d went out of the room.

"The next day Mr. Dodd--that's one of our firm--gave me a week's notice
to quit: 'work was slack,' he said, 'and they didn't want so many
girls.' But I'm just as sure as sure can be that Mr. Snipe's at the
bottom of it, for I've been at the store, as I told you, four years and
more, and they always reckoned me one of their best hands, and Mr. Dodd
and Mr. Snipe are great friends. Since then I've done nothing but try to
get work. I must have been into a thousand stores, but it's true work is
slack; there's not a thing been doing since the war commenced, and I
can't get any place. I've been to Miss Russell and some of the ladies
who used to come to the store, to see if they'd give me some fine
sewing; but they hadn't any for me, and I don't know what in the world
to do, for I understand nothing very well but to sew, and to stand in a
store. I've spent all my money, what little I had, and--and--I've even
sold some of my clothes, and I can't go on this way much longer. I
haven't a relative in the world; nor a home, except in a boarding-house;
and the girls I know all treat me cool, as though I had done something
bad, because I've lost my place, I suppose, and am poor.

"All along, at times, Mr. Snipe has been sending me things,--bouquets,
and baskets of fruit, and sometimes a note, and, though I won't speak to
him when I meet him on the street, he always smiles and bows as if he
were intimate; and last night, when I was coming home, tired enough from
my long search, he passed me and said, with such a look, 'You've gone
down a peg or two, haven't you, Sallie? Come, I guess we'll be friends
again before long.' You think it's queer I'm telling you all this. I
can't help it; there's something about you that draws it all out of me.
I came to ask you for work, and here I've been talking all this while
about myself. You must excuse me; I don't think I would have said so
much, if you hadn't looked so kind and so interested"; and so she
had,--kind as kind could be, and interested as though the girl who
talked had been her own sister.

"I am glad you came, Sallie, and glad that you told me all this, if it
has been any relief to you. You may be sure I will do what I can for
you, but I am afraid that will not be a great deal, here; for I am a
stranger in New York, and know very few people. Perhaps--Would you go
away from here?"

"Would I?--O wouldn't I? and be glad of the chance. I'd give anything to
go whe