noon
Raw , crude materials came together ; men of the same level , as regarded education and station , took suddenly the different positions of masters and men , owing to the motherwit , as regarded opportunities and probabilities , which distinguished some , and made them far-seeing as to what great future lay concealed in that rude model of Sir Richard Arkwright 's . The rapid development of what might be called a new trade , gave those early masters enormous power of wealth and command . I do n't mean merely over the workmen ; I mean over purchasers -- over the whole world 's market . Why , I may give you , as an instance , an advertisement , inserted not fifty years ago in a Milton paper , that so-and-so -LRB- one of the half-dozen calico-printers of the time -RRB- would close his warehouse at noon each day ; therefore , that all purchasers must come before that hour . Fancy a man dictating in this manner the time when he would sell and when he would not sell . Now , I believe , if a good customer chose to come at midnight , I should get up , and stand hat in hand to receive his orders . ' Margaret 's lip curled , but somehow she was compelled to listen ; she could no longer abstract herself in her own thoughts .