noon
Iphigenia herself , when the priests , who muffled her voice , stretched her on the altar and struck the knife in her throat , tried to charm them with her sad eyes while her saffron blood was flowing , and they saw that she would have charmed them with her voice even when hope had vanished . The unfortunate Hazard was not precisely an Agamemnon , and would have liked nothing better than to stop the sacrifice which seemed to him much too closely like a triumph over himself . His own throat was the one which felt itself in closest danger of the knife . At noon , as usual , he came in , trying to conceal his anxiety under an appearance of confidence , but Esther 's first words routed all his forces and drove him back to his last defense . `` I should not have let you come to-day . I ought to have written to bid you good-by , but it was too hard not to see you once more . I am going away . ''