noon
The officer smiled as he put the glass and decanter away . Faster and faster flew the machine . They had to put the window down , for the current of air had become too strong and cool to be pleasant . The color of the sunlight changed to green , and then at noon , from the zenith , a glorious red light shimmered down and veiled the earth with such a beautiful translucent haze that the poor American for a moment almost forgot his trouble . The afternoon came on . The sunlight became successively green , white , blue , lavender , rose and gray . The sun was no longer in sight and the gray in the west was darkening into purple , the last hour of the day .