“Now,” said a sharp, quick-mannered Jew, who was sitting at a roll-top desk near the windows, “have you even worked in any other store?”

“No, sir,” said Carrie.

“Oh, you haven’t,” he said, eyeing her keenly.

“No, sir,” she replied.

“Well, we prefer young women just now with some experience.  I guess we can’t use you.”

Carrie stood waiting a moment, hardly certain whether the interview had terminated.

“Don’t wait!” he exclaimed.  “Remember we are very busy here.”

Carrie began to move quickly to the door.

“Hold on,” he said, calling her back.  “Give me your name and address.  We want girls occasionally.”

When she had gotten safely into the street, she could scarcely restrain the tears.  It was not so much the particular rebuff which she had just experienced, but the whole abashing trend of the day.  She was tried and nervous.  She abandoned the though of appealing to the other department stores and now wandered on, feeling a certain safety and relief in mingling with the crowd.

In her indifferent wandering she turned into Jackson Street, nor far from the river, and was keeping her way along the south side of that imposing thoroughfare, when a piece of wrapping paper, written on with marking ink and tacked up on the door, attracted her attention.  It read, “Girls wanted wrappers & stitchers.  She hesitated a moment, then entered.

The firm of Speigelheim & Co, makers of boys’ caps, occupied one floor of the building, fifty feet in width and some eighty feet in depth.  It was a place rather dingily lighted, the darkest portions having incandescent lights, filled with machines and work benches.  At the latter labored quite a company of girls and some men.  The former were drabby-looking creatures, stained in face with oil and dust, clad in thin, shapeless, cotton dresses and shod with more or less worn shoes.  Many of them had their sleeves rolled up, revealing bare arms, and in some cases, owing to the heat, their dresses were open at the neck.  They were a fair type of nearly the lowest order of shop-girls-careless, slouchy, and more or less paid of from confinement.  They were not timid, however; were rich in curiosity, and strong in daring and slang.

Carrie looked about her, very much disturbed and quite sure that she did not want to work here.  Aside from making her uncomfortable by sidelong glances, no one paid her the least attention.  She waited until the whole department was aware of her presence.  Then some word was sent around, and a foreman, in an apron and shirt sleeves, the latter rolled up to his shoulders, approached.

“Do you want to see me?” he asked.

“Do you need any help?” said Carrie, already learning directness of address.

“Do you know how to stitch caps?” he returned.

“No, sir,” she replied.

“Have you ever had any experience at this kind of work?” he inquired.