resources--what chances had she? To assert that working-girls ought
to crave profitable reading and just the proper amount of hygienic
exercise daring their leisure, and nothing more, is to be like the
engineer who said that a river ought to have been half as wide as
it was, and then he could build a bridge across it. The problem
must be solved as it exists.

To a certain extent this need of change and cheerful recreation
is supplied in connection with some of the mission chapels, and
the effort is good and most commendable as far as it goes; but
as yet the family had formed no church relations. Mildred, Belle,
and occasionally Mrs. Jocelyn had attended Sabbath service in the
neighborhood. They shrank, however, so morbidly from recognition
that they had no acquaintances and had formed no ties. They had
a prejudice against mission chapels, and were not yet willing to
identify themselves openly with their poor neighbors. As yet they
had incurred no hostility on this account, for their kindly ways
and friendliness to poor Clara had won the goodwill and sympathy
of all in the old mansion. But the differences between the Jocelyns
and their neighbors were too great for any real assimilation,
and thus, as we have said, they were thrown mainly on their own
resources. Mrs. Wheaton was their nearest approach to a friend, and
very helpful she was to them in many ways, especially in relieving
Mrs. Jocelyn, for a very small compensation, from her heavier tasks.
The good woman, however, felt even more truly than they that they
had too little in common for intimacy.

There is one amusement always open to working-girls if they are
at all attractive--the street flirtation. To their honor it can be
said that comparatively few of the entire number indulge in this