Saturdays Child | Page 6

& Hunter's
thought lemon in tea anything but a wretched affectation. Girls who
had been too pale before gained a sudden burning color, they had been
sitting still and were hungry, now they ate too fast. Without exception
the Front Office girls suffered from agonies of indigestion, and most of
them grew used to a dull headache that came on every afternoon. They
kept flat bottles of soda-mint tablets in their desks, and exchanged them
hourly. No youthful constitution was proof against the speed with

which they disposed of these fresh soft sandwiches at noon-time, and
gulped down their tea.
In ten minutes some of them were ready to hurry off into sunny Front
Street, there to saunter past warehouses, and warehouses, and
warehouses, with lounging men eyeing them from open doorways.
The Kirks disappeared quickly to-day, and some of the others went out,
too. When Miss Thornton, Miss Sherman, Miss Cottle and Miss Brown
were left, Miss Thornton said suddenly:
"Say, listen, Susan. Listen here--"
Susan, who had been wiping the table carefully, artistically, with a
damp rag, was arrested by the tone.
"I think this is the rottenest thing I ever heard, Susan," Miss Thornton
began, sitting down at the table. The others all sat down, too, and put
their elbows on the table. Susan, flushing uncomfortably, eyed Miss
Thornton steadily.
"Brauer called me in this morning," said Miss Thornton, in a low voice,
marking the table with the handle of a fork, in parallel lines, "and he
asked me if I thought--no, that ain't the way he began. Here's what he
said first: he says, 'Miss Thornton,' he says, 'did you know that Miss
Wrenn is leaving us?'"
"What!" said all the others together, and Susan added, joyfully, "Gee,
that means forty for me, and the crediting."
"Well, now listen," Miss Thornton resumed. "I says, 'Mr. Brauer, Miss
Wrenn didn't put herself out to inform me of her plans, but never mind.
Although,' I says, 'I taught that girl everything she ever knew of office
work, and the day she was here three weeks Mr. Philip Hunter himself
came to me and said, "Miss Thornton, can you make anything of her?"
So that if it hadn't been for me--'"
"But, Thorny, what's she leaving for?" broke in Susan, with the excited

interest that the smallest change invariably brought.
"Her uncle in Milwaukee is going to pay her expenses while she takes a
library course, I believe," Miss Thornton said, indifferently. "Anyway,
then Brauer asked--now, listen, Susan--he asked if I thought Violet
Kirk could do the crediting--"
"Violet Kirk!" echoed Susan, in incredulous disappointment. This blow
to long-cherished hopes gave her a sensation of actual sickness.
"Violet Kirk!" the others broke out, indignant and astonished. "Why,
she can't do it! Is he crazy? Why, Joe Hunter himself told Susan to
work up on that! Why, Susan's done all the substituting on that! What
does she know about it, anyway? Well, wouldn't that honestly jar you!"
Susan alone did not speak. She had in turn begun to mark the table, in
fine, precise lines, with a hairpin. She had grown rather pale.
"It's a rotten shame, Susan," said Rose Murray, sympathetically. Miss
Sherman eyed Susan with scared and sorrowful eyes. "Don't you
care--don't you care, Susan!" said the soothing voices.
"I don't care," said Susan presently, in a hard, level voice. She raised
her somber eyes. "I don't care because I simply won't stand it, that's
all," said she. "I'll go straight to Mr. Baxter. Yes, I WILL, Thorny.
Brauer'll see if he can run everything this way! Is she going to get
forty?"
"What do you care if she does?" Miss Thornton said, hardily.
"All right," Susan answered. "Very well. But I'll get forty next month
or I'll leave this place! And I'm not one bit afraid to go straight to old 'J.
G.' and tell him so, too! I'll--"
"Listen, Susan, now listen," urged Miss Thornton. "Don't you get mad,
Susan. She can't do it. It'll be just one mistake after another. Brauer will
have to give it to you, inside of two months. She'll find," said Miss
Thornton, with a grim tightening of the lips, "that precious few

mistakes get by ME! I'll make that girl's life a burden, you trust me!
And meantime you work up on that line, Sue, and be ready for it!"
Susan did not answer. She was staring at the table again, cleaning the
cracks in its worn old surface with her hairpin.
"Thorny," she said huskily, "you know me. Do you think that this is
fair?"
"Aw--aw, now, Susan, don't!" Miss Thornton jumped up, and put her
arm about Susan's shoulders, and Susan, completely unnerved by the
sympathy in the other's tone, dropped her head upon her arm, and
began to cry.
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