Faith sprang to her feet with flashing eyes.

"Then that accounts for the haggard faces of the girls whom I have seen
this morning! Oh, we must do something at once to alter these
conditions! Our employers are but men; they must have hearts in their
bosoms!"

"You don't know them, Faith."

It was Miss Jennings who spoke. She was trying her best to conquer
another fit of coughing.

"Our employers look upon us girls as so many machines, created for the
sole purpose of filling their coffers, and it is this God whom you
respect who allows them to abuse us! to grind us into the dust because
we are helpless!"

The ring of bitterness in her tones appalled all who heard her except
Faith, who threw her arms about her tenderly as she answered:

"No, no, Mary! Don't say that! You are mistaken, dear! God is watching
over us all with the tenderest love, and from this whirlwind of
injustice He will yet reap a harvest of good! I believe it! I know it,
and I shall live to see it!"




CHAPTER V.