Not a glimmer of a smile crossed the questioner's face. Peggy drew a long breath. She had rehearsed it too often to be at a loss. "Please 'm, I can scrub floors, and clean grates, and make beds, and clean winders, and sweep and dust, and mind babies, and cook 'taties and tripe, and mutton chops, and steak, and red herrings, and make tea and gruel, and hot drinks of gin and water, and nurse cripples, and run messages, and wash clothes, and—" "That will do. Your name?" "Margaret Perkins, please 'm." "Your age?" "Thirteen 'm." Another grave-faced woman came forward. "There's a lady waiting for a girl," she said, in a murmur. "She doesn't mind training them, she says. Shall I let her see her?" Peggy's checks got crimson with excitement. When she was ushered into a little back room, and was confronted by a tall melancholy woman in black, she felt that this was a crisis in her life. "Is this a respectable girl, Miss Shipley?" Peggy did not give Miss Shipley time to speak. "I'm quite respectable," she said. "I'm goin' to service because my aunt has died. Lots o' people know me." The lady looked at her gloomily. "You look very small," she said. "Are you strong?" "I'm quite strong, please 'm, and, please 'm, have you an ill 'usband? That's the place I'm lookin' for. To wait on a lady with an ill 'usband. But I can mind your babies for yer. I'm first-rate with babies, so long as there's only one in arms." Miss Shipley turned sharply away. The lady frowned ferociously upon Peggy. "I am a single lady," she said, "and want a clean honest respectable girl, who does her work, and keeps a quiet tongue in her head." Peggy was not a whit abashed. "I don't talk if I'm not wanted to," she said; "only, please 'm, what kind of 'ouse do yer live in? Has it a garding? And is there carpets on the front stairs? I'm lookin' for a real nice place." "Miss Shipley!" called the lady sharply. "This girl will be no use to me; she is either most impertinent or half-witted." Peggy was bustled out, wholly unconscious that she was in fault. Miss Shipley enlightened her. "If you wish to get a place," she said, "you must be quiet and respectful in your manners. If you sit down a bit, we may have other ladies in." Peggy took a seat in silence. She saw a good deal of coming and going, was interviewed herself by a publican's wife, a grocer's, and a young bride just married to a plumber and gasfitter, but she calmly declined each of these situations, asserting gravely— "I means to live in a proper house, in a real good place." Then the Miss Shipleys lost patience with her. "You tell us you have had no experience, and have never been out before. You ought to be thankful to any one for being willing to take you and train you. You bring us no references, and yet expect to get a first class place. It is quite ridiculous. You are really too small and young to be in service at all."