noon
Why was all so still again ? Had she offered her rosy lips for a kiss ? No doubt , no doubt . And Hermas did not wrench himself from her white arms , as he had torn himself from hers that noon by the spring-torn himself away never to return . Cold drops stood on her brow , she buried her hands in her thick , black hair , and a loud cry escaped her -- a cry like that of a tortured animal . A few minutes more and she had slipped through the stable and the gate by which they drove the cattle in ; and no longer mistress of herself , was flying up the mountain to the grotto of Mithras to warn Phoebicius . The anchorite Gelasius saw from afar the figure of the girl flying up the mountain in the moonlight , and her shadow flitting from stone to stone , and he threw himself on the ground , and signed a cross on his brow , for he thought he saw a goblin-form , one of the myriad gods of the heathen -- an Oread pursued by a Satyr .