noon
And in time he would be happy ! He would rise now to that pinnacle of desired authority which she had dreamed of for him , ever since he was a tiny thing , ever since his little thin brown hand had clasped hers in their wanderings amongst the flowers , and the furniture of tall rooms . But , as she stood -- crumpling the letter , grey-white as some small resolute ghost , among her tall lilies that filled with their scent the great glass house-shadows flitted across her face . Was it the fugitive noon sunshine ? Or was it some glimmering perception of the old Greek saying -- ` Character is Fate ; ' some sudden sense of the universal truth that all are in bond to their own natures , and what a man has most desired shall in the end enslave him ?