speaking, then a loud, coarse laugh broke from Maggie Brady's lips. 

 "Oh, Lord! Hear her, girls! Hear the little preacher in petticoats! Isn't she eloquent, the pretty thing! Why, she ought to be a corporal in the Salvation Army!" 

 There was a roar of laughter at the rude girl's words, during which Miss Jennings caught Faith by the arm and half dragged her from the cloak-room. 

 "Come, Faith, let us go! This is no place for you. That girl is the most brazen hussy in the whole establishment, and that's saying a good deal, as you'll find out later!" 

 They hurried out into the street as quickly as possible. Faith was almost crying with indignation when they reached the sidewalk. 

 "Now, brace up, dear; it's all over for to-day," said Miss Jennings. "You'll soon get used to it; that's exactly what every one of us have had to go through with, but the girls are not all like Mag; there are lots of nice ones. She wasn't so bad, either, until Jim Denton noticed her." 

 "Is he her sweetheart?" asked Faith as soon as she could control her voice. "I heard them talking together and I am sure she loves him." 

 Miss Jennings gave vent to one of her harshest laughs. 

 "Jim Denton is a wicked young man," she said very slowly. "He cares no more for Maggie than he does for lots of the others, but she's such a fool she can't see it, and that shows, of course, that she's pretty badly gone on him." 

 "You mean that she loves him?" questioned Faith, who was not very familiar with shop-girl slang. 

 "Well, you can't call it love, exactly," explained Miss Jennings, "but it's the best she's got. She thinks she loves him." 

 The girls had walked a couple of blocks and were waiting for a car. They were glad to find that they lived near each other. The same street car would land them a short distance from their homes, which were modest flats in the cheapest portion of Harlem. 

 As they hailed the car, Faith's quick eye caught a glimpse of a man who seemed to be following them. 

 As he sprang on the rear platform of the car she called her companion's attention to him. 

 "It's Bob Hardy, one of our detectives," said Miss Jennings, wonderingly. "Why, he lives in Jersey. He 

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