noon
And Mary , who had not expected anything from John 's intervention , and also knew the grounds for Richard 's heat -- Mary now resigned herself , with the best grace she could muster , to the inevitable . House and practice sold for a good round sum ; the brass plates were removed from gate and door , leaving dirty squares flanked by screw-holes ; carpets came up and curtains down ; and , like rats from a doomed ship , men and women servants fled to other situations . One fine day the auctioneer 's bell was rung through the main streets of the town ; and both on this and the next , when the red flag flew in front of the house , a troop of intending purchasers , together with an even larger number of the merely curious , streamed in at the gate and overran the premises . At noon the auctioneer mounted his perch , gathered the crowd round him , and soon had the sale in full swing , catching head-bobs , or wheedling and insisting with , when persuasion could do no more , his monotonous parrot-cry of : `` Going ... going ... gone ! '' It would have been in bad taste for either husband or wife to be visible while the auction was in progress ; and , the night before , Mary and the child had moved to Tilly 's , where they would stay for the rest of the time . But Mahony was still hard at work . The job of winding up and getting in the money owed him was no light one .