twelve o'clock
Wherever he looked there were masses of people and vehicles and tall buildings . Crowds and crowds of people with no common , interest save that of speedily reaching a destination . He might stand there for hours , with his back to this wall , and not see the end of that crowd . In Belfast , at twelve o'clock on Saturday morning , the workmen would hurry over the bridge to their homes : a thick , black , unyielding mass of men ; but at thirty minutes after twelve , that thick , black , seemingly solid mass would be dissolved into the ordinary groupings of a provincial city and there would be no sign of it . This London crowd would never dissolve . The man had told him that `` it 's always like this '' ! ... There were nearly seven millions of men and women and children in London , but he did not know one of them .