ng flowers. Would you like to try for an appointment with
Mr. Shaw, Burritt's successor?"

Win thanked him, but thought it would be no use. She would have liked
to walk down, only there seemed to be no stairs. A merry youth who ran
the nearest elevator asked if she would care to use the fire-escape.

The address of Mr. Noble, the organist, was that of a private house.
It was a far cry from _To-day and To-morrow_, up in the hundreds, and
Miss Hampshire had told Miss Child to take the elevated. Easier said
than done. You could go up the steps and reach a platform on top of
the improved Roman viaduct, but there were so many other people intent
on squeezing through the iron gate and onto the uptown train--people
far more indomitable than yourself--that nothing happened except the
slam, slam of that gate in your face.

At last, however, Miss Child was borne along with a rush from behind
and found herself swinging back and forth like a pendulum on a strap
which she clutched wildly. Men in America were supposed to jump up and
give women their seats, but there were no men in this train. It was
peopled with women who had been shopping, and who carried bundles.
Many went on so far that Win began to believe they were taking a jaunt
for fun, especially as they did not seem at all tired, but chewed
something unremittingly with an air of calm delight. This was,
perhaps, what Americans called a "joy ride!"

There seemed to be no end to New York, and vistas of cross streets
looked so much alike that Win did not wonder they were named only with
numbers. She wanted One Hundred and Thirty-Third Street, and Mr.
Noble's house was a long way from the elevated station. When she found
it at last it was only to learn that six months ago the organist had
accepted a position in Chicago. And New York seemed twice as big,
twice as absent-minded, when both letters of introduction had failed.

Win had often tried to check her tendency to over-optimism by telling
herself that neither Mr. Burritt nor Mr. Noble might have work to
give. But Miss Ellis (now comfortably married in London) had said they
were kind men. If they had nothing to offer, they would certainly
introduce Miss Child to some one who had. It had never occurred to her
that they might thoughtlessly have died or gone elsewhere. Editors and
organists seemed so importantly permanent to the lay mind.

This was indeed being alone in New York! And at the very thought--now
she could guess