her," said Mrs. Greymer.

"Until a quarter of eight my time is yours, and my sympathy, as usual, is
boundless."

Mrs. Greymer smiled slightly. "I have known her for a great many years,"
she said, disregarding the countess's last speech: "she went to school
with me, in fact. She was such a pretty girl then! Somehow, she took a
fancy to me, and used to help me with my Practical Arithmetic--"

"So called because it is written in the most unpractical and
incomprehensible style: yes, I know it," interrupted the countess.

"Martha was much brighter than I at it, anyhow, and used to do my
examples. She used to bring me the loveliest violets: she would walk all
the way over to the island for them. I remember I cried when her people
moved to Chicago and she left school. I didn't see her for almost ten
years: then I met her accidentally on Randolph street in Chicago. She knew
me, and insisted on my going out with her to see her home. It was in the
suburbs, and was a very pretty, tidy little place, with a garden in front,
where Martha raised vegetables, and a little plot for flowers. She was so
proud of it all and of her two pretty babies, and showed me her chickens
and her furniture and a picture of her husband. They had bought the house,
and were to pay for it in six years, but William was getting high wages,
and she had no fears. Poor Martha!"

"Their Arcadia didn't last?"

"No. William got interested in trades-unions: there was a strike, and he
was very prominent. He was out of work a long time, and Martha supported
the family by taking in sewing and selling the vegetables. Then her third
child was born, and she was sick for a long time afterward: she had been
working too hard, poor thing! His old employers took William on with the
rest of the men when the strike ended, but very soon found a pretext for
discharging him; and, in short, they used up all their little savings, and
the house went. William thought he had been ill-used, and became more
violent in his opinions."

"A Communist, isn't he?"

"I believe so. Martha with her three children couldn't go out to work, but
she is a model housekeeper, and she opened a little laundry with the money
she got from the sale of some of their furniture. William got work, but
lost it again, but Martha managed in a humble way to support the family
until William had an offer to come here; so they sold out the laundry to
get money to move."

"Very idiotic of them."

"After the