five in the afternoon
The gentlemen , in long , black overcoats , and satin mufflers , and opera hats ; their hands under the elbows of their women-folk , urged or guided them forward , distressed , preoccupied , adjuring their parties to keep together ; in their white-gloved fingers they held their tickets ready . For all the icy blasts that burst occasionally through the storm doors , the vestibule was uncomfortably warm , and into this steam-heated atmosphere a multitude of heavy odours exhaled -- the scent of crushed flowers , of perfume , of sachet , and even -- occasionally -- the strong smell of damp seal-skin . Outside it was bitterly cold . All day a freezing wind had blown from off the Lake , and since five in the afternoon a fine powder of snow had been falling . The coachmen on the boxes of the carriages that succeeded one another in an interminable line before the entrance of the theatre , were swathed to the eyes in furs . The spume and froth froze on the bits of the horses , and the carriage wheels crunching through the dry , frozen snow gave off a shrill staccato whine . Yet for all this , a crowd had collected about the awning on the sidewalk , and even upon the opposite side of the street , peeping and peering from behind the broad shoulders of policemen -- a crowd of miserables , shivering in rags and tattered comforters , who found , nevertheless , an unexplainable satisfaction in watching this prolonged defile of millionaires .