wish to see?" he required.

"Why, any one, if you please," she answered. "I am looking for something
to do."

"Oh, you want to see Mr. McManus," he returned. "Sit down," and he
pointed to a chair against the neighbouring wall. He went on leisurely
writing, until after a time a short, stout gentleman came in from the
street.

"Mr. McManus," called the man at the desk, "this young woman wants to
see you."

The short gentleman turned about towards Carrie, and she arose and came
forward.

"What can I do for you, miss?" he inquired, surveying her curiously.

"I want to know if I can get a position," she inquired.

"As what?" he asked.

"Not as anything in particular," she faltered.

"Have you ever had any experience in the wholesale dry goods business?"
he questioned.

"No, sir," she replied.

"Are you a stenographer or typewriter?"

"No, sir." "Well, we haven't anything here," he said. "We employ only
experienced help."

She began to step backward toward the door, when something about her
plaintive face attracted him.

"Have you ever worked at anything before?" he inquired.

"No, sir," she said.

"Well, now, it's hardly possible that you would get anything to do in a
wholesale house of this kind. Have you tried the department stores?"

She acknowledged that she had not.

"Well, if I were you," he said, looking at her rather genially, "I would
try the department stores. They often need young women as clerks."

"Thank you," she said, her whole nature relieved by this spark of
friendly interest.

"Yes," he said, as she moved toward the door, "you try the department
stores," and off he went.

At that time the department store was in its earliest form of successful
operation, and there were not many. The first three in the United
States, established about 1884, were in Chicago. Carrie was familiar
with the names of several through the advertisements in the "Daily
News," and now proceeded to seek them. The words of Mr. McManus had
somehow managed to restore her courage, which had fallen low, and she
dared to hope that this new line would offer her something. Some time
she spent in wandering up and down, thinking to encounter the buildings
by chance, so readily is the mind, bent upon prosecuting a hard but
needful errand, eased by that self-deception which the semblance of
search, without the reality, gives. At last she inquired of a police
officer, and was directed to proceed "two blocks up," where s