chiropodist, in Oshkosh. But for all that, she planned to earn her own
living.

And she had an ambition. At present beyond her grasp, yet so sure was she
of its ultimate attainment, that she shaped her entire cosmic consciousness
toward that end. Her ambition was not unique, perhaps not unattainable. It
had been achieved by others with seemingly little effort and less skill;
and though as yet, merely a radiant hope, Warble was determined that some
day she would gain her goal.

Her ambition was to get married. Her sister had; her mother had; she
politely assumed her grandmother had.

She would.

Often she imagined herself the heroine of delightful scenes she watched
at the cinema. She loved the slow unwinding of the story on the screen, but
when engaged with her imagination she hurried it on in haste to reach the
final close-up.

* * * * *

It was at no one's advice, but because of her own inner yearnings that
Warble took a job as waitress in a Bairns' Restaurant.

She reveled in the white tiles, the white gloss paint, the eternal
clearing-up and the clatter of flatware. She loved the flatware--it always
made her think of a wedding--sometimes of her own.

She adored the white-capped King Alfred baking his cakes in the window, but