two o'clock
In the cottage forges there would be but one worker , or two at most ; in the shop forges four , or even five , little glowing heaps ; four or five of the grimy , pale lung-bellows ; and never a moment without a fiery hook about to take its place on the growing chains , never a second when the thin smoke of the forges , and of those lives consuming slowly in front of them , did not escape from out of the dingy , whitewashed spaces past the dark rafters , away to freedom . But there had been in the air that morning something more than the white sunlight . There had been anticipation . And at two o'clock began fulfilment . The forges were stilled , and from court and alley forth came the women . In their ragged working clothes , in their best clothes -- so little different ; in bonnets , in hats , bareheaded ; with babies born and unborn , they swarmed into the high street and formed across it behind the band . A strange , magpie , jay-like flock ; black , white , patched with brown and green and blue , shifting , chattering , laughing , seeming unconscious of any purpose .