“I do. Come into my little office; no one will interrupt us there. Sit down; you seem tired. Now tell me all about it. I’ve had such a pile of letters that I hardly know which to answer. By the way, I have just ’phoned to one who gave me her number but not her name. I asked her to call at once. I wonder if you can be No. 795?” Constance paused with a most encouraging smile upon her lips and light in her eyes.
“Yes—oh—no; I mean——”
“Why are you so nervous? It will not be a very difficult undertaking, I’m sure, just to sit here and sell boxes of candy, and I’m not half as formidable a young woman as you must have pictured me. The hours are not so very long, and there will be a good many spare moments. The salary is seven dollars a week. Do you care to consider it, Miss——?”
“S—Boggs, I mean Miss Boggs. Yes, I’ll take it, I want it very much, I’ll try to please you——”
Constance looked at the girl. What ailed her? Why this feverish eagerness to secure the position, and why a degree of nervousness which almost amounted to a panic?
“Will you please give me your address? And”—Constance hesitated. She was upon the point of asking for references, but sympathy for the girl withheld her from doing so.
The girl gave an address in a distant part of the town, and rose to go. Constance’s look held her. There was nothing alarming in the quiet gaze of those deep brown eyes; on the contrary, it was soothing, if compelling.
“Do you mind telling me why you are so agitated? I can see no cause for it, yet there may be one which I do not guess, and if I can help remove it I shall be glad to do so. It troubles me to see you disturbed. Perhaps a good deal depends upon your securing a situation at once, and if that is the cause of your trouble we have removed it, haven’t we? for you are already engaged.”
“Oh, yes, I know I’m very foolish; I do want the situation; I’ve got to take it; I’ll do my very, very best; I truly will. Please excuse me. When must I come?”
“Can you come this afternoon? I am very anxious to get back to my duties in my candy kitchen, and if you can arrange to come here after luncheon, I shall have time to show you the little things you would like to learn, and to-morrow morning you can get along without me.”