"And hit's time I vas ha bout mine hinstead hof gossiping 'ere.
Yer'll soon see 'ow spick and span I'll make heverything."

With a despatch, deftness, and strength that to Mildred seemed
wonderful, she bought the lime, made the wash, and soon dark stains
and smoky patches of wall and ceiling grew white under her strong,
sweeping strokes. It was not in the girl's nature, nor in accordance
with her present scheme of life, to be an idle spectator, and from
her travelling-bag she soon transformed herself into as charming a
house-cleaner as ever waged war against that chief enemy of life and
health--dirt. Her round, white arms, bared almost to the shoulder,
seemed designed as a sculptor's model rather than to wield the brush
with which she scoured the paint and woodwork; but she thought not
of sculpture except in the remote and figurative way of querying,
with mind far absent from her work, how best she could carve their
humble fortunes out of the unpromising material of the present and
the near future.




CHAPTER XV

"WELCOME HOME"


Mildred felt that she had become a working-woman in very truth as
she cleaned the dingy closets, vindictively prying into corners
and crevices that had been unmolested by generations of tenants,
and the rich color produced by summer heat and unwonted exertion