ten o'clock
Above these barriers of stone and iron no joyous magnolias lifted their creamy blossoms ; no shy climbing roses played hide-and-seek , blushing scarlet when caught . Along its foot-worn paths no drowsy Moses ceased his droning call ; no lovers walked forgetful of the world ; no staid old gentlemen wandered idly , their noses in their books . All day long on its rude straight-backed benches and over its thread-bare turf sprawled unkempt women with sick babies from the shanties ; squalid , noisy children from the rookeries ; beggars in rags , and now and then some hopeless wayfarer -- who for the moment had given up his search for work or bread and who rested or slept until the tap of a constable 's club brought him to consciousness and his feet . At night , before the gates were closed -- ten o'clock was the hour -- there could always be found , under its dim lamps , some tired girl , sitting in the light for better protection while she rested , or some weary laborer on the way home from his long day 's work , and always passing to and fro , swinging his staff , bullying the street-rats who were playing tag among the trees , and inspiring a wholesome awe among those hiding in the shadows , lounged some guardian of the peace awaiting the hour when he could drive the inmates to the sidewalk and shut the gates behind them with a bang . Here on one of these same straight-backed wooden seats one September night -- a night when the air was heavy with a blurred haze , through which the lamps peered as in a fog , and the dust lay thick upon the leaves -- sat our Oliver . Outside the square -- all about the iron fence , and surging past the big equestrian statue , could be heard the roar and din of the great city -- that maelstrom which now seemed ready to engulf him . No sound of merry laughter reached him , only rumbling of countless wheels , the slow thud of never-ending , crowded stages lumbering over the cobbles , the cries of the hucksters selling hot corn , and the ceaseless scrapings of a thousand feet .