s, who missed this familiar adjunct
from the photograph.

"I took it off to show off me figure. See?" replied Miss Nippett
confidentially.

Mr Poulter asked Mavis if she had further employment in view. She knew
how poor he was; also, that if she told him she was workless, he would
probably insist on retaining her services, although he could not afford
to do so. Mavis fibbed to Mr Poulter; she hoped that her consideration
for his poverty would atone for the lie.

For five weeks Mavis vainly tried to get work. She soon discovered how,
when possible employers considered her application, the mere mention of
her being at "Dawes'" was enough to spoil her chances of securing an
engagement.

She had spent all her money; she was now living on the sum she had
received from a pawnbroker in exchange for two of her least prized
trinkets. Going out in all weathers to look for employment had not
improved her clothes; her best pair of boots let in water; she was
jaded, heartsick, dispirited. As with others in a like plight, she
dared not look into the immediate future, this holding only terrifying
probabilities of disaster; the present moment was all sufficient;
little else mattered, and, although to-morrow promised actual want,
there was yet hope that a sudden turn of fortune's wheel would remove
the dread menace of impending ruin. One evening, Mavis, dazed with
disappointment at failing to secure an all but promised berth, wandered
aimlessly from the city in a westerly direction. She scarcely knew
where she was going or what quarter of London she had reached. She was
only aware that she was surrounded by every evidence of well-being and
riches. The pallid, worried faces of the frequenters of the city were
now succeeded by the well-fed, contented looks of those who appeared as
if they did not know the meaning of the word care. Splendid carriages,
costly motor cars passed in never-ending procession. As Mavis glanced
at the expensive dresses of the women, the wind-tanned faces of the
men, she thought how, but for a wholly unlooked-for reverse of fortune,
these would be the people with whom she would be associating on equal
terms. The thought embittered her; she quickened her steps in order to
leave behind her the opulent surroundings so different from her own, A
little crowd, consisting of those entering and waiting about the door
of a tea-shop, obstructed her. An idea suddenly possessed her.
Confronted with want, she wondered if s