twelve o'clock
The bead on the apple juice , the dash of mustard to the frankfurter , the feather tickler in the eye , the barker to the ear , and the thick festival-flavored sawdust to the throat . By eleven o'clock the Freak Palace was a gelatinous congestion of the quickened of heart , of blood , of tongue , and of purse . The crowd stared , gaped , squirmed through itself , sweated . By twelve o'clock , from her benchlike throne that had become a straitjacket to the back , a heaviness had set in that seemed to thicken Miss Hoag 's eyelids , the flush receding before doughiness . A weary mountain of the cruelly enhancing red silk and melting sequin paste , the billowy arms inundated with the thumb-deep dimples lax out along the chair-sides , as preponderous and preposterous a heroine as ever fell the lot of scribe , she was nature 's huge joke -- a practical joke , too , at eighteen dollars a week , bank-books from three trust companies , and a china pig about ready to burst . `` Cheer up , Ossi ! It might be worse , '' she said across the left rail , but her lids twitching involuntarily of tiredness .