that a man pursued by Nemesis could allow himself to be borne along so thoughtlessly by the stream of pleasure , Daphne certainly did not grudge him the festal season which , when it had passed , could never return to the blind artist . When it was over , he would yearn for the quiet happiness at her side , which gazed at him like the calm eyes of the woman he loved . With her he would cast anchor for the remainder of his life ; but first must come the period when he enjoyed the compensation now awarded to him for such severe sufferings .