three o'clock
COME AT ONCE . '' The signature was the name of their family physician , Grisby . By January the complex social mechanism of the metropolis was whirling smoothly again ; the last ultra-fashionable December lingerer had returned from the country ; those of the same caste outward bound for a Southern or exotic winter had departed ; and the glittering machine , every part assembled , refurbished , repolished , and connected , having been given preliminary speed-tests at the horse show , and a tuning up at the opera , was now running under full velocity ; and its steady , subdued whir quickened the clattering pulse of the city , keying it to a sublimely syncopated ragtime . The commercial reaction from the chaos of the holidays had become a carnival of recovery ; shop windows grew brighter and gayer than ever , bursting into gaudy winter florescence ; the main arteries of the town roared prosperity ; cross streets were packed ; Fifth Avenue , almost impassible in the morning , choked up after three o'clock ; and all the afternoon through , and late into the night , mounted police of the traffic squad , adrift in the tide of carriages , stemmed the flashing currents pouring north and south from the white marble arch to the gilded bronze battle-horse and its rider on guard at the portals of the richest quarter of the wealthiest city in the world . So far , that winter , snow had fallen only twice , lasting but a day or two each time ; street and avenue remained bone dry where the white-uniformed cleaning squads worked amid clouds of dust ; and all day long the flinty asphalt echoed the rattling slap of horses ' feet ; all day long the big , shining motor-cars sped up town and down town , droning their distant warnings . It was an open winter in New York , and , financially , a prosperous one ; and that meant a brilliant social season . Like a set piece of fireworks , with its interdependent parts taking fire in turn , function after function , spectacle after spectacle , glittered , fizzed , and was extinguished , only to give place to newer and more splendid spectacles ; separate circles , sets , and groups belonging to the social solar system whizzed , revolved , rotated , with edifying effects on everybody concerned , unconcerned , and not at all concerned ; and at intervals , when for a moment or two something hung fire , the twinkle of similar spectacles sputtering away in distant cities beyond the horizon was faintly reflected in the social sky above the incandescent metropolis .