ins.'

'Where?' he asked.

'In the legs,' she said after a pause.

'Ah, swellings?'

Victoria bridled a little. This man was laying bare something, tearing
at a secret.

'Are you a doctor, Mr Farwell?' she asked coldly.

'That's all right,' he said roughly, 'it doesn't need much learning to
know what's the matter with a girl who stands for eleven hours a day.
Are the veins of your legs swollen?'

'Yes,' said Victoria with an effort. She was frightened; she forgot to
resent this wrenching at the privacy of her body.

'Ah; when do they hurt?'

'At night. They're all right in the morning.'

'You've got varicose veins, Victoria. You must give up your job.'

'I can't,' whispered the girl hoarsely. 'I've got nothing else.'

'Exactly. Either you go on and are a cripple for life or you stop and
starve. Yours is a disease of occupation, purely a natural consequence
of your work. Perfectly normal, perfectly. It is undesirable to
encourage laziness; there are girls starving to-day for lack of work,
but it would never do to reduce your hours to eight. It would interfere
with the P. R. R. dividends.'

Victoria looked at him without feeling.

'What am I to do?' she asked at length.

'Go to a hospital,' said Farwell. 'These institutions are run by the
wealthy who pay two guineas a year ransom for a thousand pounds of
profits and get in the bargain a fine sense of civic duty done. No doubt
the directors of the P.R.R. contribute most generously.'

'I can't give up my job,' said Victoria dully.

'Perhaps they'll give you a stocking,' said Farwell, 'or sell it you,
letting you pay in instalments so that you be not pauperised. This is
called training in responsibility, also self-help.'

Victoria got up. She could bear it no longer. Farwell saw her home and
made her promise to apply for leave to see the doctor. As the door
closed behind her he stood still for some minutes on the doorstep,
filling his pipe.

'Well, well,' he said at length, 'the Government might think of that
lethal chamber--but no, that would never do, it would deplete the labour
market and hamper the commercial development of the Empire.'

He walked away, a crackling little laugh floating behind him. The faint
light of a lamp fell on his bowed head and shoulders, making him look
like a Titan born a dwarf.

Two days later Victoria went to the Carew. She had never before set
foot in a hospital. Such intercourse as she had had with doctors was
figu