rom the first. This
was to be expected so long as Ellen, notwithstanding her scoffing, was a
little miffed. Rosie saw, though, that, in spite of being miffed, Ellen
was still perfectly sure that she did not want George for herself. The
only feeling she seemed to have in the matter was annoyance that he
should no longer be wanting her. At first Ellen was so outspoken in this
annoyance that Rosie was able to whisper triumphantly: "You see, Jarge!
Didn't I tell you!"

There were other things occurring just at this time which served to keep
Ellen irritable and sensitive. Her experience in stenography was,
throughout, unfortunate and was making her see in almost everything that
happened a slight to herself. To Mrs. O'Brien's prolonged amazement, the
heads of various firms continued their insulting treatment of Ellen,
discharging her on the slightest provocation or no provocation whatever,
and never giving the poor girl, so her mother declared, anything like a
fair trial.

"Now what I would like to know is this:" Mrs. O'Brien would begin in the
evening as soon as Jamie, poor man, was quietly settled for his bedtime
pipe; "how can they know what Ellen can do or what she can't do, never
giving her a decent show? The last six places she's been at they've only
kept her a day or two days at most. It's me own opinion they don't want
a good stenographer. I believe they're jealous of her! I tell you, Jamie
O'Brien, it's fair disgraceful, and if I was a man, which I'm thankful
to say I ain't, I'd go down there and give them fellas a piece of my
mind!"

To Ellen herself, Mrs. O'Brien was, as usual, both sympathetic and
voluble. "Don't you mind what them fellas say to you, Ellen dear," she
would advise at each fresh disappointment. "You've had as fine a
schoolin' as any of them and there'll come a day when they'll all have
to acknowledge it. And when they talk to you again about your spelling,
you can tell them for me they're mighty smart if they're able to prove
what's the right and what's the wrong way to spell a word nowadays. If I
was you I wouldn't worry me head one minute about a thrifle like
spelling. I'd just go ahead me own way and remember I was a lady and,
take me word for it, some of these days you'll hit an office that is an
office with fine men at the head of it, able to know good work when
they see it and willin' to give credit for it!"

Ellen shared to a great extent her mother's belief in her own ability,
and she t