"It's the first meeting since the fire," Rose said. "I wanted you there." I asked her what fire, and her eyes got big. "Didn't you know," she said, "about the fire in our factory? Didn't you know the doors were locked again, and five of us burned alive?" [Illustration: "Didn't you know about the fire in our factory?"] I hadn't known. That seemed to me so awful. There I was, fed and clothed and not worrying about rent, and here this thing had happened, and I nor none of us hadn't even heard of it. Miss Manners and Miss Spot didn't like us to read the newspapers too much. "It broke out in the pressroom," Rose said. "That girl that was feeding your old press--they never even found her." "Oh, Rose," I said. "Rose, Rose!" And when I could I asked her what it was that she had come wanting me to do. She made a little tired motion. "It ain't only the fire," she said. "Things have got worse with us. We've got three times the fines. Since they've stopped locking the doors, they make us be searched every night, and the new forewoman--she's fierce. And we can't get the girls interested. They say it ain't no use to try. We want to try to have one more meeting to show 'em there is some use. And we thought, mebbe--we knew you could make 'em see, Cosma. If you'd come and talk to 'em." "When would it be?" I asked her. "They've called the meeting for to-morrow night," she told me. "To-morrow!" I said. "Oh, Rose--no, then I can't. I'm going out of town to-night, for two days, up the Hudson...." I stopped. She got up and came to fasten my sash for me. "I thought mebbe you couldn't," she said; "but it was worth trying." "Have it next week," I said. "Have the meeting then." But they had postponed once--some one, Rose said, had "peached" to the forewoman. For to-morrow night the men had loaned them a hall. She bent to my sash. I could see her in my glass. I was ashamed. She told me what had come to the girls--marriage, promotion, disgrace. Two of them had disappeared. "I'm so sorry," I kept on saying. Then the maid came to tell me the motor was there. I put on my cloak with the fur and the bright lining. It had made me feel magnificent and happy. With Rose there, I felt all different. She slipped away and went out in the dark. The light was on in the limousine. Mr. Gerald came running up the steps for me. Antoinette was there already. I went down and got in. There was nothing else to do. The drive curved back around the dormitory, and so to the street again. As we came out on the roadway, we passed Rose, walking. I thought: "She's walking till the street-car comes." But I knew it was far more likely that she was walking all the way to her room.