Page 35 - 1913 November - To Dragma

40 TO DRAG MA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

practically spent her childhood. She could go there and escape from
the swarm of children and the poverty of her home surroundings.
She read ravenously. Fiction, Philosophy, travel, history,—she grew
acquainted with them all.

When she reached the wage-earning age she was not strong enough
for mill work, yet her public school education had fitted her for
nothing else.

Her foster family moved to the West thus throwing her on her
own resources. She had come to Boston and had managed to pick
up a scanty living doing first one kind of unskilled work and then
another.

About a year before, Madame had found her i n a labor agency.
Before long she realized what a treasure was hers, so Cimbria had
been taught the business and Madame had twice raised her wages.

The patrons of the establishment liked her because she was so
gentle, so silent,—and some of them, because she was so pretty.

In turn the work was attractive to her because it brought her :n
contact with people of refinement and the houses to which she went
satisfied her genuine love of artistic surroundings.

The pile of finished pieces beside her chair was the largest, Sophy
having the least of all. Gretchen, the practical, noticed the differ-
ence and commented upon it, remarking that Sophy would probably
have to pay a fine.

"Yes, hang her, of course I shall! And my last week's washing not
paid for yet." grumbled Sophy.

Cimbria, whose chair was opposite, gathered up a handful of her
work and transferred it to Sophy's place, waving aside her torrent of
thanks with a smile.

"Well, say, Cim, will you go to the Castle Square with me tonight
and see Ben Hur? I've got two tickets," she pleaded.

"Yes, and thank you," replied Cimbria.

The door from the shop opened at that moment to admit the head
and shoulders of Billy,

" H i ! girls," he wispered loudly. "We're getting inspected by the
Board of Health. You just ought to see the smooth guy out here
puting up the questions to Madame. I've got the mumps on one side,
suppose I lose me job?"

His sudden disappearance was accounted for by the entrance of
Madame Angelo. Her appearance checked the laughter of the girls
over what they considered Billy's joke.

She was white under her powder, and her chin trembled when she
spoke.