noon
And beneath the ugliness of the mask that now presented itself there was only Death at last . I was no babe to whimper at a sudden darkness , to cry out against a curtain that a Hand chose to drop between me and the life I had lived . Death frighted me not , but when I thought of one whom I should leave behind me I feared lest I should go mad . Had this thing come to me a year before , I could have slept the night through ; now -- now -- I lay , bound to the log , before the open door of the lodge , and , looking through it , saw the pines waving in the night wind and the gleam of the river beneath the stars , and saw her as plainly as though she had stood there under the trees , in a flood of noon sunshine . Now she was the Jocelyn Percy of Weyanoke , now of the minister 's house , now of a storm-tossed boat and a pirate ship , now of the gaol at Jamestown . One of my arms was free ; I could take from within my doublet the little purple flower , and drop my face upon the hand that held it . The bloom was quite withered , and scalding tears would not give it life again .