four in the afternoon
He was , however , not often aware of this sedulous espionage . September waned and October dawned in grateful coolness : an exquisite month of crisp nights and enlivening days , of mellowing sunlight and early gloamings tenderly coloured . Country houses were closed and theatres reopened . Fifth Avenue after four in the afternoon became thronged with an ever thickening army -- horse , foot and motor-car . Several main-travelled thoroughfares were promptly torn to pieces and set up on end by municipal authorities with a keen eye for the discomfort of the public . A fresh electric sign blazed on Broadway every evening , and from Thirty-fourth Street to Columbus Circle the first nights crackled , detonated , sputtered and fizzled like a string of cheap Chinese firecrackers . One after another the most exorbitant restaurants advanced their prices and decreased their portions to the prompt and extraordinary multiplication of their clientèle : restaurant French for a species of citizen whose birth-rate is said to be steadfast to the ratio of sixty to the hour .