twelve o'clock
And yesterday they puts open cars on the Sixth Avenue lines , and the janitors have quit ordering coal . And that means six weeks more of winter , by all the signs that be . '' After breakfast Mr. McQuirk spent fifteen minutes before the corrugated mirror , subjugating his hair and arranging his green-and-purple ascot with its amethyst tombstone pin -- eloquent of his chosen calling . Since the strike had been called it was this particular striker 's habit to hie himself each morning to the corner saloon of Flaherty Brothers , and there establish himself upon the sidewalk , with one foot resting on the bootblack 's stand , observing the panorama of the street until the pace of time brought twelve o'clock and the dinner hour . And Mr. `` Tiger '' McQuirk , with his athletic seventy inches , well trained in sport and battle ; his smooth , pale , solid , amiable face -- blue where the razor had travelled ; his carefully considered clothes and air of capability , was himself a spectacle not displeasing to the eye . But on this morning Mr. McQuirk did not hasten immediately to his post of leisure and observation . Something unusual that he could not quite grasp was in the air .