At one o'clock they separated, the dentist returning to the "Parlors," Trina settling to her work on the Noah's ark animals.

At about three o'clock she put this work away, and for the rest of the afternoon was variously occupied--sometimes it was the mending, sometimes the wash, sometimes new curtains to be put up, or a bit of carpet to be tacked down, or a letter to be written, or a visit--generally to Miss Baker--to be returned.

Towards five o'clock the old woman whom they had hired for that purpose came to cook supper, for even Trina was not equal to the task of preparing three meals a day.
This woman was French, and was known to the flat as Augustine, no one taking enough interest in her to inquire for her last name; all that was known of her was that she was a decayed French laundress, miserably poor, her trade long since ruined by Chinese competition.

Augustine cooked well, but she was otherwise undesirable, and Trina lost patience with her at every moment.

The old French woman's most marked characteristic was her timidity.