Every muscle of her body ached, and
her whole soul was hot with rebellion. She told herself passionately that
nothing in the world could induce her to come back; she was through with
factory work forever.
As she limped out into the yard, a totally vanquished little soldier on
the battle-field of industry, she spied Dan Lewis standing beside the
tall gas-pipe, evidently waiting for somebody. He probably had a
sweetheart among all these trooping girls; perhaps it was the pretty,
red-haired one named Gert. The thought, dropping suddenly into a
surcharged heart, brimmed it over, and Nance had to sweep her fingers
across her eyes to brush away the tears.
And then:
"I thought I'd missed you," said Dan, quite as a matter of course, as he
caught step with her and raised her umbrella.
Nance could have flung her tired arms about him and wept on his broad
shoulder for sheer gratitude. To be singled out, like that, before all
the girls on her first day, to have a beau, a big beau, pilot her through
the crowded streets and into Calvary Alley where all might see, was
sufficient to change the dullest sky to rose and lighten the heart of the
most discouraged.
On the way home they found little to say, but Nance's aching feet fairly
tripped beside those of her tall companion, and when they turned Slap
Jack's corner and Dan asked in his slow, deliberate way, "How do you
think you are going to like the factory?" Nance answered
enthusiastically, "Oh, I like it splendid!"
CHAPTER XIII
EIGHT TO SIX
Through that long, wet spring Nance did her ten hours a day, six days in
the week and on the seventh washed her clothes and mended them.
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