Her salary just about paid her board, with a dollar or two left over for headache tablets and a vaudeville show now and then.

She did not need much spending money, for her evenings were spent mostly in crying over certain small garments and a canton-flannel dog called "Wooh-wooh." For three months she stayed, too apathetic to seek a better position.
Then the dentist's creditors became suddenly impatient, and the dentist could not pay his office rent, much less his office girl.

Wherefore Marie found herself looking for work again, just when spring was opening all the fruit blossoms and merchants were smilingly telling one another that business was picking up.
Weinstock-Lubin's big department store gave her desk space in the mail-order department.

Marie's duty it was to open the mail, check up the orders, and see that enough money was sent, and start the wheels moving to fill each order--to the satisfaction of the customer if possible.
At first the work worried her a little.

But she became accustomed to it, and settled into the routine of passing the orders along the proper channels with as little individual thought given to each one as was compatible with efficiency.