midday
They were both gipsies , for all that they had no Egyptian blood . That southward road from Innspruck was much more than a mere highway of travel between a starting-place and a goal , even to these two to whom the starting-place meant peril and the goal the first opportunity of sleep . `` Even in our short journey , '' said Clementina , `` how it climbed hillsides angle upon angle , how it swept through the high solitudes of ice where no trees grow , where silence lives ; how it dropped down into green valleys and the noise of streams ! And it still sweeps on , through dark and light , a glimmer at night , a glare in the midday , between lines of poplars , hidden amongst vines , through lighted cities , down to Venice and the sea . If one could travel it , never retracing a step , pitching a tent by the roadside when one willed ! That were freedom ! '' She stopped with a remarkable abruptness .