ad the chance?" snapped the girl who was attending
her friend.

"I always drink Kummel; it's much more ladylike," remarked Miss Impett.

"You'd drink anything you can bally well get," the sufferer cried at a
moment when she was free of pain.

"I am a lady. I know how to be'ave when a gentleman offers me a drink,"
retorted Miss Impett.

"You a lady--you--!" began the sufferer's ministering angel. She got no
further, being checked by her friend casting a significant glance in
Mavis's direction.

Half an hour later, Mavis fell asleep. It was a strange experience
when, the next morning, she had to wash and dress with three other
girls doing the same thing in the little space at their disposal.

She had asked if there were any chance of getting a bath, to be
surprised at the astonished looks on the faces of the others. At a
quarter to eight, they scurried down to breakfast, at which meal Miss
Striem presided, as at supper.

Breakfast consisted of thick bread, salt butter, and the cheapest of
cheap tea. It was as much as Mavis could do to get any of it down,
although she was hungry. She could not help noticing that she was the
object of much remark to the other girls present, her words with Miss
Striem on the previous evening having attracted much attention. After
breakfast, Mavis was taken upstairs to the department in which she was
to work. It was on the roomy ground floor, for which she was thankful;
she was also pleased that the girl selected to instruct her in her
duties was her Browning friend of last night. Her work was not arduous,
and Mavis enjoyed the handling of dainty things; but she soon became
tired of standing, at which she sat on one of the seats provided by Act
of Parliament to rest the limbs of weary shop assistants.

"You mustn't do that!" urged Miss Meakin.

"Why not?"

"You'll get yourself disliked if you do."

"What are they here for, if not to sit on?"

"They have to be there; but you won't be here long if you're seen using
them, 'cept when the Government inspector is about."

"It's cruel, unfair," began Mavis, but her friend merely shrugged her
shoulders as she moved away to wait on a customer.

Mavis was disposed to rebel against the unwritten rule that seats are
not to be made use of, but a moment's reflection convinced her of the
unwisdom of such a proceeding.

Later on in the morning, Miss Meakin said to Mavis:

"I hear you had a dust up with old Striem last night."

Mavis tol