midday
_ Hitherto unpublished . _ They had been to the Lido for a short swim in the slight but bracing surf of the Adriatic . They had had a midday breakfast in a queer little restaurant , known only to the initiated and therefore early discovered by Larry , who had a keen scent for a cook learned in the law . They had loitered along the Riva degli Schiavoni , looking at a perambulatory puppet-show , before which a delighted audience sturdily disregarded the sharp wind which bravely fluttered the picturesque tatters of the spectators ; and they were moved to congratulate the Venetians on their freedom from the monotonous repertory of the Anglo-American Punch-and-Judy , which consists solely of a play really unique in the exact sense of that much-abused word . They were getting their fill of the delicious Italian art which is best described by an American verb -- to loaf . And yet they were not wont to be idle , and they had both the sharp , quick American manner , on which laziness sits uneasily and infrequently .