noon
To Madeline 's surprise , the park was not a little half-mile nook nestling among the crags , but extended farther than they cared to walk , and was rather a series of parks . They were no more than small valleys between gray-toothed peaks . As the day advanced the charm of the place grew upon Madeline . Even at noon , with the sun beating down , there was comfortable warmth rather than heat . It was the kind of warmth that Madeline liked to feel in the spring . And the sweet , thin , rare atmosphere began to affect her strangely . She breathed deeply of it until she felt light-headed , as if her body lacked substance and might drift away like a thistledown .