midday
`` He works harder than I , and I 've got more time than I know what to do with -- time to burn . Besides , I want to wait on him because I love to , and because ... well , anyway , I want to . '' Despite the fastidiousness of her housekeeping , Saxon , once she had systematized it , found time and to spare on her hands . Especially during the periods in which her husband carried his lunch and there was no midday meal to prepare , she had a number of hours each day to herself . Trained for years to the routine of factory and laundry work , she could not abide this unaccustomed idleness . She could not bear to sit and do nothing , while she could not pay calls on her girlhood friends , for they still worked in factory and laundry . Nor was she acquainted with the wives of the neighborhood , save for one strange old woman who lived in the house next door and with whom Saxon had exchanged snatches of conversation over the backyard division fence .