enged her with gay eyes, which had in their
depths a covert seriousness.

Ellen stood between Abby Atkins and Sadie Peel at her work. Sadie
Peel turned on the foreman coquettishly and said, "You'd better go
an' talk to Mamie Brady, she's got on a new blue bow on her red
hair. Why don't you give her some better work than tying those old
shoes? Here she's been workin' in this shop two years. You needn't
come shinin' round Ellen an' me! We don't want you."

Flynn colored angrily and shot a vicious glance at the girl.

"It's a pretty hard storm," he said to Ellen, as if the other girl
had not spoken.

"You needn't pretend you don't hear me, Ed Flynn," called out the
girl. Her cheap finery was in full force that morning, not a lock of
her brown hair was unstudied in its arrangement, and she was as
conscious of her pose before her machine as if she had been on the
stage. She knew just how her slender waist and the graceful slope of
her shoulders appeared to the foreman, and her voice, in spite of
its gay rallying and audacity, was wheedling.

Flynn caught hold of her shoulders, round and graceful under her
flannel blouse, and shook her, half in anger, half in weakness.

"You shut up, you witch," said he. Then he turned to Ellen again,
and his whole manner and expression changed.

"I'm sorry about that new list," he said, very low, in her ear.
Ellen never looked at him, and did not make a motion as if she
heard.

"It's a hard storm," the foreman said again, almost appealingly.

"Yes, it is very hard," replied Ellen, slipping another shoe under
the needles.

"What on earth ails you this morning, Ellen Brewster?" Sadie Peel
said to her, when the foreman had gone. "You look queer and act
queer."

"Ellen ain't in the habit of joking with Ed Flynn," said Abby
Atkins, on the other side, with sarcastic emphasis.

"My, don't you feel big!" sneered Sadie Peel. There was always a
jarring inconsequence about this girl, she was so delicately pretty
and refined in appearance, her ribbons were so profuse and cheap,
and her manners were so recklessly coarse.

Ellen said nothing, but worked steadily.

"Mame Brady's just gone on Ed Flynn, and he goes with her just
enough to keep her hangin', and I don't believe he means to marry
her, and I think it's mean," said Sadie Peel.

"She ought to have more sense than to take any stock in him," said
Abby.

"She ain't the only one," said Sadie. "Nellie Stone in the office
has been