noon
And he was perfectly happy . He was at last seeing the Great World . As he manoeuvered along State Street he rejoiced in the complications of the traffic and tooted his horn unnecessarily . As he waited before tall buildings , at noon , he gazed up at them with a superior air of boredom -- because he was so boyishly proud of being a part of all this titanic life that he was afraid he might show it . He gloried in every new road , in driving along the Lake Shore , where the horizon was bounded not by unimaginative land , but by restless water . Then the Ruddy One 's favorite roads began to be familiar to Carl , too familiar , and he so hated his sot of an employer that he caught himself muttering , while driving , `` Thank the Lord I sit in front and do n't have to see that chunk of raw beefsteak he calls a neck . '' While he waited for the fifth time before a certain expensive but not exclusive roadhouse , with the bouncing giggles of girls inside spoiling the spring night , he studied the background as once he had studied his father 's woodshed .