noon
In the morning a dozen saleswomen from a nearby department store , having purposely arrived too early , gathered around his kiosk to enjoy the dirty jokes and cheerful comments of Mr. Mechenmal . The bank officer Leopold Lehmann , who always arrived punctually at eight o'clock , to buy illustrated joke books and theological tracts , sometimes became impatient , because the cheerful saleswomen disturbed him as he tried to make his selection . And the school-teacher Theo Tontod , who tirelessly , and , as a rule , uselessly asked for the modern newspaper , `` The Other A , '' often got to school too late . Around noon , almost every day , the choral-singer Mabel Meier came , on the arm of an old man . She bought colorful , spicy newspapers , or sentimental ones , with long lyrical poems . The old man , who always had a whining expression , sighed as he paid . She was reserved with Mechenmal .