for I believe that prayer and effort should always go
together. Who knows but that I may be able to brighten things a little?
It certainly is worth trying for--to bring the light into dark places."

Miss Jennings watched her chance and handed back her reply.

"It's no use, I tell you, Faith. His heart is like stone. You'll only
lose your place. Take my advice and don't do it."

Faith smiled at her brightly as she read the words. They were
characteristic of Miss Jennings, philosophic but bitter.

A few minutes later a dashing young man passed by the counter. The
clerks all seemed to know him, and several of the prettiest girls in the
department smiled at him openly in a way that Faith thought very
immodest. As he caught sight of the new packer he stopped abruptly and
stared at her.

"Who the deuce is that?" Faith heard him say to one of the saleswomen, a
girl whose cheeks were flaming with paint and whose appearance was that
of a very vulgar person.

"I'm sure I don't know, Mr. Denton," replied the girl, with a simper.
"She's a new packer that was taken on this morning. I haven't heard her
name, and I don't know as I want to."

"Oh, you're jealous of her, are you, Mag?" said the young man with a
laugh. "Well, I don't wonder, for she is a peach. I'm in love with her
this minute!"

"You're a flirt, all right, Mr. Denton," said the girl, with a pout. "I
think she's as awkward as anything, and her color is abominable."

"She's as fresh as a daisy," was the young man's answer. "Forbes had an
eye for beauty when he hired that lovely creature."

"You men have queer taste," snapped the saleswoman, angrily, but the
young man had passed on, staring at Faith all the way. Miss Fairbanks
greeted him with a bow that was positively servile.

"That's old Denton's son Jim," explained Miss Jennings to Faith as she
handed up a check. "He's a regular masher. Comes in here every few days,
just to flirt with the girls. They say he's very wild and costs his
father a lot of money."

"He is very bold," was Faith's whispered answer. "Why, he stared at me
as if I were a dummy instead of a lady."

"Oh, we are none of us ladies: we are only clerks," replied Miss
Jennings, bitterly. "If we were to snub Jim Denton he would make a lot
of trouble for us."

"Mercy!" cried Faith. "It doesn't seem possible! Why, there seems to be
pitfalls on every side for the girl who earns her own living."

Miss Fairbanks was coming, so the conversatio