able to get her piece work then. She felt somehow deflated by the knowledge that she wasn't the one to help.
"I didn't mean to interrupt. I just came to tell you how sorry I am that I've caused you so much trouble."
The girl at the table looked up without interest. Her eyes were red from weeping, or perhaps just from lack of sleep. Her gaze took in Georgina's expensive clothes and turned back to her work. "You think too high of yourself if you think you're the cause."
This really was one straw too many. She had been ignored, insulted, yelled at, and threatened for trying to help people like this ungrateful wretch, and Georgina was tired of taking the blame for everyone else's troubles. The only signal of her rising temper was a slight tightening of her lips.
"And you think too highly of yourself if you think you're the only one who suffers."
The girl looked up. Her brownish-blond hair could use a good washing, but its lack of luster had as much to do with improper nourishment as lack of soap. Her face was unblemished and clean, but the color was sallow and her eyes dull. "I don't think of myself at all. What's the point?"
That struck Georgina more forcefully than anything else she could have said. It made her see the utter hopelessness of her surroundings. They would never have anything. Every day would be a struggle for survival. One blow to their precarious existence would turn them all out in the streets and leave them to starve. Where was the fun and excitement a child should be allowed to expect upon occasion? It was more than obvious the girl before her was little more than a child, but already she carried the burdens of a much older adult.
The grandmotherly woman produced a steaming cup of tea and set it on the table. "Sit. Drink. Don't listen to her. It is fine here. Much better than the old country. We will find her a good man, and she will be all smiles."
Audrey made no comment, and Georgina thought she had some understanding of how the other girl felt. Maybe she ought to offer her Peter as a choice of husbands. No doubt Audrey would be a good deal more excited than Georgina at the prospect.
"Good men are rather rare," she offered tentatively.
That brought a response from Audrey, a gleam of agreement, a flicker of something that hadn't been there earlier. She stabbed the vest more forcefully.
"In the meantime, I'm doing my best to persuade Mr. Mulloney that the newspaper article had nothing to do with you. Men tend to be unreasonable when they are angry, but he'll calm down in a day or two. I'll try again then. I'm sure he'll understand that you had nothing to do with any of it."
Georgina rather thought it was anger flushing the girl's cheeks, but she still didn't speak. Georgina supposed she would have difficulty expressing gratitude or anything at all pleasant under the circumstances, too. She sipped her tea and wondered if there was anything else she could say, but the girl's depression was contagious. She had never felt this dismal in her life.
The front door suddenly burst open, and the sound of a sob brought all of them to their feet. Before Georgina could do anything, Janice stood in the kitchen doorway, her face a tear-stained mask of grief and fury as she recognized the intruder.
"Get out!" she commanded, pointing at the door behind her. "I don't have to put up with the likes of you ever again."
"Now, Janice, the nice lady came to help." The old woman offered a placating hand to both women.
"The nice lady's father just fired me and told me I'd never find work in this town again. The nice lady can get her fancy gear out of here." Janice wiped at her face with the back of her hand, then crossed her arms determinedly across her chest.
"That isn't possible," Georgina stuttered, edging toward the door. "He hasn't been himself lately. I'll talk to him. It must be a misunderstanding."
"Do you think I'm too dumb to know when I've been fired? Get out, Miss Hanover, and don't ever come back. It's you and your kind that causes trouble. We don't need your empty promises."
Georgina didn't know what to say. She had accomplished nothing but trouble from the start, and she knew it. She had meant to help, but intentions weren't enough. Biting her lip, she turned