fourth-story back room; small, I fancy, from the way in which he spoke
of it, and not a speck of fire over! In such weather as this, how can a
young man read his Bible, or even pray, under such circumstances?"

Mr. Roberts laid down his pen and sat erect, regarding his wife with a
thoughtful, far-away air.

"Flossy," he said at last, "it is an immense question! You open a perfect
mine of anxiety and doubt. I have hovered around the edges for some
time, but have generally contrived to shut my eyes and refuse to look
into it, because I was afraid of what I might see; and because I did not
know--what to do with my knowledge. I have not been the working
member of the firm very long, you know, and my special field, until
lately, has been the other side of the ocean; but I have been at home
long enough to know that there are several hundred young men in our
employ who are away from their homes; and knowing, as I do, the price
of board in respectable houses, and knowing the salaries which the younger
ones receive, it does not require a great deal of penetration to discover
that they must have rather dreary homes here, to put it mildly. The fact
is, Flossy, I haven't wanted to look into this thing very closely, because
I do not see the remedy. Look at our house, for instance, with its three
hundred clerks, we'll say, who are away from their friends; suppose
one-half, or even one-third, of them are miserably situated, what can
I do?"

"Are they not sufficiently well paid to have the ordinary comforts of
life?"

"Doubtful. The truth is, what you and I call the ordinary comforts of
life takes a good deal of money; and in the city, rents are high, and