CHAPTER VII.
FRESH GLIMPSES OF EVIL.
"I promise," said Faith, after another moment's hesitation. "I will hear what you have to say on the subject, Mary, but I am sure I shall still think it right to report that theft to-morrow."
Miss Jennings turned away with a relieved expression. The woman she had called "Kate" was just coming back behind the counter.
"I've lost my job through my stupidity," she said sullenly. "Gibson says I am discharged for being impudent to him."
"I'm sorry, but you might have known," replied Miss Jennings shortly. "Still, you haven't lost much; perhaps you'll get something better."
"Well, I hope so, but there's not much chance at this season," said the woman. "Six dollars a week was better than nothing. It's more than I can make by taking in washing."
"Oh, you surely won't have to do that!" cried Faith involuntarily. She had been listening to their conversation without realizing it.
The woman glanced up at her and gave a sharp laugh.
"That, or worse," she said coarsely. "I can't starve to death, can I?"
There was no mistaking what she meant. Her words sent a thrill of horror through every fibre of Faith's body.
"She surely did not mean that," she whispered to Miss Jennings as soon as the saleswoman had gone.
"Why not?" asked Miss Jennings in her bitterest manner.
For the second time that day Faith drew back with swift motion, but this time her companion did not appear to notice it.
"She's got a sick husband and three children," she said sharply; "and it's no fault of hers that she can't earn an honest living. I tell you, Faith, that you have lots to learn. I'm sorry you must learn it all in a lump, of course, but the sooner it is learned the sooner you'll get used to it."
She breathed a deep sigh as she turned away. For a moment her real feeling showed above her indifference.
"Get used to it—never!" cried Faith, almost hysterically. "And you are not used to it, either, Mary; it is killing you this minute!"
"Perhaps you are right," said Miss Jennings, slowly, then as the customers were gradually drifting back into the store she went forward to wait upon them with her usual indifference.
For the next half hour Faith was very busy. The excitement had passed, leaving no trace behind it.
At exactly six o'clock a big gong was sounded. Faith was so tired and nervous that she almost cried for joy when she heard it.
"It has been the hardest day of my life," she said to Miss Jennings as they reached the cloak-room.
"Well, you'll have many such if you stay here long," was the reply. "There are nothing but hard days for the slaves of Denton, Day & Co."
There was a crowd of women and girls waiting at the lavatory basins, and as Faith caught sight of the towels she turned away with a shudder.
"You'll have to go home with dirty hands, Faith, but you musn't mind that; we wouldn't get out of here until midnight if we waited our turn at those basins."
Miss Jennings was putting on her hat as she spoke, and as Faith started to look for hers the clerk whom young Denton had called "Mag" came slowly up to them.
"Heard the news, eighty-nine?"
She asked Miss Jennings the question, but she was looking straight at Faith. There was a gleam in her eye that was very unpleasant.
"What news, Maggie?" asked Miss Jennings, noticing the look at once. She knew the girl's disposition, and almost dreaded what was coming.
"Old Forbes was robbed of five hundred dollars! Some one stole it from his desk early yesterday morning. There's pretty good proof already as to who was the thief. I wouldn't stand in her shoes for double the money!"
She was still watching Faith with her eyes half closed. Miss Jennings was too shrewd to be deceived a minute as to her actual meaning.
"Well, you'll save yourself trouble by keeping your mouth shut," she said, crossly, "it dont pay to meddle with such matters as that, Maggie, especially if you happen to be living under a cloud yourself. Somebody might take a notion to turn the tables on you, you know. I'd as as soon be a thief as some other things I might mention."
There was a sneer in her tones that was unmistakable. Faith turned just in time to catch its full meaning.
"Oh, you needn't preach!" cried the other angrily. "Any one can see you're fairly green with envy, eighty-nine! You'd give a whole lot to be able to flirt with the boys, but, as Jim Denton says, you are too pale and skinny!"
"For shame!"
It was Faith who spoke the words. She was facing the brazen-faced girl with her eyes blazing angrily.
"How dare you speak like that to a poor, sick girl? Have you no heart in your bosom, no decency or conscience! It does not seem possible to me that girls can be so hateful toward each other. Are we not all sisters, who have been commanded to love one another?"
There was silence for just a second as Faith finished speaking, then a loud, coarse laugh broke from Maggie Brady's lips.
"Oh, Lord! Hear her, girls! Hear the little preacher in petticoats! Isn't she eloquent, the pretty thing! Why, she ought to be a corporal in the Salvation Army!"
There was a roar of laughter at the rude girl's words, during which Miss Jennings caught Faith by the arm and half dragged her from the cloak-room.
"Come, Faith, let us go! This is no place for you. That girl is the most brazen hussy in the whole establishment, and that's saying a good deal, as you'll find out later!"
They hurried out into the street as quickly as possible. Faith was almost crying with indignation when they reached the sidewalk.
"Now, brace up, dear; it's all over for to-day," said Miss Jennings. "You'll soon get used to it; that's exactly what every one of us have had to go through with, but the girls are not all like Mag; there are lots of nice ones. She wasn't so bad, either, until Jim Denton noticed her."
"Is he her sweetheart?" asked Faith as soon as she could control her voice. "I heard them talking together and I am sure she loves him."
Miss Jennings gave vent to one of her harshest laughs.
"Jim Denton is a wicked young man," she said very slowly. "He cares no more for Maggie than he does for lots of the others, but she's such a fool she can't see it, and that shows, of course, that she's pretty badly gone on him."
"You mean that she loves him?" questioned Faith, who was not very familiar with shop-girl slang.
"Well, you can't call it love, exactly," explained Miss Jennings, "but it's the best she's got. She thinks she loves him."
The girls had walked a couple of blocks and were waiting for a car. They were glad to find that they lived near each other. The same street car would land them a short distance from their homes, which were modest flats in the cheapest portion of Harlem.
As they hailed the car, Faith's quick eye caught a glimpse of a man who seemed to be following them.
As he sprang on the rear platform of the car she called her companion's attention to him.
"It's Bob Hardy, one of our detectives," said Miss Jennings, wonderingly. "Why, he lives in Jersey. He must be following somebody."
Faith looked at her a moment before she spoke again.
"I wonder if there is any truth in what that girl said about the robbery in the office. I've been thinking of it ever since. She looked at me so funny! And see, Mary, that detective is watching me, too, he has hardly taken his eyes off me since we entered the car. It can't be possible that they think I took the money, can it? You know I was in the office early yesterday morning."
She spoke so timidly that Miss Jennings gave her a sharp glance. Then she turned involuntarily and looked at the detective.
"God help you if Hardy is after you," she whispered with a shudder. "That fellow is a fiend about making arrests. He'd accuse his own mother of stealing, I believe, if he thought he could win the regard of old Forbes by doing it!"