“She probably couldn’t help it,” was the hesitating answer.  “Perhaps she is a kleptomaniac—­you know there are such people.”

“Oh, but they are always rich people, who can afford to pay the judge for letting them off easy!” said one of the girls, laughing.  “When a poor woman steals she’s an out-and-out thief; but when a rich woman steals she’s a kleptomaniac.”

A laugh followed this explanation, but Faith could not join in it.  Her thoughts were too full of the fate which had overtaken Lou, and which she knew was only a natural consequence.

Suddenly there was a scream from the direction of Mr. Denton’s office, then another, and another, each more shrill and vibrating.

Without a moment’s hesitation every girl in the cloak-room started for the stairs.  When they got there they saw a sight that made them pale with horror.

Lou Willis was struggling like a maniac between two officers, who were trying to snap a pair of handcuffs on her wrists.

They were both powerful men, but the girl was resisting them fiercely.  She slapped and scratched their faces, all the time shrieking her vituperations.

They finally succeeded in locking the “bracelets” and forcing her into a chair—­she was too thoroughly exhausted to hold out much longer.

“Do you mean to say that she isn’t crazy?” whispered one of the girls on the stairs.

The tears flowed down Faith’s cheeks, but she answered the whisper.

“Poor Lou!  Poor Lou!  She must be crazy!  No woman could act or even feel like that and be in her right senses!”

The door of the office was suddenly closed, and, as Lou was silent now, the girls trooped slowly back to the cloak-room.

“They’ll take her away as soon as she’s quiet,” said one, “and that will mean at least six months on Blackwell’s Island.”

“She’s been there before, I think,” spoke up a cash girl.  “You know, she was caught stealing in another store, but Denton, Day & Co. didn’t know it.”

“Did you know it when she came here?”

It was Miss Jones who asked the question.  She had come in just in time to hear the last of the conversation.

“Of course I knew it, but what of that?  Suppose I was going to prevent the girl from earning her living?”

“But didn’t you think she’d be apt to steal again?”

The girl laughed coarsely before she answered.

“Well, to tell you the truth, I hoped she would!” she said, glibly.  “I would like to have seen her get away with the whole establishment!  What were Denton, Day & Co. doing about that time, I’d like to know?  Weren’t they robbing the poor devils who made their goods, cheating their customers with inferior garments and exorbitant prices, and last, but not least, weren’t they wearing the souls out of our bodies with the system of slavery that they employed in the building?  What did I care who cheated them or even who robbed them?  Wouldn’t they grind me to death just as they did poor Miss Jennings?  Of course, if it should happen now I should feel very different; still, I’m a good deal sorrier for Lou than I am for Mr. Denton!”