"Well, why don't you answer?" she asked, half smilingly.
"I was a packer for two days," said Faith very softly. She could see no reason why she should not answer the question.
As the woman moved away from the counter every eye in the department followed her, and Faith noticed how alert all the girls were to wait upon her.
As soon as she disappeared Miss Fairbanks rushed up to Faith.
"What did she ask you?" she questioned breathlessly; "and what did you tell her?"
Faith repeated the conversation in open-eyed wonder. When she had finished Miss Fairbanks breathed a sigh of relief, but her face was still clouded. "I guess they won't blame me for putting in a green girl," she said slowly. "Anyway, there was no one else. I'm awfully short-handed as it is."
"We ain't to blame if they don't give us help enough," remarked Mr. Gunning, savagely. "This firm is too stingy to keep a full force of clerks. Still, if one of them is sick or dies, there's always a row about changes."
"Well, if she feels like it, she'll report, and that will mean trouble," said Miss Fairbanks, sighing; "but perhaps she won't. There are some good-hearted ones among them."
"Who was she?" asked Faith as soon as she got the opportunity.
"Only one of Denton, Day & Co.'s spies," was the answer. "They are better known in the business as 'Private Shoppers.'"