Laudator Temporis Acti

The Works of Saint Augustine, Part III: Sermons, Vol. II: Sermons 20-50, on the Old Testament, translation and notes [by] Edmund Hill (Brooklyn: New City Press, 1990), pp. 150-151 (note 1 on Sermon 32):

Augustine is not exactly at his most genial in this sermon. He comes through as being in a somewhat sour and peevish mood, and perhaps rather tired. If the sequence of preaching engagements suggested above is correct, and he was also fully occupied in council meetings, then what with the hot weather as well, this is not surprising. Readers may sympathize with some members of his congregation not being in a very good mood either (section 23, note 29 below).

Id., p. 152, n. 29:

I have added the sentence in brackets ["At this point a number of women begin to leave the basilica."] as a kind of stage direction. I infer it from the sentence a few lines further on, "Our sisters, unwilling to listen ... " The only way they can have shown they were unwilling to listen, I suppose, was by getting up and walking out — or rather just walking out, because they would all have been standing in any case. I infer this disturbance occurred precisely here, because it is here that he begins to get a little agitated and urges everyone to listen.

Why the ladies started walking out (or possibly, of course, making a subdued tumult over someone who had just fainted) is anybody's guess. It is unlikely that it was in protest against anything the preacher had just said. It may have been impatience, perhaps, because earlier on (section 18) he had said the text was so plain it didn't need any explanation or clever interpretation — and here he is giving a typically subtle (far-fetched?) interpretation. More likely they were thinking of the dinner spoiling at home, or they just couldn't stand the heat.