However, as with Marta, this had represented payment from the company for
length of service, and not an advance to more skilled or responsible
labor with more outlook. In Mrs. Hallett's case this was partly because
the next step would have been to become a clerk in one of the company's
retail stores, and she was not strong enough to endure the all-day
standing which this would require. Mrs. Hallett liked this company. The
foreman was considerate, and a week's vacation with pay was given to the
employees.
Mrs. Hallett lived in an excessively small, unheated hall bedroom, on the
fourth floor of an enormous old house filled with the clatter of the
elevated railroad. On the night of the inquirer's call, she was
pathetically concerned lest her visitor should catch cold because "she
wasn't used to it." She lighted a small candle to show her the room,
furnished with one straight hard chair, a cot, and a wash-stand with a
broken pitcher, but with barely space besides for Mrs. Clark and her
kind, public-spirited little hostess. They sat, drowned at times in the
noise of the elevated, in almost complete darkness, as Mrs. Hallett
insisted on making a vain effort to extract some heat for her guest from
the single gas-jet, by attaching to it an extremely small gas-stove.
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