e
slits as she gazed at the drooping Julia. She said nothing. Suddenly
Julia seemed to feel the silence. She looked down at Sadie Corn. As by a
miracle all the harsh, sullen lines in the girl's face vanished, to be
replaced by a lovely compassion.

"Your neuralgy again, dearie?" she asked in pretty concern.

Sadie sniffed long and audibly at the peppermint bottle.

"If you ask me I think there's some imp inside of my head trying to push
my right eye out with his thumb. Anyway it feels like that."

"Poor old dear!" breathed Julia. "It's the weather. Have them send you
up a pot of black tea."

"When you've got neuralgy over your right eye," observed Sadie Corn
grimly, "there's just one thing helps--that is to crawl into bed in a
flannel nightgown, with the side of your face resting on the red rubber
bosom of a hot-water bottle. And I can't do it; so let's talk about
something cheerful. Seen Jo to-day?"

There crept into Julia's face a wave of colour--not the pink of
pleasure, but the dull red of pain. She looked away from Sadie's eyes
and down at her shabby boots. The sullen look was in her face once more.

"No; I ain't seen him," she said.

"What's the trouble?" Sadie asked.

"I've been busy," replied Julia airily. Then, with a forced vivacity:
"Though it's nothing to Auto Show Week last year. I remember that week I
hooked up until my fingers were stiff. You know the way the dresses
fastened last winter. Some of 'em ought to have had a map to go by, they
were that complicated. And now, just when I've got so's I can hook any
dress that was ever intended for the human form--"

"Wasn't it Jo who said they ought to give away an engineering blueprint
with every dress, when you told him about the way they hooked?" put in
Sadie. "What's the trouble between you and--"

Julia rattled on, unheeding:

"You wouldn't believe what a difference there's been since these new
peasant styles have come in! And the Oriental craze! Hook down the side,
most of 'em--and they can do 'em themselves if they ain't too fat."

"Remember Jo saying they ought to have a hydraulic press for some of
those skintight dames, when your fingers were sore from trying to
squeeze them into their casings? By the way, what's the trouble between
you and--"

"Makes an awful difference in my tips!" cut in Julia deftly. "I don't
believe I've hooked up six this evening, and two of them sprung the
haven't-anything-but-a-five-dollar-bill-see-you-to-morrow