two in the afternoon
In a novel of such high merit as this , the subject matter is the least important consideration . Every newspaper contains the essential material for another `` Comedie Humaine . '' In this case `` McTeague , '' the central figure , happens to be a dentist practicing in a little side street of San Francisco . The novel opens with this description of him : `` It was Sunday , and , according to his custom on that day , McTeague took his dinner at two in the afternoon at the car conductor 's 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 . Once in his office , or , as he called it on his sign-board , ` Dental Parlors , ' he took off his coat and shoes , unbuttoned his vest , and , having crammed his little stove with coke , he lay back in his operating chair at the bay window , reading the paper , drinking steam beer , and smoking his huge porcelain pipe while his food digested ; crop-full , stupid and warm . '' McTeague had grown up in a mining camp in the mountains .