"That's only because I was ill awhile ago," began Violet. "I had been in trouble——"
"But you're quite well now?" the woman interrupted.
"Quite," answered Violet.
She did not know how now to proceed; but the stranger, still smiling, soon gave her a chance.
"Any reference?"
"No, ma'am, I haven't no reference."
"How does that come?"
"I was fired from my last place." She took a breath, then a greater one, and concluded: "I was fired because the woman I worked for found out that I had been in trouble."
The stranger promptly ceased to smile.
"What sort of trouble?" she inquired.