"Do you live in Harrisburg?" she asked.
"I do now," answered Ellen after a tearful pause. "I was born near Ephrata. My parents are dead. I lived with Mrs. Sassaman and Mrs. Lebber, but now Mrs. Sassaman is married. I worked in a store at first, but now I work in a laundry."
"What is your name?"
"Ellen Levis."
There was a brightening sparkle in Fetzer's eye. She liked Ellen and she leaned forward and gazed at her more earnestly.
"Would you consider other work, perhaps?"
"If I could better myself."
Fetzer's eye gleamed still more brightly.
"I'm housekeeper here. The family is away now, but they will soon be back. The cook and the downstairs girl are colored and they live outside. We need an upstairs girl who will live here. The pay is eight dollars a week and you would have a good deal of time to yourself, especially since you come from Lancaster County and know how to work. I saw you sitting out there and you looked like a reliable girl."
Eight dollars a week! Mrs. Sassaman had received three. And she could save it all! Other considerations were forgotten.