midday
`` No ; they are not friends . '' `` No matter ; he will be here to-morrow ! '' Mascari stared in surprise ; but the signal for the banquet was given , and the guests were marshalled to the board . As was the custom , the feast took place at midday . It was a long oval hall , the whole of one side opening by a marble colonnade upon a court or garden , in which the eye rested gratefully upon cool fountains and statues of whitest marble , half sheltered by orange-trees . Every art that luxury could invent to give freshness and coolness to the languid and breezeless heat of the day without -LRB- a day on which the breath of the sirocco was abroad -RRB- had been called into existence . Artificial currents of air through invisible tubes , silken blinds waving to and fro as if to cheat the senses into the belief of an April wind , and miniature jets d'eau in each corner of the apartment gave to the Italians the same sense of exhilaration and comfort -LRB- if I may use the word -RRB- which the well-drawn curtains and the blazing hearth afford to the children of colder climes .