CHAPTER IV.
SOME UNPLEASANT INFORMATION.
Faith's face turned scarlet, but she obeyed at once. The next instantthe buyer was forgotten. She was thinking of Miss Jennings.
So the superintendent had not carried out his threat after all. He couldnot have forgotten it, his anger had been too genuine.
Faith was thankful enough that the poor girl was still at work, althoughshe looked sick enough to be in bed in the care of a doctor.
As Faith looked at her she could see plainly the stamp of death upon herbrow. Her cheeks were bloodless and her eyes were sunken.
After eleven o'clock the girls took turns in going to their luncheons.Some repaired to the basement lunch room, while others who could affordit patronized the nearby restaurants.
It was a pleasant surprise to Faith when Miss Jennings joined her in thelunch room. She had a paper bag in her hand, while Faith carried a smallbasket.
Almost instinctively the two girls drew away from the others. There wasa bond of sympathy between them that they could not account for.
"Do tell me your name," whispered Miss Jennings at once. "It does soundso 'shoppy' to be always saying 'packer.'"
She had opened her bag and taken out a cracker. It was evident thatthere was no time to be wasted in lunching.
"Call me Faith, if you will. I should like to have you so much! I thinkit will make me feel a little less strange," was the impulsive answer.
"I will if you'll call me Mary," replied Miss Jennings. "I've just beenlonging to talk to you all the morning, but there's no dodging MissFairbanks' eye; it's always upon you."
"Are we not supposed to speak at all?" asked Faith, who was forgettingto eat her luncheon.
"Oh, yes, we can speak, but not if there are customers waiting. But,tell me, how do you happen to be a packer? You are too old for that kindof work, and quite too clever, I'm sure," said Miss Jennings kindly.
Faith told her how difficult it had been to get any position at all, butshe did not dream of telling her how closely her name and work had beenconnected with the matter.
When she spoke of Mr. Forbes, Miss Jennings fairly shuddered.
"He's a terrible brute," she said in a nervous whisper. "And what do youthink, Faith; he's a Sunday-school teacher!"
"Oh no, it can't be!"
Faith caught her breath with a shiver.
"I mean, it doesn't seem possible," she added after a minute.
"Yes, he is," reiterated Miss Jennings soberly.
"I used to go to the same church. Now I don't go to any--I have no usefor religion!"
She started coughing, and this gave Faith an opportunity to recover fromthe shock. When the spasm was over she put her arms affectionately overMiss Jennings' shoulder.
"What has turned you against religion, dear?" she asked very softly. "Isit such men as Mr. Forbes, or just the bitterness from misfortune?"
"Both," said Miss Jennings stubbornly and with a little frown on herface.
"If God is good, why is there so much misery? If He is just, why are wesubjected to such terrible oppression, and if He is merciful, whydoesn't He hear us when we pray to Him to help us bear our burdens?"
There was a ring of defiance in Miss Jennings' tones. As Faith looked atthe pinched features her frame became almost convulsed with anguish.
"Oh, I wish I could answer all your questions, dear!" she cried softly,"and I can, I am sure, if you will just lay aside your bitterness! Youare holding black glasses to your own eyes, you poor child, but thelight will come; you must keep on praying for it!"
"There is no use, Faith. I've prayed until I'm tired. But don't mind me,dear. I'm what they call a pessimist. I look on the dark side ofeverything, I suppose; but listen, do you hear what that cash girl issaying?"
Faith shook her head. She had heard nothing but her companion's words.
"Jack Forbes is dying! I saw it in the paper. That's why the old bearisn't here to-day, I suppose! It will just serve him right! I'm not abit sorry!"
Cash girl Number 9 laughed shrilly as she finished her announcement, andin the remarks that followed Faith learned who Jack Forbes was, and thathe was a really fine fellow in spite of his gold-loving father.
In a second she understood also why Miss Jennings was still working. Nodoubt she would be discharged as soon as Mr. Forbes came back tobusiness.
She moved nearer to her companion as this thought flashed through hermind.
Just then a man stuck his head in the lunch room and looked around. Whenhe saw Faith he stared a minute, and then disappeared very suddenly.
"Hello! Wonder who Hardy is after?" cried one of the girls.
"Who was he?" asked Faith in a whisper of Miss Jennings. "I've seen himwatching me several times this morning."
Miss Jennings straightened up and looked at her a minute.
"He's one of the house detectives," she said slowly, "and you happen tobe a new girl. Don't bother about him, Faith. They are always watchingsome one."
"Couldn't hold their jobs if they didn't," chimed in a clerk who hadoverheard her.
"They have to arrest some one regularly about once in so often. I hopesome day they'll arrest the wrong person. It would cost old Denton apretty penny!"
Just then another clerk from the ribbon counter came up and joined them.
"Did you hear about that inspector coming here yesterday, girls? Well,it didn't do any good, for old Forbes fooled her completely! She didn'tget a peep at this room or a sniff at these odors. He means to poison usall to death with sewer gas before he's done with us, but perhaps itwill be just as pleasant a death as any other."
Faith Marvin looked up at the speaker with an expression of horror inher eyes.
"Do you mean to say that this place is really unhealthy, and that thefirm refuses to comply with the law on such matters?"
"I mean to say that Denton, Day & Co. comply with no law whatever excepttheir own sweet will, and that is to overwork, underpay and bulldozetheir employees and then kick them out at a minute's notice."
The girl spoke the words with apparent indifference. Only a long-drawnsigh at their conclusion showed the inmost feeling on the subject.
Faith sprang to her feet with flashing eyes.
"Then that accounts for the haggard faces of the girls whom I have seenthis morning! Oh, we must do something at once to alter theseconditions! Our employers are but men; they must have hearts in theirbosoms!"
"You don't know them, Faith."
It was Miss Jennings who spoke. She was trying her best to conqueranother fit of coughing.
"Our employers look upon us girls as so many machines, created for thesole purpose of filling their coffers, and it is this God whom yourespect who allows them to abuse us! to grind us into the dust becausewe are helpless!"
The ring of bitterness in her tones appalled all who heard her exceptFaith, who threw her arms about her tenderly as she answered:
"No, no, Mary! Don't say that! You are mistaken, dear! God is watchingover us all with the tenderest love, and from this whirlwind ofinjustice He will yet reap a harvest of good! I believe it! I know it,and I shall live to see it!"
For Gold or Soul? Page 4
