CHAPTER XVII

BELLE LAUNCHES HERSELF


Only the least of Belle's difficulties were past when she obtained
consent to stand behind a counter. With her mother she made many
a weary expedition through the hot streets, and was laughed at in
some instances for even imagining that employment could be obtained
at the dullest season of the year. As soon as their errand was
made known they were met by a brief and often a curt negative. Mrs.
Jocelyn would soon have been discouraged, but Belle's black eyes
only snapped with irritation at their poor success. "Give up?"
she cried. "No, not if I have to work for nothing to get a chance.
Giving up isn't my style, at least not till I'm tired of a thing;
besides it's a luxury poor people can't indulge in."

Mrs. Jocelyn felt that the necessity which compelled this quest
was a bitter one, and her heart daily grew sorer that she had not
resolutely saved part of every dollar earned by her husband in the
old prosperous times. As she saw the poor young creatures standing
wearily, and often idly and listlessly, through the long summer
days, as her woman's eyes detected in the faces of many the impress
of the pain they tried to conceal but could never forget, she half
guessed that few laborers in the great city won their bread more
hardly than these slender girls, doomed in most instances never
to know a vigorous and perfected womanhood. "Belle, my child, how
can you stand during these long, hot days? It's providential that
we can't find any place."