The Other Girls

g train was starting fro

list of passengers. Except, perhaps, some travellers now and then, bound for a first express fro

able one at ten or eleven; when gentlemen who only need to be in the city through banking hours, and ladies bent on calls or eleg

t hints,-you have had a glimpse of some of these "other girls" and the thin

washed by too many a shower, and the feather blown by too many a dusty wind, to stand for anything but a sign that she knows what should be where, if she only had it to put there? Have you seen the cheap alpacas, in two shades, sure to fade i

s; a first time, a charm that seems as if it might last, though we know it neither will nor was meant to; if it would, or were, the counters might be taken down. And people who wear go

y nights in her only time for finishing it. She had covered her little old curled leaf of a hat with a tea-colored corner that had been left, and puffed it up high and light to the point of the new style, with brown veil tissue that also floated off in an abundant cloudy grace behind; and she had such an air of breezy

le Frenchy tags of endings!) put you in mind of lace and feathers, and a general float and flutter of gay millinery; her step and expression, as she came airily into this second-rate old car, put on for the "journeymen" train, brought up a notion, almost, of some ball-room advent, flushed and conscious and glad with the turning of all admiring eyes upon it; her fac

cross a couple of seats, stopped their shuffle and noise for a second, and one said, "My! ain't she stunning?" A young fellow, rather spruce in his own way also, with precise necktie, deep paper cuffs and dollar-store studs and initial sleeve-buttons, touched his hat with an air of t

flash out a yet more determined smile, as, passing him by, she seate

?" said one. "I t

"speak to the galleries." "Nellie Burton is sick, and Lufton sent for me. I'll do for a month or so, and like it prett

ther slyly, touching the drapery sleeve of

should like to know, dragging round amongst the goods and polishing against the counters? and who's going to afford ready-made, or pay for sewing, out of six dollars a week and cars and dinners, let alone regular board, that some of '

? and what if you hadn't the port?" asked Hannah Ups

shrugged h

se. I know one thing, though, there is other things to be done,-and it isn't sewing-machines eith

er's box. It was the same youth who had greeted Ray Ingraham from beneath the elm branches. As the train got slowly under way again, Marion looked straight out at her window

rnest in it, certainly, when she turned back; and the young man had responded to her salutation with a relaxi

a something she could not show to the whole car-full with whom at the moment of her entrance she had been in rapport, through frills and puffs and flutters, into which she had allowed her consciousness to pass. Behind

ut it was Marion chiefly who seemed to change; then, all at once, in some unspoken and intangible way, for a moment like this, she seemed to come suddenly back again, or he seemed

what of R

ys of what it would be so pretty and nice for Marion Kent to be. But Marion would sparkle; and it is so hard to be still and sparkle too. He liked the brightn

el classes, also, where she heard literature and history lectures, each once a week. Ray could not bear to leave them, nor to give up her Sunday lessons in the dear old Mission Rooms. Dot was three years younger; she could begin again anywhere, and their mother could not spare both. Besides, "what Ray got she could always be giving to Dot afterwards." That is not so

felt it too, in certain ways, and did not suppose that she could see in him more than he saw in himself: a plain fellow, good at his trade, or going to be; bright enough to know brightness in other peo

see; only he hardly set it down in

nderline was not quite in love with either of these girls? D

can tell from the first chapter how it will all end, that you will make gr

the working of comparison, the coming to an understanding of his own want, and the forming of his ideal,-yes, even in the mere general pleasantness and gentle use of intercourse-before the individual woman reveals herself, slowly or suddenly, as the one

howed her generalship. She would get into the same carriage, and take a seat with her. She knew very well that Frank Sunderline would jump on at Pomantic, his day's work just done. If he came and spoke to Ray he should speak also to her. She did not risk trying which he would come and speak to. It should be, that joining them, and finding it pleasant, he should not quite know which, after all, had most made it so. Different as they were, she and Ray Ingraham toned and flavored each other, and M

depot, for Frank and Marion both, lay pas

ou she acted like a general in the field: perhaps neither she nor the general would be as skillful, always, with

ting the conversation which had been busily going on between them all the way. Ray was really interested in some things Marion had brought up to notice; her face was intent and thoughtful; perhaps she was not quite so pretty when she was set thinking; her dimples were hidden; but Marion was beam

achel, just as Frank Sunderline changed his place and joined them. "We could not handle those, for instan

ng, and snatching her simile from a hay-field with toppling wagons, that the train was at that moment skimming by. "Well,

isn't it?" said Ray, turning to Sunderline, and tak

a man should be paid any more than a woman, for standing behind a counter and measuring off the

f special unfairness that needs righting, and will get it. But things don't come to be as they

f with an air of attention, and of demurely giving up the floor.

