noon
At heart he was torn between overwhelming self-consciousness and an intense curiosity as to all that went on around him . He saw the girls emerge one by one from the dressing-room , stretching and pluming themselves like bright birds , smiling over their powdered shoulders at the chaperones , casting a quick glance around to take in the room and , simultaneously , the room 's reaction to their entrance -- and then , again like birds , alighting and nestling in the sober arms of their waiting escorts . Sally Carrol Hopper , blonde and lazy-eyed , appeared clad in her favorite pink and blinking like an awakened rose . Marjorie Haight , Marylyn Wade , Harriet Cary , all the girls he had seen loitering down Jackson Street by noon , now , curled and brilliantined and delicately tinted for the overhead lights , were miraculously strange Dresden figures of pink and blue and red and gold , fresh from the shop and not yet fully dried . He had been there half an hour , totally uncheered by Clark 's jovial visits which were each one accompanied by a `` Hello , old boy , how you making out ? '' and a slap at his knee . A dozen males had spoken to him or stopped for a moment beside him , but he knew that they were each one surprised at finding him there and fancied that one or two were even slightly resentful .