Athalie

ep of the stairway, for a moment or two, quietly breathing her fatigue, then addressed herself to the monotonous labour before her, which was to climb five f

evening paper. Catharine, a year younger, stood by a bureau, some drawers

to Athalie, as she came

said Athali

ring! Here's another-they can't account for it; her parents say she had no love affair-" And she began to read the account

ed the paper over to Athalie who let

ere," said Doris.

e?" yawne

s a man's doing. You bet they'll find that some f

"Any fresh young man who tries to

at way," remon

at

smart. What's the use of letti

it suits me, too.... God!-I suppose it's fried ham again to-night," she added, jumping up and walking into the kitchen

fool," snapp

cross her eyes, and rose: "It's after six, Doris. You haven't

oice, which made the contrast peculiarly shocking; and finally Athalie said bluntl

ed and angry face: "Will yo

ying that your talk i

e as long as I'm not

hat men will think y

y girl who work

er self-respect even if she's a stenographer, as I am, or works in a shop as Catharine does, or

arine. "I'm going to a show with Ge

uld endure no other mode of preparation, leaned

trying to be disagreeable; I

ou're right. I'll cut out th

ve to struggle against it all the while. For, somehow I seem to know that a girl who keeps up her grammar keeps up h

rtainly have educated yourself a lot si

good E

All those branch-library books you lug in are too slow for me. If it wasn't for hearing you talk every day I'd be talking like the rest of the chorus

Doris, I don't see why you ca

strut about t

! It makes me

d my legs you'll see me playing lead

owed her out to the table which C

from their several limited wardrobes sufficient finery might be ext

ter. "You're only young once, and this gos

these eggs but I'm eating them. If I were

ight," pouted Catharine. "How can

ntable things," remarked Doris, partly closi

t isn't squ

s Genevieve on the square?

say!" insisted Catharine resentful

s she get it? You kno

elieve every other girl on the square until

ed Doris. "If you can believe that bunch of pet cats

into the bedroom which she shared with Doris. Present

on her rusty coat and hat, and, nodding to Athalie,

arine had powdered her face and neck and had

ror, patted her hair, moistened her red lips, then turned

going?" inq

nds of Gen

en

lieve

I su

rine

u know th

that one of them i

did he

on some evening go

ll bear watching," she remarked quietly. "If it's merely society they want

o re-pin her hat, then, pettishly: "I wish I ha

ested Athalie, laughing. "Women who ha

drives me almost frantic to see what I see in all those l

red Athalie in that gently humorous voice w

llious, turned, stared at herself in the

muttered. "I don'

ha

a twitch of her narrow skirts

he evening paper, glanced absently at the head-lines, dropped it, and stood motionless in th

henette, unhooked a blue-checked apron, rolled up her sleeves as fa

melodious whistle of a bullfinch-carolling some light,

her bedroom and turned her attention to her hands and nails, mi

eau. She seated herself there and started her nightly grooming, interrupting i

s, took on a seriousness and gravity more mature; and the

he had yet her bath to take and her hair to do before the cream-of-something-or-ot

heavily curling to her shoulders. Then she started to comb it out as earnestly, seri

r dark blue eyes as she sat plaiting the shi

and sordid circumstances which made up, for her, the sum-total of existence; why it happened that whatever was

e blue eyes, nothing of bitterness to touch the sensitive lips, nothing, even, of sadness; only a gra

t really disenchanted her. And for seven years now, she had held the first posi

hen at length by chance she took personal dictation from Wahlbaum himself in his private office-his own stenographer having triumphantly secured a supporting husband,

rude to anybody. He laughed a great deal in a tremendously resonant voice, smoked innumerable big, fat, light-coloured cigars, never neglected to joke with Athalie when

or two he had never bothered her. Nor did anybody else conne

girls are more or less subjected in any cosmopolitan metropolis, At

when the warm sun of April looked in through the windows of Mr. Wahlbaum's private of

to her. In her ears was ever the happy tumult of the barn-yard, the lowing of

a dull feeling of languor in early spring. But it di

cities. Even, perhaps, she rather liked them, or at least, on her two weeks' vacation in the coun

s were two; pover

ter ventilated, or more comfortable apartment than the grimy one they liv

requires more than sisters,-more even than feminine friends, of which Athalie had a few.

ny business girl who keeps up such education and cultivation as sh

the women,-inferior in manners, cultivation, intelligence, quality-which

of cultivated and fashionable antecedents. Catharine, that very evening, was

cultivate since she had last talked with C. Bailey, Jr., on the platfo

tel Greensleeve, back to her mother, to the child cross-legged on the floor,-back to her father, and how he sat there dead in his leather chair

ad sounded twice before she realised that she ought

jar, not worrying about her somewhat intimate costume because it was too late for tradesmen, an

ing, partly absorbed in other thoughts, she seated herself and lay back in the dingy arm

ned panes. Far away in the city, somewhere, a fire-engine rushed clanging through ca?ons, storm-swept, lumin

corridor outside her door. Then came the knocking on

d around in her chair, looking

she said in her