midday
The fog would have been more than enough to account for any ordinary non-appearance ; hardly for this one . For it turned out , as soon as it got full powers to assert itself , the densest fog on record . The Londoner was in his element . He told the dissatisfied outsider with pride of how at midday it had been impossible to read large pica on Ludgate Hill ; he did n't say why he tried to do so . He retailed frightful stories -- but always with a sense of distinction -- of folk crushed under hoofs and cart-wheels . If one half were true , some main thoroughfares must have been paved with flattened pedestrians . The satisfaction he derived from the huge extra profits of the gas-companies made his hearer think he must be a shareholder , until _ pari passu _ reasoning proved him to have invested in fog-signals .