Eleven o’clock
Small office lads in large hats , who are made men before they are boys , hurry along in pairs , with their first coat carefully brushed , and the white trousers of last Sunday plentifully besmeared with dust and ink . It evidently requires a considerable mental struggle to avoid investing part of the day 's dinner-money in the purchase of the stale tarts so temptingly exposed in dusty tins at the pastry-cooks ' doors ; but a consciousness of their own importance and the receipt of seven shillings a-week , with the prospect of an early rise to eight , comes to their aid , and they accordingly put their hats a little more on one side , and look under the bonnets of all the milliners ' and stay-makers ' apprentices they meet -- poor girls ! -- the hardest worked , the worst paid , and too often , the worst used class of the community . Eleven o'clock , and a new set of people fill the streets . The goods in the shop-windows are invitingly arranged ; the shopmen in their white neckerchiefs and spruce coats , look as it they could n't clean a window if their lives depended on it ; the carts have disappeared from Covent-garden ; the waggoners have returned , and the costermongers repaired to their ordinary ` beats ' in the suburbs ; clerks are at their offices , and gigs , cabs , omnibuses , and saddle-horses , are conveying their masters to the same destination . The streets are thronged with a vast concourse of people , gay and shabby , rich and poor , idle and industrious ; and we come to the heat , bustle , and activity of NOON . But the streets of London , to be beheld in the very height of their glory , should be seen on a dark , dull , murky winter 's night , when there is just enough damp gently stealing down to make the pavement greasy , without cleansing it of any of its impurities ; and when the heavy lazy mist , which hangs over every object , makes the gas-lamps look brighter , and the brilliantly-lighted shops more splendid , from the contrast they present to the darkness around .