noon
-LRB- O anxious doubt and chilling fear that grows by thinking . -RRB- She was seated outside her door , -- the young actress ! The sea before her in that heavenly bay seemed literally to sleep in the arms of the shore ; while , to the right , not far off , rose the dark and tangled crags to which the traveller of to-day is duly brought to gaze on the tomb of Virgil , or compare with the cavern of Posilipo the archway of Highgate Hill . There were a few fisherman loitering by the cliffs , on which their nets were hung to dry ; and at a distance the sound of some rustic pipe -LRB- more common at that day than at this -RRB- , mingled now and then with the bells of the lazy mules , broke the voluptuous silence , -- the silence of declining noon on the shores of Naples ; never , till you have enjoyed it , never , till you have felt its enervating but delicious charm , believe that you can comprehend all the meaning of the Dolce far niente -LRB- The pleasure of doing nothing . -RRB- ; and when that luxury has been known , when you have breathed that atmosphere of fairy-land , then you will no longer wonder why the heart ripens into fruit so sudden and so rich beneath the rosy skies and the glorious sunshine of the South . The eyes of the actress were fixed on the broad blue deep beyond . In the unwonted negligence of her dress might be traced the abstraction of her mind .