how he looked at
you when you took his violets?"

Esther flushed with vexation.

"Why, what perfect nonsense!" she protested.

But June only laughed.

"Onlookers see most of the game," she declared. "Aren't you coming up
to my room? Our room, I mean."

"I've got to go out--I had an appointment at half-past two, but I'll
love to come to tea with you," she added, seeing the disappointment in
June's face.

"Very well, then, four o'clock. But who is the appointment with? You
won't need to find a berth now. You're a lady of leisure."

"But I shall try all the same. I don't mean to be lazy just because
he's so good to me. I shall save all I can. I went to an agency
yesterday----"

"They'll rob you," June protested. "They always do. I know what agents
are," she added darkly.

Esther laughed.

But if she had hoped great things from her call that afternoon she was
disappointed. The thin, aristocratic-looking person who owned the
"Bureau," as it was called, looked at her with coldly critical eyes,
and said that she had no vacancies likely to suit her.

"But you told me to call," Esther protested.

"Certainly; there might have been something," was all the answer she
received. "Call again to-morrow, if you please."

Esther went out dispiritedly. There were so many girls of her own
class and age in the bare waiting-room; she felt quite sure that they
would all get berths before she had a chance.

She felt glad that she had June Mason to go back to. June was always
sympathetic. She went straight upstairs to the sitting-room with the
mauve cushions.

June opened the door before she had time to knock.

"I thought it was you. I heard your step. What's the matter? You
sounded dispirited as you came upstairs."

Esther laughed.

"I believe you must have second sight, or whatever they call it. But
you're right this time; I am rather down on my luck. They haven't
anything at the agency to suit me. I----" She stopped, looking past
June into the cosy room to where a man had just risen from a chair by
the fire--a tall man--who looked across at her with eyes that were
half-abashed, half-defiant. Micky Mellowes.

CHAPTER VIII

June introduced Micky and Esther with a sort of hurried
self-consciousness. It was not by her invitation that Micky was here
this afternoon, and the fact that she had asked him to help Esther
embarrassed her.

"Mr. Mellowes--Miss Shepstone; you've both heard of each other, so I
can lea