nine o'clock
Over this thoroughfare the two opposite-moving streams of the city 's traffic and travel rush headlong . Beyond the thoroughfare an embankment of houses shoves its mass before the eyes , and beyond the embankment the city spreads out over flats where human beings are as thick as river reeds . Thus within small compass humanity is here : the cathedral , the hospital , the art school , and a strip of nature , and a broad highway along which , with their hearth-fires flickering fitfully under their tents of stone , are encamped life 's restless , light-hearted , heavy-hearted Gipsies . * * * * * It was Monday morning and it was nine o'clock . Over at the National Academy of Design , in an upper room , the members of one of the women 's portrait classes were assembled , ready to begin work . Easels had been drawn into position ; a clear light from the blue sky of the last of April fell through the opened roof upon new canvases fastened to the frames . And it poured down bountifully upon intelligent young faces .