Then she caught it up into her arms, and hugging it closely to her neck and bosom, she buried her face against its little body. Mrs. Gerhardt saw that she was trembling. “Come now,” she said, coaxingly, “you mustn’t carry on so. She will be all right with me. I’ll take care of her. If you’re going to act this way, you’d better not try to go at all.” Jennie lifted her head, her blue eyes wet with tears, and handed the little one to her mother. “I can’t help it,” she said, half crying, half smiling. Quickly she kissed her mother and the children; then she hurried out. As she went down the street with George she looked back and bravely waved her hand. Mrs. Gerhardt responded, noticing how much more like a woman she looked. It had been necessary to invest some of her money in new clothes to wear on the train. She had selected a neat, ready-made suit of brown, which fitted her nicely. She wore the skirt of this with a white shirt-waist, and a sailor hat with a white veil wound around it in such fashion that it could be easily drawn over her face. As she went farther and farther away Mrs. Gerhardt followed her lovingly with her glance; and when she disappeared from view she said tenderly, through her own tears: “I’m glad she looked so nice, anyhow.” CHAPTER XIII Bass met Jennie at the depôt in Cleveland and talked hopefully of the prospects. “The first thing is to get work,” he began, while the jingling sounds and the changing odors which the city thrust upon her were confusing and almost benumbing her senses. “Get something to do. It doesn’t matter what, so long as you get something. If you don’t get more than three or four dollars a week, it will pay the rent. Then, with what George can earn, when he comes, and what Pop sends, we can get along all right. It’ll be better than being down in that hole,” he concluded. “Yes,” said Jennie, vaguely, her mind so hypnotized by the new display of life about her that she could not bring it forcibly to bear upon the topic under discussion. “I know what you mean. I’ll get something.” She was much older now, in understanding if not in years. The ordeal through which she had so recently passed had aroused in her a clearer conception of the responsibilities of life. Her mother was always in her mind, her mother and the children. In particular Martha and Veronica must have a better opportunity to do for themselves than she had had. They should be dressed better; they ought to be kept longer in school; they must have more companionship, more opportunity to broaden their lives.