answered the girl, in a loud voice, without one change in her peculiarly matured face.
I followed these not overkind or polite instructions and
found myself in a dark, uncomfortable back-parlor.
There I awaited the arrival of my hostess, I had been 
AT THE TEMPORARY HOME FOR WOMEN. seated some twenty minutes at the least, when a slender
woman, clad in a plain, dark dress entered and, stopping
before me, ejaculated inquiringly, “Well?”
“Are you the matron?” I asked.
“No,” she replied, “the matron is sick; I am her assistant. What do you want?”
“I want to stay here for a few days, if you can accommodate me.”
“Well, I have no single rooms, we are so crowded; but if you will occupy a room with another girl, I shall do that much for you.”
“I shall be glad of that,” I answered. “How much
