about noon
After that we went on in silence for some time ; at length he said that the being I had seen in the wood and was not afraid of was no innocent young girl , but a daughter of the Didi , an evil being ; and that so long as she continued to inhabit the wood they could not go there to hunt , and even in other woods they constantly went in fear of meeting her . Too much disgusted to talk with him , I went on in silence ; and when we reached the stream near the village , I threw off my clothes and plunged into the water to cool my anger before going in to the others . Thinking about the forest girl while lying awake that night , I came to the conclusion that I had made it sufficiently plain to her how little her capricious behaviour had been relished , and had therefore no need to punish myself more by keeping any longer out of my beloved green mansions . Accordingly , next day , after the heavy rain that fell during the morning hours had ceased , I set forth about noon to visit the wood . Overhead the sky was clear again ; but there was no motion in the heavy sultry atmosphere , while dark blue masses of banked-up clouds on the western horizon threatened a fresh downpour later in the day . My mind was , however , now too greatly excited at the prospect of a possible encounter with the forest nymph to allow me to pay any heed to these ominous signs . I had passed through the first strip of wood and was in the succeeding stony sterile space when a gleam of brilliant colour close by on the ground caught my sight .