f her sales were
successful. She had eagerly accepted the offer, when she learned that
she was to make house-to-house calls in certain London suburbs (she was
to commence at Peckham), armed with a bottle of pickles and a bottle of
sauce. She was furnished with a Peckham local directory and was
instructed to make calls at every house in her district, when she was
to ask for the mistress by name, in order to disarm suspicion on the
part of whoever might open the door. When she was asked inside, she was
to do her utmost to get orders for the pickles and the sauce, supplies
of which were sent beforehand to a grocer in the neighbourhood. Mavis
did not relish the job, but was driven by the goad of necessity. On her
way home to tell Mrs. Ellis that she would be leaving immediately to
live in Peckham, she slipped on a piece of banana skin and twisted her
ankle, an accident which kept her indoors for the best part of a week.
When she had written to Eastcheap to say that she was well enough to
commence work, she had received a letter which informed her that her
place had been filled.

Now, she was sitting in her little bedroom in Kiva Street, a prey to
despair; she had no one to comfort her, not even Mrs. Ellis, this
person having gone out on a rare visit to an aunt.

Her little stock of money had sadly dwindled; eighteen shillings and
her trinkets stood between her and want. She had fought and had been
vanquished; there was nothing left for her to do but to write to Mrs
Devitt and ask if the offer, that had been mentioned in her last letter
to Miss Mee, still held good. During all these weeks of weary effort,
Mavis had been largely kept up by the thought that she was a sparrow,
who could not fall to the ground without the knowledge of the Most
High. Now, it seemed to her that she could sustain her flight but a
little while longer; yet, so far as she could see, there was no one to
whom her extremity seemed to matter in the least.

Apart from her desire to earn a living, the girl had struggled
resolutely in order that she should not seek work of the Devitts. She
disliked the family; she had resolved to apply to them only as a last
resource.

She had gone one day to Brandenburg College to call on her old
employers, but she found that the name-plate had been removed, and that
the house was to let. She had made inquiries, to learn that her old
friend Miss Annie Mee had died suddenly at Worthing, and also that Miss
Helen had sold