trades, who found a chance to laugh in the midst of
their debate; but the majority were spare, hollow-cheeked Jews; tailors,
small tradesmen, lawyers, eager, often aggressive personalities. The
women were in the minority, and offered a contrast to the girls Hertha
had seen at the theater or parading the street. They were all simply
dressed, usually in white, somewhat mussy shirtwaists, with cheap,
ill-hanging skirts. Men and women, however, despite their shabby
clothes, were all intensely virile spirits to whom the story of the
evening had been a living fact; not a tale to weep over and forget, but
a truth to grip and to remedy.

"Come up to the platform with me, Kathleen," one of the women said, "and
meet the comrade from the South." Kathleen started to go, and then,
glancing back at Hertha, who had dropped into a seat, shook her head.
"No, I'll be off with my friend," she answered, and the two made their
way out. A few minutes' walk in the reviving air brought them to their
home.

"Goodness," Kathleen exclaimed, as she took off her coat, "we forgot the
ice cream!"

"Never mind," Hertha answered, "it's cold for ice cream. Sit down and
I'll make some cocoa," and she started to walk into the kitchen.

Kathleen followed her. "I'll make the cocoa myself."

"No you won't," Hertha declared. "You got the dinner and it's my turn
now."

She put a big apron over her dress and went quietly about her work.
Kathleen, as she sat watching, felt a little tightening at her throat,
so rarely did any one do her a service. She was a strong, capable woman,
the eldest in the family, and it had naturally fallen to her to wait
upon others. At eight her father had been killed in an accident, and the
mill, not satisfied with his life, had dragged the loved school books
from her hands and, opening its cruel door, held her from sunrise to
sunset amid dirt and turmoil performing stupid, monotonous tasks. She
had nursed her mother during her last illness, two weary years of
suffering. Brother and sister had accepted her sacrifices, enjoying the
education that she had been denied, receiving her ministrations
thoughtlessly and as thoughtlessly giving nothing in return. She could
never remember when either of them had waited upon her, had made her a
cup of tea, had so much as hung up her hat and coat. Feeling herself the
stronger, she had always waited upon others, and now for the first time,
in this gentle, ladylike girl whom she had known les