"Mrs Ellis!"

"I'm not so young as I was, and that yard gets me in the throat
crool in the cold weather. You'd be useful there too, miss, if you
wouldn't mind learning a few swear words."

"Oh, Mrs Ellis!" laughed Mavis.

"It's difficult at first, miss; but it's wonderful how soon you drop
into it if you give your mind to it," declared the landlady
solemnly.

Four evenings later, Mavis arrived at "Dawes'," having sent her
boxes earlier in the day. She was to commence work on the morrow,
and had been advised by the firm that it would be as well to take up
her abode in her future quarters the night before.

Nine o'clock found her on the pavement before the firm's great
windows, now securely shuttered; she wondered how she should find
her way inside, there being no door in the spread of shutters by
which she could gain admittance. Noticing that one or two men were
dogging her footsteps, she asked a policeman how she could get into
"Dawes'."

"A new hand, miss?" asked the policeman.

"Yes."

"I thought so. First to the right and first to the right again,
where you'll see two or three open doors belonging to the firm," the