regular hours, the nature of her employment, the absence of
friendship in the warm-hearted girl's life, all irked her; she
fearfully wondered if she were doomed to spend her remaining days in
commencing work at nine-thirty and leaving off at half-past four
upon five days of the week, and one on Saturdays. If the fifty-two
weeks spent in Melkbridge had not brought contentment to her mind,
the good air of the place, together with Mrs Farthing's wholesome
food, had wrought a wondrous change in her appearance. The tired
girl with the hunted look in her eyes had developed into an
amazingly attractive young woman. Her fair skin had taken on a
dazzling whiteness; her hair was richer and more luxuriant than of
yore; but it was her eyes in which the chief alteration had
occurred. These now held an unfathomable depth of tenderness,
together with a roguish fear that the former alluring quality might
be discovered. If her figure were not as unduly stout as the skinny
virgins of Melkbridge declared it to be, there was no denying the
rude health apparent in the girl's face and carriage.

So far as her colleagues at the boot factory were concerned, Miss
Toombs hardly took any notice of her, whilst Miss Hunter gave her
the impression of being extremely insincere, all her words and
actions being the result of pose rather than of conviction.

The only people Mavis was at all friendly with were Mr and Mrs
Medlicott, whom she often visited on Sunday evenings, when they
would all sing Moody and Sankey's hymns to the accompaniment of the
cabinet piano.

When she had been some months at Melkbridge, a new interest had come
into her life. One day, Mr Devitt, who, with his family, had showed