midday
Look at us and follow our example in grieving , '' and the widows laughed almost hysterically ... As early as seven o'clock there was a small crowd in front of the Marsoc residence , from which was to be buried the famous tenor , Siegfried Brazier . His death , his many romances , his marriages , his debts and his stalwart personality canalized public curiosity , and after the doors had been thrown open a constantly growing stream of men , women , children , and again women , women , women , flowed into the house through the hall , into the big reception-room , past the modest coffin with its twin bouquets of violets , out of the side door and into the street again . The fact that at midday there were to be imposing public obsequies , did not check the desire of the morbid-minded to view the corpse in a more intimate fashion . No members of the family were downstairs ; but over the broad balustrade hung two veiled women , their eyes burning with curiosity . As the tide of humanity swept by Belle felt her arm pinched : `` There , there ! the old woman in a crape veil .