The doctor's eyes twinkled sympathetically. “I don't know whether Benson earned his three houses altogether in the hat-shops. He 'likes a good horse,' as he says; and he likes to trade it for a better; I know that from experience. But he's a great friend of mine. Well, then, there are more women than men in the shops, and they earn more. I suppose that's rather disappointing too.”
“It is, rather.”
“But, on the other hand, the work only lasts eight months of the year, and that cuts wages down to an average of a dollar a day.”
“Ah!” cried Annie. “There's some hope in that! What do they do when the work stops?”
“Oh, they go back to their country-seats.”
“All?”
“Perhaps not all.”
“I thought so!”
“Well, you'd better look round among those that stay.”
Even among these she looked in vain for destitution; she could find that in satisfactory degree only in straggling veterans of the great army of tramps which once overran country places in the summer.