midday
Her mother was always too busy . When she was not making men 's coats by the score at the whizzing sewing machine , she was hurriedly preparing a meal which was always in danger of being late . There was the breakfast , which might not be ready in time for her husband to reach his `` shop '' when the whistle blew ; there was the supper , which might not be in time to be in waiting for him when he returned in the evening . The midday meal was a trifling matter , needing no special preparation . One ate anything one could find left from supper or breakfast . Judith 's relation to her father and mother was not a very intimate one . They were too hard worked to have time for domestic intimacies , and a feature of their acquaintance was that though neither of them was sufficiently articulate to have found expression for the fact -- the young man and woman felt the child vaguely remote .