"It is lucky you understand laundry work, or things might go hard with you."
She laughed pitifully.
"I don't! They asked me if I was a washer or an ironer. I thought washing required least experience, so I said I was a washer. I am quick to learn, and will watch the other women. If they find me out I may be discharged."
"Oh, cheer up," he said, pleasantly. "I don't suppose you'll find it very hard."
Her voice sank almost to a whisper.
"It is not the work I dread, but the surroundings. I was a school teacher before my marriage. My husband was an electrical engineer. We put all our savings into a little business, and then—the end came."
"Not quite the end. I am only a boy, but I've had ups and downs enough to know that the beginning of next week may be a very different affair to the end of this. Good-by."
They were passing the London Hospital, and he thought it prudent to alight at some distance from Johnson's Mews.
"Well, God bless you, anyhow," she said, earnestly.
"'E's got 'is 'ead screwed on tight, that lad," commented a man sitting next to her.