Julia said nothing.  She mounted the steps and followed Miss Toland into the hall.

CHAPTER VI

The Alexander Toland Neighbourhood House, familiarly known by all who had anything to do with it as The Alexander, was small, as neighbourhood houses go, but exceptionally pretty and complete, and financially so well backed by a certain group of San Francisco’s society women as to be entirely free from the common trouble of its kind.  Miss Toland had built it, and had made it her personal business to interest some of her friends in its success, but she now found herself confronted by an unexpected problem:  it seemed impossible to get an experienced woman as resident worker with whom Miss Toland could live in peace.  The few women who had been qualified to try the position had all swiftly, quietly, and firmly resigned, with that pained reticence that marks the trained worker.  Miss Toland told her committees, with good-humoured tolerance, that Miss Smith or Mrs. Brown had been a splendid person, perfectly splendid, but unable to understand the peculiar conditions that made social work in San Francisco utterly—­and totally—­different from social work elsewhere.  Meanwhile, she did the best she could with volunteer workers, daily bewailing the fact that, without the trained worker, her girls’ clubs and classes, her boys’ and mothers’ clubs, had been difficult to start, and maintained but a languishing existence.  She was a sanguine woman, and filled with confidence in the eventual success of The Alexander, and with energy to push it toward a completely fruitful existence, but she herself was inexperienced, and Julia had chanced upon her in a thoroughly discouraged mood.

Julia’s first aid—­in climbing through a transom and opening a stubborn door—­being entirely successful, Miss Toland kept her to show her the little establishment, and was secretly soothed and pleased by the girl’s delight.

The front door opened into a wide square hall, furnished with neat Mission chairs and tables, and with a large brown rug.  There were two doors on each side, and a large double door at the back.  One door on the right led to a model kitchen, floored in bright blue-and-white linoleum, and with a shining stove, a shining dresser full of blue-and-white china, a tiled sink, a table, and two chairs.  The other right-hand door opened into a little committee room, where there were wall closets full of ginghams and boxes of buttons and braid, and more Mission furniture.  On the left each door opened into a bedroom, one occupied by Miss Toland and littered by her possessions, one empty and immaculate.  The two were joined by a shining little bath.  Julia looked at the white bed in the unoccupied room, the white bureau, the white chairs, the white dotted curtains at the windows, the dark-blue rugs on a painted floor, and a gasp of honest admiration broke from her.  Miss Toland gave her a quick approving glance, but said nothing.