“I’ve got to go out––I had an appointment at half-past two, but I’ll love to come to tea with you,” she added, seeing the disappointment in June’s face.
“Very well, then, four o’clock. But who is the appointment with? You won’t need to find a berth now. You’re a lady of leisure.”
“But I shall try all the same. I don’t mean to be lazy just because he’s so good to me. I shall save all I can. I went to an agency yesterday–––”
“They’ll rob you,” June protested. “They always do. I know what agents are,” she added darkly.
Esther laughed.
But if she had hoped great things from her call that afternoon she was disappointed. The thin, aristocratic-looking 88 person who owned the “Bureau,” as it was called, looked at her with coldly critical eyes, and said that she had no vacancies likely to suit her.
“But you told me to call,” Esther protested.
“Certainly; there might have been something,” was all the answer she received. “Call again to-morrow, if you please.”
Esther went out dispiritedly. There were so many girls of her own class and age in the bare waiting-room; she felt quite sure that they would all get berths before she had a chance.
She felt glad that she had June Mason to go back to. June was always sympathetic. She went straight upstairs to the sitting-room with the mauve cushions.