I never dreamed before how men could treat women seeking
honorable employment. Scarcely a courteous word greeted me. Refusal
was blunt, imperative, or else, in those cases where vague
encouragement was given, it was so worded as to cause my withdrawal in
shame. If I had been skilled in any business line my reception might
have been different; if I possessed recommendations, or could have
frankly confessed the truth, perhaps I might have been given a chance.
But as it was everywhere, suspicion was aroused by my reticence, my
inability to explain, and the interview ended in curt dismissal, or
suggestive innuendo."
She paused again, her bosom rising and falling, her cheeks flushed.
"Go on," I said, encouragingly. "Do not fear I shall misunderstand. I
have been through the same mill."
She gave me a quick glance of gratitude, pressing back a straggling
strand of hair.
"But you were not a woman," she insisted, "and could defend yourself
from insult. I endeavored so hard to discover some opening; I even
sought domestic service, and was examined as though I was a horse on
sale. I walked the streets; I refused to despair, or permit myself to
believe failure possible. I went home at night, tired out, to a little
rented room in Forty-Ninth Street, prayed as I used to when a child,
cried myself to sleep, only to wake up the next morning determined to
continue.
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