five
o'clock
The manager addressed himself to the old men , rather ignoring the new , and Mart 's tongue and temper got away with him . He said he 'd strike anyhow , and he did . He struck his own name off the company 's books . And so during these dark , dreary winter evenings , sometimes wet and raw , sometimes bitterly cold , quitting when she could her desk at five o'clock , yet often kept pegging away until later , Miss Jeannette Wallen walked those crowded blocks below the State Street bridge and all the many , many squares that interposed between her and her little home . As the days began to lengthen and the cold to strengthen , she sometimes reached there well-nigh frozen and exhausted , to be welcomed and regaled not so much with hot tea and loving words as by wailing infants and complaining women , -- Mart being , as usual , away at some soul-stirring meeting , where much was said about the wrongs of the workingman , but nothing thought of those of the workingwoman . And then came an adventure . Many a time had she been accosted by street prowlers , and sometimes followed , but her rule had been to make no reply , simply to walk straight on , and look neither to the right nor to the left .