noon
Of an evening , too , he delighted in the fine sunsets which threw the delicate lacework of the market buildings blackly against the red glow of the heavens . The dancing dust of the last sun rays streamed through every opening , through every chink of the Venetian shutters , and the whole was like some luminous transparency on which the slender shafts of the columns , the elegant curves of the girders , and the geometrical tracery of the roofs were minutely outlined . Florent feasted his eyes on this mighty diagram washed in with Indian ink on phosphorescent vellum , and his mind reverted to his old fancy of a colossal machine with wheels and levers and beams espied in the crimson glow of the fires blazing beneath its boilers . At each consecutive hour of the day the changing play of the light -- from the bluish haze of early morning and the black shadows of noon to the flaring of the sinking sun and the paling of its fires in the ashy grey of the twilight -- revealed the markets under a new aspect ; but on the flaming evenings , when the foul smells arose and forced their way across the broad yellow beams like hot puffs of steam , Florent again experienced discomfort , and his dream changed , and he imagined himself in some gigantic knacker 's boiling-house where the fat of a whole people was being melted down . The coarseness of the market people , whose words and gestures seemed to be infected with the evil smell of the place , also made him suffer . He was very tolerant , and showed no mock modesty ; still , these impudent women often embarrassed him . Madame Francois , whom he had again met , was the only one with whom he felt at ease .