Baxter & Hunter's thought lemon in tea anything but a wretched
affectation. Girls who had been too pale before gained a sudden
burning color, they had been sitting still and were hungry, now they
ate too fast. Without exception the Front Office girls suffered from
agonies of indigestion, and most of them grew used to a dull
headache that came on every afternoon. They kept flat bottles of
soda-mint tablets in their desks, and exchanged them hourly. No
youthful constitution was proof against the speed with which they
disposed of these fresh soft sandwiches at noon-time, and gulped
down their tea.

In ten minutes some of them were ready to hurry off into sunny Front
Street, there to saunter past warehouses, and warehouses, and
warehouses, with lounging men eyeing them from open doorways.

The Kirks disappeared quickly to-day, and some of the others went
out, too. When Miss Thornton, Miss Sherman, Miss Cottle and Miss
Brown were left, Miss Thornton said suddenly:

"Say, listen, Susan. Listen here--"

Susan, who had been wiping the table carefully, artistically, with a
damp rag, was arrested by the tone.

"I think this is the rottenest thing I ever heard, Susan," Miss
Thornton began, sitting down at the table. The others all sat down,
too, and put their elbows on the table. Susan, flushing
uncomfortably, eyed Miss Thornton steadily.

"Brauer called me in this morning," said Miss Thornton, in a low