"About the values that things stand for. A man r

, with an indescribable inf

He stands for so much force. You may apply things as you please, but if you don't use t

on. "I like that I should like to be

nderline

well as the other; but you will learn not to take mahogany when the pine will serve the purpose. You will keep it for what the pine wouldn't be fit for; which wouldn't come to pass if t

tal power? About pay for teach

de!" exclaimed Marion. "I should r

nearest to the truth of t

n. But where time is paid for,-where it is personal service,-the old principle at the root of things comes in. Men open up the wildernesses, men sail the seas, work the mines, forge the iron, build the cities, defend the nations while they grow, do the physical work of the world, make way for all the finishings of education and opportunity that come afterward, and

e world without any claims, they don't

iplying with civilization, all the time. You see the question really goes back to first conditions, and lies upon the fact that first conditions may come back any day,-do come back, here and there, continually. Put man and woman together on the primitive earth, and it is the

dows," said R

re for. I said-if things were right. I wish the energy was spent in br

y women in the world altoge

ren," said Frank Sunderline; and his

ey went up the long steps to the street. All three walked on without mo

mfortable. Just tell me what you'd do, if you were a widow

uld be-a baker. But I'm certain of this much," she added lightly. "I never would ma

from the bake-shop door; a brick loaf sticking out at the two e

talk, instantly out of her mind. The doctor's chaise,-the horse fastened by the well-known

her as he passed by with a queer expression of mixed curiosity an

ad already hurried in toward the side

ful sick, I'm afraid, dear," she said, reaching out and putting her hand on Ray's shoulder. "The doctor's up-stai

f talk just when one would have said something that one was most anxious to say. A very little straw will do it. It is like a game at croquet. The ball you want to hit lies close; but it is not quite your turn; a

her opportunity, it became impossible to go on from where they were. An event had thrust itself in. It was not seemly to disregard it. They could not help thinking of the Ingrahams. And yet, "if it would have done,"

r Ray," she sa

grave look, nodded his

on't it be strange that I should have a

? O,

oung man's mind. They walked on silentl

on the whole concern,-if there was money.

es

ance if there had been a boy.

al, and a duty; and the world will treat her well and think the more of her. Things are so that it is getting easier every day for it to be done. The facilities of the times can't help serving women as much as men. But peop

he has to, if

ience. She takes what wasn't meant for her, and she misses

near Mrs. Kent's

ou," said Marion, "I don't h

ed confidant and judge concerning a young woman's personal affairs; unless, indeed, he be quite ready to seek and assume th

er"-began

e does? I could make her advise me to suit myself. She never goes about.

ine was

rip up and make over other folks' old dirty carpets. I don't mean mother shall do it much longer. This is what I can do: I can get on to the lecture list, for reading and reciting. The Leverings,-you remember Virginia Levering, who gave a reading here last winter; her father was with her,-Hamilton Lev

m he had known and been friends with from childhood, spoilt. There was good, honest stuff in her, in spite of her second-rate vanities and half-bred ambitions. If she would only grow out of these, what a womanly woman she might be! That fair, grand-featur

avely and con

ise. But I don't exactly believe in that

evering makes fifty dollars a night,

ights come? And how lon

leration of the idea, even so far as to make calm and definite objection. "And it's pleasant at the time.

you had had your day? For none of these

emonstrative astonishment. "M

I suppose you'd hardly expect to come up

some time," r

e when everybody else was beginning. Sha

h you

paused here; Frank Sunderline rested his box of tools on the low wall that ran up and joined the fence, and Marion turned and stood with her face toward him in the w

weeter for a woman's saying them. But that's because she is put there, not because she climbs up some other way. If a woman honestly has something that she must say-some great word from the Lord, or for her country, or for suffering people,-then let her say it; and every real woman's husband, and every real mother's son, will hear her with his very heart. Or if even she has some sure wonderful gift,-if she can sing, or read, or recite; if she can stir people up to good and beautiful things as one in a thousand, that's her errand; let her do it, and let the thousand come to hear. But she ought to be certain sure, or else she's leaving her real errand behind. Don't let everybody, just because the door is open, rush in without any sort of a pass or countersign. That's what it's coming to. A sham trade, like hundreds of other sham trades; and the shammer and the shamefuller, because women demean themselves t

ad in him about this thing, and the interest he had in Marion Kent, all rushed to words together, so that he almost forgot that Marion Kent i

by it." What did he mean? Would he lose anything, if she took to this that she thought of, and went

ad in his trade, and saving money. By and by, he would think he had got enough, and then he would ask somebody to be his wife. What sho

said

exactly, Mr

g else if they can help it. The time when they carefully secure attention before they speak, and then use nothing but pronouns in addressing each other. A girl, however, says "Mr." a little more easily than a man says "Miss." The girl has always been "Miss" to the world in general; the boy grow

a girl do the best she can? Will she be any the worse for it afterwa

nd the show. Don't do it, Marion. I wouldn

to answer her question. He ca

position in which his words put her; that of a girl seeking notoriety, for mere show's sake; desiring to do a sham work; to make a pretension without a claim. How did he know what her claim might be? She had a mind to find o

ifferent and calm. She lifted up her eyes, and there was a sort of still flash in them. Now that

. I rather believe in taking what comes. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Very likely nobody will ever care particularly whether I

; her eyes so dark with will, and the curve of hurt pride in her lips that yet might turn easily to a quiver. She spoke low and smo

hts and depths of thought and of experience; she knew only Marion Kent's little passions as they came to her, and spoke themselves in homely, unchoice words. Mrs. Kemble or Charlotte Cushman might have made a study from that face that

; I've only been honest, and I mean

"After all, everybody has got to judge for themse

loth to leave her in this mood, "if you thought how you woul

d together to mingle and disguise themselves with a swell and pang that always rose in her at

the color swept into her face, like the color after a blow; the lips g

bear it! I never could! I don't know

the wall; turned and hurried along the pa