four o'clock
At the back of the crossing Grafton Street continues again for a little distance down to Trinity College -LRB- at the gates whereof very intelligent young men flaunt very tattered gowns and smoke massive pipes with great skill for their years -RRB- , skirting the Bank of Ireland , and on to the River Liffey and the street which local patriotism defiantly speaks of as O'Connell Street , and alien patriotism , with equal defiance and pertinacity , knows as Sackville Street . To the point where these places meet , and where the policeman stands , all the traffic of Dublin converges in a constant stream . The trams hurrying to Terenure , or Donnybrook , or Dalkey flash around this corner ; the doctors who , in these degenerate days , concentrate in Merrion Square , fly up here in carriages and motor cars , the vans of the great firms in Grafton and O'Connell streets , or those outlying , never cease their exuberant progress . The ladies and gentlemen of leisure stroll here daily at four o'clock , and from all sides the vehicles and pedestrians , the bicycles and motor bicycles , the trams and the outside cars rush to the solitary policeman , who directs them all with his severe but tolerant eye . He knows all the tram-drivers who go by , and his nicely graduated wink rewards the glances of the rubicund , jolly drivers of the hackneys and the decayed Jehus with purple faces and dismal hopefulness who drive sepulchral cabs for some reason which has no acquaintance with profit ; nor are the ladies and gentlemen who saunter past foreign to his encyclopedic eye . Constantly his great head swings a slow recognition , constantly his serene finger motions onwards a well-known undesirable , and his big , white teeth flash for an instant at young , laughing girls and the more matronly acquaintances who solicit the distinction of his glance . To this place , and about this hour , Mary Makebelieve , returning from her solitary lunch , was wont to come .