two in the afternoon
It was Sunday , and , according to his custom on that day , McTeague took his dinner at two in the afternoon at the car conductors ' coffee-joint on Polk Street . He had a thick gray soup ; heavy , underdone meat , very hot , on a cold plate ; two kinds of vegetables ; and a sort of suet pudding , full of strong butter and sugar . On his way back to his office , one block above , he stopped at Joe Frenna 's saloon and bought a pitcher of steam beer . It was his habit to leave the pitcher there on his way to dinner .