firm for which she had worked had been a dissolute man. Much of his
conversation in the presence of the girl employees was incomprehensible
to Lucy, who did her work faithfully, was pleasant and obliging, but
lived her life largely apart from the others. Her later experience in
moving amongst the people had enlarged her knowledge of life, and now she
realized that, as a certain white flower with smooth petals remains
unspotted at the mouth of coal pits, so by the innocency of her mind and
the purity of her spirit, she had been preserved from dangers worse than
death. The thought of Kate in such company was intolerable. With her
usual motherliness towards her sister, she replied, 'On no account must
you take a situation without my approval. Surely, there must be some
godly place in London for you. I am going to pray hard that the Lord,
will direct you to it, and you must wait till the right thing turns up.'

While Lucy was praying 'hard,' a representative of The Army Outfit
Department visited her corps. He carried uniforms and books, set up a
stall, and sold his goods before and after the meetings. Lucy knew little
about the Outfit Department, but she was inspired with an idea. People
must be needed to make the uniforms, she mused, and to sell the books,
keep the accounts, and write letters. Why should not Kate be employed by
The Army? She made inquiries of the salesman and was encouraged to write
to Headquarters. God had heard Lucy's prayer, and in a little while her
sister found herself installed as a clerk at the Outfit Department at
Clerkenwell.

Kate realized that a knowledge of shorthand would be to her advantage,
and, obtaining the necessary books, she began to study, rising in the
bright summer mornings at four o'clock and plodding her way along in
spare minutes until she attained a speed of the coveted 'hundred.'