noon
This was what she saw . The auctioneer was holding up a bird-cage containing a canary-Carmen 's bird-cage , and Zoe 's canary which had remained to be a vocal memory of her in her old home . `` Here , '' said the rhetorical , inflammable auctioneer , `` here is the choicest lot left to the last . I put it away in the bakery , meaning to sell it at noon , when everybody was eating-food for the soul and food for the body . I forgot it . But here it is , worth anything you like to anybody that loves the beautiful , the good , and the harmonious . What do I hear for this lovely saffron singer from the Elysian fields ?