eleven o'clock
The ill-ventilated , neglected room was a little world , and rarely , in a larger world , do women come to know each other as intimately as these women did . Therefore , on a certain sober September morning , the fact that Miss Thornton , familiarly known as `` Thorny , '' was out of temper , speedily became known to all the little force . Miss Thornton was not only the oldest clerk there , but she was the highest paid , and the longest in the company 's employ ; also she was by nature a leader , and generally managed to impress her associates with her own mood , whatever it might be . Various uneasy looks were sent to-day in her direction , and by eleven o'clock even the giggling Kirk sisters , who were newcomers , were imbued with a sense of something wrong . Nobody quite liked to allude to the subject , or ask a direct question . Not that any one of them was particularly considerate or reserved by nature , but because Miss Thornton was known to be extremely unpleasant when she had any grievance against one of the younger clerks . She could maintain an ugly silence until goaded into speech , but , once launched , few of her juniors escaped humiliation .