"There are times when one has to be honest no matter what happens," she thought rebelliously, while she went back to the workroom.

Had Madame discharged her on the spot she would not have been surprised, and it was with a sensation of relief that she presently saw the forewoman measuring a dose of aromatic spirits of ammonia, and heard that the crisis was passing.

A little later, when she went into the showroom with a hat for Miss Bellman, she encountered Madame bonneted, cloaked, panting, with moist eyes and raddled cheeks, preparing to take a slow airing in a hansom.

As she was assisted into the vehicle by Miss Murphy and the driver, Madame pressed her beringed hand to her forehead with a despairing gesture; then the driver cracked his whip, the horse started, and the hansom disappeared up Fifth Avenue.
"What under the sun did you do to her ?" inquired Miss Murphy, holding her wheaten-red pompadour down in the wind.

"I declare I thought at first it was murder!" "I told her the truth, when she asked me, that was all." "Well, I never! Now what, in the name of goodness, possessed you ?" "I had to.