noon
The prince was smiling as he met her eyes ; for the world was always the exquisite intaglio , and to-day was its design . `` They know , '' he said simply , `` what was to have been at noon to-day . Do you not understand my condition ? '' Somewhat before noon the great doors of the Palace of the Litany and of the Hall of Kings were thrown open , and the people streamed in from the palace grounds and the Eurychôrus . Abroad among them -- elusive as that by which we know that a given moment belongs to dawn , not dusk -- was the sense of questioning , of unrest , of expectancy that belongs to the dawn itself . Especially the youths and maidens -- who , besides wisdom , knew something of spells -- waited with a certain wistfulness for what might be , for Change is a kind of god even to the immortals . But there were also those who weighed the departures incident to the coming of the strange people from over-seas ; and there were not lacking conservatives of the old régime to shake wise heads and declare that a barbarian is a barbarian , the world over .