life was again in motion; its action, however, was feeble, as even his oppressors could see. Self-interest, and fear of consequences, if not humanity, prompted more consideration for the boy, and secured for him a few days respite. After that, the oppressed and his oppressors assumed their old relations.
CHAPTER IX.
LIZZY GLENN FINDS IN MRS. GASTON AN OLD FRIEND.
“I DON’T think I’ve seen any thing of Lizzy Glenn for a week,” remarked Berlaps to his man Michael one day during the latter part of December. “Has she any thing out?”
“Yes. She has four of our finest shirts.”
“How long since she took them away?”
“It’s over a week—nearly ten days.”
“Indeed! Then she ought to be looked after. It certainly hasn’t taken her all this time to make four shirts.”
“Well, I don’t know. She gets along, somehow, poorly enough,” replied Michael. “She’s often been a whole week making four of them.”
While this conversation was going on, the subject of it entered. She came in with a slow, feeble step, and leaned against the counter as she laid down the bundle of work she had brought with her. Her half-withdrawn vail showed her face to be very pale, and her eyes much sunken. A deep, jarring cough convulsed her frame for a moment or two, causing her to place her hand almost involuntarily upon her breast, as if she suffered pain there.
“It’s a good while since you took these shirts out, Lizzy,” said Berlaps, in a tone meant to reprove her for the slowness with which she worked.
“Yes, it is,” she replied, in a low, sad tone. “I can’t get along very fast. I have a constant pain in my side. And there are other reasons.”
The last sentence was spoken only half aloud, but sufficiently distinct for Berlaps to hear it.
“I don’t expect my workwomen,” he said a little sharply, “to have any reasons for not finishing my work in good season, and bringing it in promptly. Ten days to four shirts is unpardonable. You can’t earn your salt at that.”
The young woman made no reply to this, but stood with her eyes drooping to the floor, and her hands leaning hard upon the counter to support herself.
Berlaps then commenced examining the shirts. The result of this examination seemed to soften him a little. No wonder; they were made fully equal to those for which regular shirt-makers receive from seventy-five cents to a dollar a piece.
“Don’t you think you can make five such as these in a week—or even six?” he asked, in a somewhat changed tone.
“I’m afraid not,” was the reply. “There’s a good day’s work on each one of them, and I cannot possibly sit longer than a few hours at a time. And, besides, there are two or three hours of every day that I must attend to other duties.”
“Well, if you can’t I suppose you can’t,” said the tailor, in a disappointed, half-offended tone, and turned away from the counter and walked back to his desk, from which he called out to his salesman, after he had stood there for about a minute—
“Pay her for them, Michael, and if you have any more ready give her another lot.”
Since the sharp rebuke given by Mr. Perkins, Michael had treated Lizzy with less vulgar assurance. Sometimes he would endeavor to sport a light word with her, but she never replied, nor seemed to notice his freedom in the least. This uniform, dignified reserve, so different from the demeanor of most of the girls who worked for them, coupled with the manner of Perkins’s interference for her, inspired in his mind a feeling of respect for the stranger, which became her protection from his impertinences. On this occasion, he merely asked her how many she would have, and on receiving her answer, handed her the number of shirts she desired.
As she turned to go out, Mrs. Gaston, who had just entered, stood near, with her eyes fixed upon her. She started as she looked into her face. Indeed, both looked surprised, excited, then confused, and let their eyes fall to the floor. They seemed for a moment to have identified each other, and then to have become instantly conscious that they were nothing but strangers—that such an identification was impossible. An audible sigh escaped Lizzy Glenn, as she passed slowly out and left the store. As she reached the pavement, she turned and looked back at Mrs. Gaston. Their eyes again met for an instant.
“Who is that young woman?” asked Mrs. Gaston.
“Her name is Lizzy Glenn,” replied Michael.
“Do you know any thing about her?”
“Nothing—only that she’s a proud, stiff kind of a creature; though what she has to be proud of, is more than I can tell.”
“How long has she been working for you?”
“A couple of months or so, if I recollect rightly.”
“Where does she live?” was Mrs. Gaston’s next question.
“Michael gave her the direction, and then their intercourse had entire reference to business.”
After the subject of this brief conversation between Mrs. Gaston and Michael left the store of Mr. Berlaps, she walked slowly in the direction of her temporary home, which was, as has before been mentioned, in an obscure street at the north end. It consisted of a small room, in an old brick house, which had been made by running a rough partition through the centre of the front room in the second story, and then intersecting this partition on one side by another partition, so as to make three small rooms out of one large one. These partitions did not reach more than two-thirds of the distance to the ceiling, thus leaving a free circulation of air in the upper and unobstructed portion of the room. As the house stood upon a corner, and contained windows both in front and on the end, each room had a window. The whole were heated by one large stove. For the little room that Lizzy Glenn occupied including fire, she paid seventy-five cents a week. But, as the house was old, the windows open, and the room that had been cut up into smaller ones a large one; and, moreover, as the person who let them and supplied fuel for the stove took good care to see that an undue quantity of this fuel was not burned she rarely found the
