half past five o'clock
He meant to pay the debt he owed her down to the uttermost farthing ; that grew plain . Did she try to speak her wretched secret , he suffocated her with kindness , struck her dumb with tender words . She used to analyze her life in those days , considering what it would be without him . To be up by half past five o'clock in the chill of all the winter mornings , to build the fire and cook the breakfast and sweep the floor , to hurry away , faint and weak , over the raw , slippery streets , to climb at half past six the endless stairs and stand at the endless loom , and hear the endless wheels go buzzing round , to sicken in the oily smells , and deafen at the remorseless noise , and weary of the rough girl swearing at the other end of the pass ; to eat her cold dinner from a little cold tin pail out on the stairs in the three-quarters-of-an-hour recess ; to come exhausted home at half past six at night , and get the supper , and brush up about the shoemaker 's bench , and be too weak to eat ; to sit with aching shoulders and make the button-holes of her best dress , or darn her father 's stockings , till nine o'clock ; to hear no bounding step or cheery whistle about the house ; to creep into bed and lie there trying not to think , and wishing that so she might creep into her grave , -- this not for one winter , but for all the winters , -- how should _ you _ like it , you young girls , with whom time runs like a story ? The very fact that her employers dealt honorably by her ; that she was fairly paid , and promptly , for her wearing toil ; that the limit of endurance was consulted in the temperature of the room , and her need of rest in an occasional holiday , -- perhaps , after all , in the mood she was in , did not make this factory life more easy . She would have found it rather a relief to have somebody to complain of , -- wherein she was like the rest of us , I fancy . But at last there came a day -- it chanced to be the ninth of January -- when Asenath went away alone at noon , and sat where Merrimack sung his songs to her .