noon
Business habits , and a deference to the custom , even with those who have no business , give an air of restless anxiety to every pedestrian . The exceptions to this rule are apt to go to the other extreme , and wear a defiant , obtrusive kind of indolence which suggests quite as much inward disquiet and unrest . The shiftless lassitude of a gambler can never be mistaken for the lounge of a gentleman . Even the brokers who loiter upon Montgomery Street at high noon are not loungers . Look at them closely and you will see a feverishness and anxiety under the mask of listlessness . They do not lounge -- they lie in wait . No surer sign , I imagine , of our peculiar civilization can be found than this lack of repose in its constituent elements .