al and sit down directly after it, they get that
weight behind their waistbands, they cannot breathe, and they feel
altogether miserable. They do not feel like this, they think, after the
good, strong tea--the clearest proof to them that they should look to it
as a main resource during the midday rest. Probably tea is again hailed
with delight during another break in the work-hours; and at the end of
the day our weary one is so fearfully tired, although she has been
sitting all day, that she feels as though her limbs would never carry
her home. Come what may, she must ride. She puts herself into the first
Underground Railway carriage that will take her to her destination, and,
exchanging the carbonic acid gas of the workroom for the sulphurous gas
of the underground tunnels, she arrives home spent and utterly tired
out, longing to get to bed and rest her weary limbs and pillow the poor,
fatigued head. In the morning, feeling refreshed after Nature's kind and
grateful rest, she plucks up again and walks to the scene of her duties.
But she has to be there by a certain time, and, somehow, she always
manages to be just a little late in starting, so that at the last she
has to hurry to arrive at the appointed hour. She looks at every clock
she passes; she starts at some which tell her that it is later than she
thought, feels relieved at others which are more merciful; and, putting
on an extra spurt at the last, manages to arrive just to the minute.

But what good can our girl get from a walk taken under such
circumstances? It is ten times as fatiguing--the mind is harassed, the
heart is beating wildly, and the breathing is short and hurried.

The routine of the previous day is then repeated. There is the same
shyness of air, the same imperfect meal, the same lassitude, the same
finale.

Pursue this course, or one similar to it, for a few months and we defy
any girl to keep well. She may not yet break down altogether, but she
will have lapsed from positive into negative health, and the merest
straw may turn her negative health into actual bodily incapacity--which
means the loss of work and wages to which we have referred.

And is it to be wondered at? Our girl has been steadily withholding
from Nature all those elements upon which she imperatively insists as
the condition under which alone she will consent to carry on her work.
Long-suffering she is, and ever eager to repair any neglect that has not
been carried too far. O