midday
Ta , ta ! I 'll wait for you to-night at the stage entrance with the other Johnnies . '' She was off with the promptness of a soubrette after an `` exit speech , '' and Win was left to sip her stale coffee or spend what remained of her `` off time '' in the rest room next door . Legally , Peter Rolls was supposed to give his hands an hour for the midday meal , but in the rush of the holiday season a way had been found for whipping the inconvenient little law devil round the post . Employees were asked to `` lend '' the management half of the legally allotted hour , the time to be repaid them later , so that after Christmas they might take once a week an hour and a half in the middle of the day instead of an hour . Those in the know had learned that , as on Christmas Eve most of the extra hands received with their pay envelope a week 's notice to quit , they , at least , never got back the half-hours lent . As for the permanent hands , it would amount to a black mark secretly put against their names if they dared lay claim to the time owing .