noon
I need not detail the manner in which Katy 's trade kept increasing . In a fortnight she had more than a dozen girls employed in selling candy . She was actually making a wholesale business of it , and no longer traveled about the streets herself . By the first of December , Mrs. Redburn had so far recovered her health as to be able to take charge of the manufacturing part of the business , and Katy was permitted to go to school , though she supplied the girls in the morning and at noon , and settled all their accounts . One day she received a call from Michael , Mrs. Gordon 's man , requesting her attendance in Temple Street . She obeyed the summons ; but when she met Mrs. Gordon and Grace , she was alarmed to see how coldly and reproachfully they looked upon her . `` I have heard a very bad story about you , Katy , '' said Mrs. Gordon .