"I should like to help you," said the girl, "but I must find somewhere to
stay before night, and if I find a place I must take it. I just came to
the city this morning, and have nowhere to stay overnight."

The troubled look flitted across the woman's face for a moment, but her
desire got the better of her.

"I suppose my husband would think I was crazy to do it," she said aloud,
"but I just can't help trusting you. Suppose you come and stay with me
to-day and to-morrow, and help me out with this dinner party, and you can
stay overnight at my house and sleep in the cook's room. If I like your
work, I'll give you a recommendation as waitress. You can't get a good
place anywhere without it, not from the offices, I'm sure. A
recommendation ought to be worth a couple of days' work to you. I'd pay
you something besides, but I really can't afford it, for the washerwoman
charges a dollar and a half a day when she goes out to cook; but if you
get your board and lodging and a reference, that ought to pay you."

"You are very kind," said the girl. "I shall be glad to do that."

"When will you come? Can you go with me now, or have you got to go after
your things?"

"I haven't any things but these," she said simply, "and perhaps you will
not think I am fine enough for your dinner party. I have a little money. I
could buy a white apron. My trunk is a good many miles away, and I was in
desperate straits and had to leave it."

"H'm! A stepmother, probably," thought the kindly little woman. "Poor
child! She doesn't look as if she was used to roughing it. If I could only