noon
Bad weather we 're having ... . How 've you been ? '' The loft seemed strangely the same , strangely different -- fresh painted , polished , smelling new and with changed details . For a few moments Joe felt the sharp shock of the fire again , especially when he heard the trembling of the hat factory overhead ... and that noon the bright faces and laughter in the hallway ! It seemed unreal ; like ghosts revisiting ; and he learned later that the first morning the hat factory had set to work , some of the girls had become hysterical . But as he stood in his private office , looking out into the gray loft , and feeling how weird and swift are life 's changes , the men turned on the electrics , and the floors and walls began their old trembling and the presses clanked and thundered . He could have wept .