twelve o’clock
Their faces and expressions were a little more natural here , and did not display that fictitious desire to be subservient which is so marked in the Russian shop-keeper when he stands before a customer in his shop . Here they stood upon no ceremony , although the saloons were full of those very aristocrats before whom , in any other place , they would have been ready to sweep , with reverence , the dust brought in by their feet . They were quite at their ease , handling pictures and books without ceremony , when desirous of ascertaining the value of the goods , and boldly upsetting bargains mentally secured in advance by noble connoisseurs . There were many of those infallible attendants of auctions who make it a point to go to one every day as regularly as to take their breakfast ; aristocratic connoisseurs who look upon it as their duty not to miss any opportunity of adding to their collections , and who have no other occupation between twelve o'clock and one ; and noble gentlemen , with garments very threadbare , who make their daily appearance without any selfish object in view , but merely to see how it all goes off . A quantity of pictures were lying about in disorder : with them were mingled furniture , and books with the cipher of the former owner , who never was moved by any laudable desire to glance into them . Chinese vases , marble slabs for tables , old and new furniture with curving lines , with griffins , sphinxes , and lions ' paws , gilded and ungilded , chandeliers , sconces , all were heaped together in a perfect chaos of art . The auction appeared to be at its height .