be tacked down, or a letter to be written, or
a visit--generally to Miss Baker--to be returned. Towards five o'clock
the old woman whom they had hired for that purpose came to cook supper,
for even Trina was not equal to the task of preparing three meals a day.

This woman was French, and was known to the flat as Augustine, no one
taking enough interest in her to inquire for her last name; all that
was known of her was that she was a decayed French laundress, miserably
poor, her trade long since ruined by Chinese competition. Augustine
cooked well, but she was otherwise undesirable, and Trina lost
patience with her at every moment. The old French woman's most marked
characteristic was her timidity. Trina could scarcely address her a
simple direction without Augustine quailing and shrinking; a reproof,
however gentle, threw her into an agony of confusion; while Trina's
anger promptly reduced her to a state of nervous collapse, wherein she
lost all power of speech, while her head began to bob and nod with an
incontrollable twitching of the muscles, much like the oscillations
of the head of a toy donkey. Her timidity was exasperating, her very
presence in the room unstrung the nerves, while her morbid eagerness
to avoid offence only served to develop in her a clumsiness that was at
times beyond belief. More than once Trina had decided that she could no
longer put up with Augustine but each time she had retained her as she
reflected upon her admirably cooked cabbage soups and tapioca puddings,
and--which in Trina's eyes was her chiefest recommendation--the pittance
for which she was contented to work.

Augustine had a husband. He was a spirit-medium--a "professor." At times
he held seances in the larger rooms of the flat, playing vigorously upon
a mouth-organ and invoking a familiar whom he called "Edna," and whom he
asserted was an Indian maiden.

The evening was a period of relaxation for Trina and McTeague. They had
supper at six, after which McTeague smoked his pipe and read the papers
for half an hour, while Trina and Augustine cleared away the table and
washed the dishes. Then, as often as not, they went out together. One of
their amusements was to go "down town" after dark and promenade
Market and Kearney Streets. It was very gay; a great many others were
promenading there also. All of the stores were brilliantly lighted and
many of them still open. They walked about aimlessly, looking into
the shop windows. Trina