four o'clock
There were groups of men and women round a theatrical agent 's place of business , all sorts of people coming and going ; lawyers from the Temple , journalists on their way to Fleet Street ; prostitutes of all kinds and all sorts , young and old , fat and thin , of all nationalities , French , Belgian , and German , went by in couples , in rows , their eyes flaming invitations . Children with orange coloured hair sold matches and were followed down suspicious alleys ; a strange hurried life , full of complexity , had begun in the twilight before the lamplighters went by . Girls and boys scrambled after each other quarrelling and selling newspapers . The spectacle helped the time away between four o'clock and seven . At seven she turned into some eating-house and dined for a shilling , and afterwards there was nothing to do than wander in the Strand . Some of the women who preferred to pick up a living by the sale of their lips rather than by standing for hours over a stinking wash-tub were very often kindly human beings , and there was nobody else except these street-walkers with whom she could exchange a few words and invite into a drinking shop for a glass . Over the counter she related her successes as Clairette in _ Madame Angot _ and Serpolette in _ Les Cloches de Corneville _ , and if an incredulous look came into the faces of her guests she sang to them the little ditties , proving by her knowledge of them that all she told them was true .