noon
It would have been just the same in the end . '' `` But Rudolph says -- '' insisted the weeping one , when the push from behind carried her on out into the corridors . Club-women , patriotic women , stay-at-home women were followed by women from the poorer classes who had waited until their morning 's work was done before coming to tell the Mayor how glad they were to have her back . Then noon came , bringing young women from the stores and offices and factories , all eager to add their bit of welcome ; and the school children , to shake her hand and go home and tell of this wonderful day , which afterward became a memory for a lifetime . When four o'clock came , Gertrude prepared to go home ; to rest and sleep in her own bed , worn out with the welcome of thousands of her people . Mary Snow had already succumbed to the demand on her energies and had gone an hour before . `` It 's worth the whole gamut of experience , '' Gertrude said to herself as she closed her desk , `` just to find out what it is to get at the heart of the American people .