e again," he replied. "It hasn't been easy, for money is
tight, but I think I'll be able to get enough to just about carry us
through the year. At home, I mean," he added.

"And the office?"

"Shut down," he said. She turned on him fiercely.

"You won't do that!"

"What else can I do?"

"Turn all those girls away?" she cried. At her tone his look grew troubled.

"How can I help myself, Deborah? If I kept open it would cost me over five
hundred a week to run. Have I five hundred dollars a week to lose?"

"But I tell you it won't last!" she cried, and again the baffled, driven
expression swept over her expressive face. "Can't you see this is only a
panic--and keep going somehow? Can't you see what it means to the
tenements? Hundreds of thousands are out of work! They're being turned off
every day, every hour--employers all over are losing their heads! And City
Hall is as mad as the rest! They've decided already down there to
retrench!"

He turned with a quick jerk of his head:

"Are they cutting you down?" She set her teeth:

"Yes, they are. But the work in my schools is going on--every bit of it
is--for every child! I'm going to find a way," she said. And he felt a
thrill of compassion.

"I'm sorry to hear it," he muttered.

"You needn't be." She paused a moment, smiled and went on in a quieter
voice: "Don't think I'm blind--I'm sensible--I see you can't lose five
hundred a week. But why not try what other employers, quite a few, have
decided to do? Call your people together, explain how it is, and ask them
to choose a committee to help you find which ones need jobs the most. Keep
all you can--on part time, of course--but at least pay them something,
carry them through. You'll lose money by it, I haven't a doubt. But you've
already found you can mortgage the house, and remember besides that I shall
be here. I'm not going to marry now"--her father looked at her
quickly--"and of course I'll expect to do my share toward meeting the
expenses. Moreover, I know we can cut down."

"Retrench," said Roger grimly. "Turn off the servants instead of the
clerks."

"No, only one of them, Martha upstairs--and she is to be married. We'll
keep the cook and the waitress. Edith will have to give up her nurse--and
it will be hard on her, of course--but she'll have to realize this is war,"
Deborah said sharply. "Besides," she urged, "it's not going to last.
Business everywhere will pick up--in a few weeks or months at most.