seven o’clock
`` This thing at the Gaiety is ripping , I believe . Do come and see . '' Michael resisted this chance of revising his opinion about the German origin of music , and Francis drifted out into Piccadilly . It was already getting on for seven o'clock , and the roadway and pavements were full of people who seemed rather to contradict Michael 's theory that the nation generally suffered from the malady of not wanting , so eagerly and numerously were they on the quest for amusement . Already the street was a mass of taxicabs and private motors containing , each one of them , men and women in evening dress , hurrying out to dine before the theatre or the opera . Bright , eager faces peered out , with sheen of silk and glitter of gems ; they all seemed alert and prosperous and keen for the daily hours of evening entertainment . A crowd similar in spirit pervaded the pavements , white-shirted men with coat on arm stepped in and out of swinging club doors and the example set by the leisured class seemed copiously copied by those whom desks and shops had made prisoners all day .