[Illustration]




VIII


Meantime, the girl in Chicago was walking in a new and hard way. She
brought to her task a disciplined mind, a fine artistic taste, a delicate
but healthy body, and a pair of willing, if unskilled, hands. To her
surprise, she discovered that the work for which she had so often lightly
given orders was beyond her strength. Try as she would, she could not
accomplish the task of washing and ironing table napkins and delicate
embroidered linen pieces in the way she knew they should be done. Will
power can accomplish a good deal, but it cannot always make up for
ignorance, and the girl who had mastered difficult subjects in college,
and astonished music masters in the old world with her talent, found that
she could not wash a window even to her own satisfaction, much less to
that of her new mistress. That these tasks were expected of her was a
surprise. Yet with her ready adaptability and her strong good sense, she
saw that if she was to be a success in this new field she had chosen, she
must be ready for any emergency. Nevertheless, as the weary days succeeded
each other into weeks, she found that while her skill in table-setting and
waiting was much prized, it was more than offset by her discrepancies in
other lines, and so it came about that with mutual consent she and Mrs.
Rhinehart parted company.

This time, with her reference, she did not find it so hard to get another
place, and, after trying several, she learned to demand certain things,