y had not her
generosity been about the most obvious and incessant trait of
her character.

She was now reduced to an income below what life can be
decently maintained upon--the life of a city-dweller with
normal tastes for cleanliness and healthfulness. She proceeded
without delay to put her invaluable education into use. She
must fill her mind with the present and with the future. She
must not glance back. She must ignore her wounds--their aches,
their clamorous throbs. She took off her clothes, as soon as
Mrs. Tucker left her alone, brushed them and hung them up, put
on the thin wrapper she had brought in her bag. The fierce
heat of the little packing-case of a room became less
unendurable; also, she was saving the clothes from useless
wear. She sat down at the table and with pencil and paper
planned her budget.

Of the ten dollars a week, three dollars and thirty cents must
be subtracted for rent--for shelter. This left six dollars and
seventy cents for the other two necessaries, food and
clothing--there must be no incidental expenses since there was
no money to meet them. She could not afford to provide for
carfare on stormy days; a rain coat, overshoes and umbrella,
more expensive at the outset, were incomparably cheaper in the
long run. Her washing and ironing she would of course do for
herself in the evenings and on Sundays. Of the two items which
the six dollars and seventy cents must cover, food came first
in importance. How little could she live on?

That stifling hot room! She was as wet as if she had come undried
from a bath. She had thought she could never feel anything but
love for the sun of her City of the Sun. But this undreamed-of
heat--like the cruel caresses of a too impetuous lover--

How little could she live on?

Dividing her total of six dollars and seventy cents by seven,
she found that she had ninety-five cents a day. She would soon
have to buy clothes, however scrupulous care she might take of
those she possessed. It was modest indeed to estimate fifteen
dollars for clothes before October. That meant she must save
fifteen dollars in the remaining three weeks of June, in July,
August and September--in one hundred and ten days. She must
save about fifteen cents a day. And out of that she must buy
soap and tooth powder, outer and under clothes, perhaps a hat
and a pair of shoes. Thus she could spend for food not more
than eighty cents a day, as much less as was con