Salome went directly to the address given in the advertisement; but as she reached the elegant residence and mounted the massive granite steps, she met several other persons coming out. Instinctively she knew that they had come upon the same errand that had brought her there, while she felt assured that they had not been successful, for they all passed out with downcast faces and averted eyes. She was half tempted to turn back. But she never liked to give up anything that she had once undertaken, and resolved that she would go in and apply for the situation, whether she accepted it or not. She rang the bell, and the door was opened by a pleasant-looking woman of perhaps thirty years, who smilingly returned Salome’s polite good-morning. “I have called to make some inquiries regarding this advertisement,” Salome courteously remarked, as she presented the slip which she had cut from the paper. The girl glanced half-pityingly into the fair applicant’s face, then said: “Come in then, miss, and wait in the hall while I go to see if Miss Leonard will receive you. There has been a constant stream of people here all the morning, but no one has suited, and the mistress is nervous and worried.” Salome smiled assent, but she had very little hope that she would be successful as she went in and sat down in one of the great chairs of the hall, while the girl went upstairs to her mistress. She soon returned, and said: “You can go up, miss, but you won’t find my lady very gracious. Never you mind, though,” she added in a lower tone, and with a friendly glance; “you just hold your own, and she’ll like you all the better for it.” Salome was somewhat surprised by this advice, but she made no reply as she followed the servant up the lofty flight of stairs, and paused at the door of a large front room. Salome entered, and found herself in the presence of a woman of about fifty years—a woman having sharp features, and sharper eyes which seemed to look her through and take her measure in an instant. Her face was sallow and wrinkled, and somewhat sullen in expression; her hair was a mixture of gray and black, and her eyes were intensely dark and sharp. “And still they come!” she snapped, as Salome went forward and saluted her respectfully. “I suppose you expect to jump right into the situation, don’t you?” “I cannot say that I came with that expectation, madam,” Salome answered pleasantly, and meeting her keen glance with one of charming frankness; “but I did come with the hope that we should be pleased with each other.” “‘Pleased with each other!’ Well, now, that sounds finely, doesn’t it?” retorted her companion, with a short laugh that was followed by a peculiar chuckle. “So if I do not suit you, you did not intend to honor me with your service, eh?”