noon
It was a Sunday morning in the beginning of April 1813 , a morning which gave promise of one of those bright days when Parisians , for the first time in the year , behold dry pavements underfoot and a cloudless sky overhead . It was not yet noon when a luxurious cabriolet , drawn by two spirited horses , turned out of the Rue de Castiglione into the Rue de Rivoli , and drew up behind a row of carriages standing before the newly opened barrier half-way down the Terrasse de Feuillants . The owner of the carriage looked anxious and out of health ; the thin hair on his sallow temples , turning gray already , gave a look of premature age to his face . He flung the reins to a servant who followed on horseback , and alighted to take in his arms a young girl whose dainty beauty had already attracted the eyes of loungers on the Terrasse . The little lady , standing upon the carriage step , graciously submitted to be taken by the waist , putting an arm round the neck of her guide , who set her down upon the pavement without so much as ruffling the trimming of her green rep dress .