ttention to what I say. Come 'round and see
my establishment, Number 77 Dey Street, one flight up, no elevator. Will
you?"

She laughed tremulously as he took her hand.

"Yes indeed, I will," she promised. And she stood awhile staring after
him. She was glad he had come to Hampton, and yet she did not even know
his name.

CHAPTER XVI

She had got another place--such was the explanation of her new
activities Janet gave to Hannah, who received it passively. And the
question dreaded about Ditmar was never asked. Hannah had become as a
child, performing her tasks by the momentum of habituation, occasionally
talking simply of trivial, every-day affairs, as though the old life
were going on continuously. At times, indeed, she betrayed concern
about Edward, wondering whether he were comfortable at the mill, and she
washed and darned the clothes he sent home by messenger. She hoped he
would not catch cold. Her suffering seemed to have relaxed. It was as
though the tortured portion of her brain had at length been seared. To
Janet, her mother's condition when she had time to think of it--was at
once a relief and a new and terrible source of anxiety.

Mercifully, however, she had little leisure to reflect on that tragedy,
else her own sanity might have been endangered. As soon as breakfast was
over she hurried across the city to the Franco-Belgian Hall, and often
did not return until nine o'clock at night, usually so tired that
she sank into bed and fell asleep. For she threw herself into her new
labours with the desperate energy that seeks forgetfulness, not daring
to pause to think about herself, to reflect upon what the future might
hold for her when the strike should be over. Nor did she confine herself
to typewriting, but, as with Ditmar, constantly assumed a greater burden
of duty, helping Czernowitz--who had the work of five men--with his
accounts, with the distribution of the funds to the ever-increasing
number of the needy who were facing starvation. The money was paid
out to them in proportion to the size of their families; as the strike
became more and more effective their number increased until many mills
had closed; other mills, including the Chippering, were still making
a desperate attempt to operate their looms, and sixteen thousand
operatives were idle. She grew to know these operatives who poured
all day long in a steady stream through Headquarters; she heard their
stories, she entered into their live