noon
Perhaps our allotted task is no other than to climb into the sky , which is so much more beautiful than earth . '' `` Then would we were there now , '' murmurs Eve , `` that no task or duty might come between us ! '' They leave the hospitable mansion , and we next see them passing down State Street . The clock on the old State House points to high noon , when the Exchange should be in its glory and present the liveliest emblem of what was the sole business of life , as regarded a multitude of the foregone worldlings . It is over now . The Sabbath of eternity has shed its stillness along the street . Not even a newsboy assails the two solitary passers-by with an extra penny-paper from the office of the Times or Mail , containing a full account of yesterday 's terrible catastrophe .