59

ELSIE'S "PALMISTRY EVENING" 87

THEIR ANCESTRAL LATCH-STRING 111

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

"THERE WERE VOICES PASSING HER DOOR"
(_See page 75_) _Frontispiece_

"THE CHEER AND WARMTH OF IT ALL COMFORTED HER" 31

"HID HER FACE IN A GREAT BUNCH OF ROSES" 55

"'WHY, I HAVE NEVER EVEN HEARD OF THEM'" 67

"'WHAT IS THE MATTER?' HE REPEATED" 78

"IT WAS NOT HER VOICE ALONE WHICH DREW SO MANY ADMIRERS" 83

"'SHE HID HER FACE ON MY SHOULDER'" 100

"'LOOKING AT HER HAND A DOZEN TIMES A DAY'" 103

"'ASKED ME TO HUNT UP ALL THE REFERENCES'" 108

"PAUSING IN HER SCRUBBING" 116

"SHE ENTERTAINED THEM WITH STORIES OF HER TRAVELS" 122

"AT THE GATE HE TURNED FOR A LONG BACKWARD LOOK" 127

"'YOU NEEDN'T LOOK AT ME IN THAT WAY,' SHE WHISPERED, DEFIANTLY" 133

CICELY

CICELY

There was a noisy whir of sewing-machines in Madame Levaney's large
dressmaking establishment. Cicely Leeds's head ached as she bent over
the ruffles she was hemming. She was the youngest seamstress in the
room, and wore her hair hanging in two long braids.

It seemed a pity that such girlish shoulders should be learning to
stoop, and that her eyes had to bear such a constant strain. The light
was particularly bad this afternoon. Every curtain was rolled to the
top of its big window, but the dull December sky was as gray as a fog.
Even the snow on the surrounding housetops looked gray and dirty in
the smoky haze.

Now and then Cicely looked up from her work and glanced out of the
window. The cold grayness of the outdoor world made her shiver. It was
a world of sooty chimney-tops as she saw it, with a few chilly
sparrows huddled in a disconsolate row along the eaves. It would soon
be time to be going home, and the only home Cicely had now was a
cheerless little back bedroom in a cheap boarding-house. She dreaded
going back to it. It was at least warm in Madame Levaney's
steam-heated workrooms, and it was better to have the noise and