noon
Just think of the outcome of such insignificant incidents . The last letter he had received had been written in Heliopolis on the eve of her grace 's sudden decision ; the one that had gone astray had been mailed in Luxor , and had contained the request that , when he had shot the lion he would take the carcase or the skin as a present to Damaris at the Winter Palace Hotel and wait there until her return from the Oasis of Khargegh . There was no doubt about the fact that he was genuinely in love . Lion or no lion in the vicinity , he would sit dreaming for hours amongst the rock tombs at full noon or fall of evening or by the light of the sickle-moon ; a perfectly absurd proceeding where big game is concerned . Food or sleep meant nothing to him , so that his usual good-temper was sharpened and his undoubted good looks enchanced by a certain romantic gauntness under the cheek-bone . People seemed as ghosts to him , so absorbed was he in his love and his pain ; so that his act of rising when Mrs. Sidmouth took what she thought to be a diplomatic departure was purely mechanical . Then Sybil laughed , a jolly , ringing laugh , and laid her hand upon his arm .