from the college secured an interview, were scarcely civil to the
handsome, distinguished-looking girl; they were sure that such
looks, seeking for employment, boded ill for anyone indulgent enough
to engage her. Mavis could not understand such behaviour; she had
read in books how people were invariably kind and sympathetic, women
particularly so, to girls in want of work; surely she furnished
opportunity for her own sex to show consideration to one of the less
fortunate of their kind.

Mavis next advertised in local papers for pupils to whom she would
teach music. Receiving no replies, she attempted to get employment
in a house of business; this effort resulted in her obtaining work
as a canvasser, remuneration being made by results. This meant
tramping the pavement in all weathers, going up and coming down
countless flights of stairs, swallowing all kinds of humiliating
rebuffs in the effort to sell some encyclopedia or somebody's set of
novels, which no one wanted. She always met with disappointment and,
in time, became used to it; but there were occasions when a
purchaser seemed likely, when hope would beat high, only to give
place to sickening despair when her offer was finally rejected. On
the whole, she met with civility and consideration from the young
men (mostly clerks in offices) whom she interviewed; but there was a
type of person whose loud-voiced brutality cut her to the quick.
This was the West-end tradesman. She would walk into a shop in Bond
Street or thereabouts, when the proprietor, taking her for a
customer, would advance with cringing mien, wringing his hands the
while. No sooner did he learn that the girl wanted him to buy
something, than his manner immediately changed. Usually, in coarse
and brutal voice, he would order her from the shop; sometimes, if he
were in a facetious mood, and if he had the time to spare, he would