"Soap department."
I went along the main railing, inquiring for the soap department, and
a sharp-eyed youth (in the pickled snouts department) with a pencil on
his ear, undertook to take me to O'Brien.
As I passed along with him, I found myself the attacked of many eyes. A
new girl is always an object of interest and speculation in the yards.
I tried to look unconcerned and unaware, an impossibility, especially
as some of the clerks coughed as I went by, some grinned at me, one
winked, and one softly whistled. I felt ashamed and silly, and a fierce
sort of pity for myself that I should have to go through this.
"Lady for you, Fred," at last sang out my escort as we approached an
inclosure, and then smiling, he opened a little gate, and half pushed,
half led, me in.
I found myself at the elbow of a long, lanky young man who was doubled
over in such a position that his spine looked humped up in the middle.
He had a large box before him, in which were a lot of pieces of soap,
and he kept picking up pieces and examining them, sometimes smelling
them. There was one other person in the inclosure, or department, and
he was a very red-haired, freckle-faced boy of about twelve.
For some time the long, lanky young man did not even look up, but
continued to examine the soap. I was beginning to think he was ignorant
of my presence at his elbow when he said, without taking his nose out
of the box, and shifting his unlighted cigar from one side of his mouth
to the other, in a snarling sort of voice, like the inquiring bark of
a surly dog:
"Wa-al, what d' yer want?"
"A position as stenographer," I answered promptly.
He straightened up in his seat at that, and took a look at me. His
cheek-bones were high and lumpy; he had a rather pasty-colored skin,
sharp-glancing eyes, and a humorous mouth. It was a homely face,
yet, curiously enough, not unattractive, and there was something
straightforward about it. He wore his hat on the back of his head, and
he did not remove it in honor of me. After scrutinizing me in one quick
glance, in which I felt he had taken in all my weaknesses and defects,
he said in a less-snarling tone:
"Sit down."