noon
From his window McTeague saw them in front of the stalls , gloved and veiled and daintily shod , the subservient provision men at their elbows , scribbling hastily in the order books . They all seemed to know one another , these grand ladies from the fashionable avenue . Meetings took place here and there ; a conversation was begun ; others arrived ; groups were formed ; little impromptu receptions were held before the chopping blocks of butchers ' stalls , or on the sidewalk , around boxes of berries and fruit . From noon to evening the population of the street was of a mixed character . The street was busiest at that time ; a vast and prolonged murmur arose -- the mingled shuffling of feet , the rattle of wheels , the heavy trundling of cable cars . At four o'clock the school children once more swarmed the sidewalks , again disappearing with surprising suddenness . At six the great homeward march commenced ; the cars were crowded , the laborers thronged the sidewalks , the newsboys chanted the evening papers .