midday
For the first time the insidious beauty of Roselawn 's tranquillity was cloying the energy of his mind -- a mind that never gave him rest , but was always questioning and seeking the truth in every phase of human endeavour . The peacefulness of the twilight hour was lulling his mental faculties , and the perfumes of summer 's zenith were stirring his senses like music of the Nile . As though he were picturing inhabitants of another world , he conjured to his vision the feverish traffic of New York , deluged with human beings belched from their million occupations into the glare of lunch-hour . It gave him a strange sensation of being among the gods to be able to look at the lowering sun and know that at the same moment it held New York in the pitiless heat of midday ... . And he wondered dreamily why people lived such a mockery of existence as in its towering streets . The pastoral atmosphere was so perfect , so completely soothing in its cool fragrance of evening , that he thought if he could only remain there , away from the conflict of the world , he could write of such things as only poets dream and painters see . He had readied the stream , and was about to retrace his steps , when he heard the rustle of a dress , and coming round a bend in the path he saw Elise Durwent .