five
o'clock
All day long , with a pause of half an hour to eat her roll and drink a glass of water , Susan walked up and down the show parlors weighted with dresses and cloaks , furs for arctic weather . The other girls , even those doing almost nothing , were all but prostrated . It was little short of intolerable , this struggle to gain the `` honest , self-respecting living by honest work '' that there was so much talk about . Toward five o'clock her nerves abruptly and completely gave way , and she fainted -- for the first time in her life . At once the whole establishment was in an uproar . Jeffries cursed himself loudly for his shortsightedness , for his overestimating her young strength . `` She 'll look like hell this evening , '' he wailed , wringing his hands like a distracted peasant woman .