about noon
For their lines were largely a series of curves exactly opposite to those on which Nature had originally designed them . They continued to come ; they ran down-town in closed town cars , padded heavily across the sidewalk like sad bovines going to the slaughter , to reappear an hour or two later stepping like three-year-olds , serenely , virtuously joyous at the tale of the scales which indicated a five-pound loss . And the Saturday and Sunday week-end out of town which presently followed , with the astoundingly heavy dinners that accompanied it , brought them back in a week , sadder even than before . Monday morning was always a very busy morning in Hogarty 's -- but never until along about noon . And because he knew how infallible were the habits of his patrons , Hogarty did not so much as lift his eyes to the practically empty gymnasium floor when a clock at the far side of the room tinkled the hour of eleven . The two boys who were busily scrubbing with waxing-mops the floor that already glistened like the unruffled surface of some crystal pool were quite as unconcerned at the lack of activity as was their employer . They merely paused long enough to draw one shirt sleeve across the sweat-beaded foreheads -- it was a very early spring in Manhattan and the first heat was hard to bear -- and went at their task harder than ever .