midday
Few raised their eyes beyond the thick warm haze which hung low on the sooty chimney-pots , and trailed sleepily along in the arid , dusty parks . Those who by chance looked higher , saw that the skies above the city were divinely calm and clear , and that not a cloud betokened so much as the shadow of a storm . The deep bell of Westminster chimed midnight , that hour of picturesque ghostly tradition , when simple village maids shudder at the thought of traversing a dark lane or passing a churchyard , and when country folks of old-fashioned habits and principles are respectably in bed and for the most part sleeping . But so far as the fashionable `` West End '' was concerned , it might have been midday . Everybody assuming to be Anybody , was in town . The rumble of carriages passing to and fro was incessant , -- the swift whirr and warning hoot of coming and going motor vehicles , the hoarse cries of the newsboys , and the general insect-like drone and murmur of feverish human activity were as loud as at any busy time of the morning or the afternoon . There had been a Court at Buckingham Palace , -- and a `` special '' performance at the Opera , -- and on account of these two functions , entertainments were going on at almost every fashionable house in every fashionable quarter .