r--and it pleased me to fit the pretty girls and fine ladies who
came to our show-rooms. It was even a satisfaction to make the plain
ones look better. I should have made friends more easily with my
companions but for the knowledge of what I was. Even this I might have
got over--I am not naturally morbid--but I could not share their chatter
and jests, or care for their love affairs. They were not bad, poor
things! but simply ordinary girls of a class to which it would have
been, perhaps, better for me to belong. With my employers I did fairly
well. They were sometimes just, sometimes very unjust; but when I was
out of my time, and receiving a salary, I found I was a valued
_employee_. Then it came into my mind that I should like to found a
business--a great business. It seemed rather a 'vaulting ambition' for
so humble a waif as myself. But I began to save even shillings and
sixpences. I tried to kill my heart with these duller, lower aims, it
ached so always for what it could not find. I began to think I was
growing so useful to madame that she might make me a partner; for even
in millinery mental training is of use." She stopped, and clasping her
hands, she rested them on her knee for a few moments of silence, while
her brow contracted as if with pain. "It is dreadfully hard to go on!"
she exclaimed at length, and her voice sounded as if her mouth were
parched.

"Then do not mind now; some other time," said Katherine, softly.

"No," cried Rachel, with almost fierce energy; "I _must_ finish. I
cannot leave _you_ ignorant of my true story." She paused again, and
then went on quickly, in a low tone: "I don't think I was exactly
popular--certainly not with the men employed in the same house. I was
thought cold and hard, and to me they were all utterly uninteresting.
One or two of the girls I liked, and they were fond of me." Another
pause. Then she pushed on again: "One evening I went out with another
girl and her brother--at least she said he was her brother--to see the
illuminations for the Queen's birthday. In Pall Mall we got into a crowd
caused by a quarrel between two drunken men. I was separated from my
companions, and one of the crowd, also tipsy, reeled against me. I
should have been knocked down but for a gentleman who caught me; he had
just come down the steps from one of the clubs. I thanked him. He kindly
helped me to find my companions. He came on with us almost to the door
of Madame Celine's house. He talk