noon
I will dare to behold things as they are . And if I live in a waste instead of a paradise , I will live knowing where I live . '' But of this a certain exercise of his power which soon followed quite cured me , turning my feelings towards him once more into loathing and distrust . It was thus : One bright noon , a little maiden joined me , coming through the wood in a direction at right angles to my path . She came along singing and dancing , happy as a child , though she seemed almost a woman . In her hands -- now in one , now in another -- she carried a small globe , bright and clear as the purest crystal . This seemed at once her plaything and her greatest treasure .