" Where did you come from?” he inquired.

" Mr. Brown hired me,” she replied.

" Oh, he did, eh!” and then, " She that you keep things going.”

The machine girls impressed her even less favorably.  They seemed satisfied with their lot, and were in a sense " common.”  Carrie had more imagination than they She was not used to slang.  Her instinct in the matter of dress was naturally better.  She disliked to listen to the girl next to her, who was rather hardened by experience.

" I’m going to quit this,” she heard her remark to her neighbor. " What with the stipend and being up late, it’s too much for me health.”

They were free with the follows, young and old, about the place, and exchanged banter in rude phrases, which at first shocked her.  She saw that she was taken to be of the same sort and addressed accordingly.

" Hello,” remarked one of the stout-wristed sole-workers to her at noon. " You’re a daisy.”  He really expected to hear the common " Aw! go chase yourself!” in return, and was sufficiently abashed, by Carrie’s silently moving away, to retreat, awkwardly grinning.

That night at the flat she was even more lonely-the dull situation was becoming harder to endure.  She could see that the Hassons seldom or never had any company.  Standing at the street door looking out, she ventured to walk out a little way.  Her easy gait and idle manner attracted attention of an offensive but common sort.  She was slightly taken back at the overtures of a well-dressed man of thirty, who in passing looked at her, reduced his pace, turned back, and said: 

" Out for a little stroll, are you, this evening?”

Carrie looked at him in amazement, and then summoned sufficient thoughts to reply:  " Why, I don’t know you,” backing away as she did so.

" Oh, that don’t matter,” said the other affably.

She bandied no more words with him, but hurried away, reaching her own door quite out of breath.  There was something in the man’s look which frightened her.

During the remainder of the week it was very much the same.  One or two nights she found herself too tried to walk home, and expended car fare.  She was not very strong, and sitting all day affected her back.  She went to bed one night before Hanson.

Transplantation is not always successful in the matter of flowers or maidens.  It requires sometimes a richer soil, a better atmosphere to continue even a natural growth.  It would have been better if her acclimatization had been more gradual-less rigid.  She would have done better if she had not secured a position so quickly, and had seen more of the city which she constantly troubled to know about.

On the first morning it rained she found that she no umbrella.  Minnie loaned her one of hers, which was worn and faded.  There was the kind of vanity in Carrie that troubled at this.  She went to one of the great department stores and bought herself one, using a dollar and a quarter of her small store to pay for it.