ort.

The rest room was really very nice, if there were ever a chance to
rest in it--which, Miss Kirk whispered, was not likely to be the case.
There were wall bookcases with glass doors, a few oak-framed
engravings with a pale-green, "distempered" background, several
chintz-covered sofas with cushions, and plenty of easy chairs.

On small tables lay very back numbers of illustrated papers and
magazines. The high windows had green curtains which softened their
glare and (said Sadie) prevented dust from showing. The brown-painted
floor had decorative intervals of rugs, like flowery oases. Altogether
the room would have been an excellent "show place" if any influential
millionairess began stirring up public interest in "conditions of
shop-girl life."

One end wall of the long, narrow room was almost entirely covered by
an immense blackboard, supposed to represent a check book. In front of
this stood a pale young man with a timid air, who coughed and cleared
his throat a good deal as he explained to a group of girls Peter
Rolls's specially simplified, modernly improved system of adding up
the prices of purchased "goods" in the quickest and most scientific
manner. Win listened intently, easily catching the idea, but wondering
if she should get "rattled" when she had to put it into practice in
the coming "two-hour bargain sale." Miss Kirk, however, soon saw that
the difference between this and other systems was not complicated
enough to trouble her, and let her wits wander from one subject to
another.

"That's a salesman teaching," she whispered up to her tall protegee.
"He's new to the job, I guess, and scared of us guyls; but I bet he
bullies men when he gets the chance! He'll tuyn out another Father."

Win, not having forgotten her curiosity concerning the red-haired
girl's mysterious murmur to the superintendent, longed to question the
sardine, who had the air of knowing everything she ought and ought not
to know. But the newcomer could not afford to lose a word that dropped
from the nervous teacher's lips. "Do tell me about it later," she
pleaded. "I must listen to this."

"All right. Are you lunching in or out?"

"Oh, in, I suppose."

"So will I, then, though I hear it's filthy and the grub vile. We'll
try and make a date."

Win dared not answer. With difficulty she caught the last part of the
lecture. Then her fifteen minutes of schooling were over and the real
battle of life as one of Peter Rolls's hands