Sebastian's wages had been spent for medicine.
Only coal was free for the picking, and several times the children had been scared from the railroad yards.
Mrs. Gerhardt thought of all the places to which she might apply, and despairingly hit upon the hotel.
Now, by a miracle, she had her chance.
"How much do you charge?" the housekeeper asked her.
Mrs. Gerhardt had not thought this would be left to her, but need emboldened her.
"Would a dollar a day be too much?"
"No," said the housekeeper; "there is only about three days' work to do every week.
If you would come every afternoon you could do it."
"Very well," said the applicant.
"Shall we start to-day?"
"Yes; if you'll come with me now I'll show you where the cleaning things are."
The hotel, into which they were thus summarily introduced, was a rather remarkable specimen for the time and place.
Columbus, being the State capital, and having a population of fifty thousand and a fair passenger traffic, was a good field for the hotel business, and the opportunity had been improved; so at least the Columbus people proudly thought.
The structure, five stories in height, and of imposing proportions, stood at one corner of the central public square, where were the Capitol building and principal stores.
The lobby was large and had been recently redecorated.
Both floor and wainscot were of white marble, kept shiny by frequent polishing.
There was an imposing staircase with hand-rails of walnut and toe-strips of brass.
An inviting corner was devoted to a news and cigar-stand.
Where the staircase curved upward the clerk's desk and offices had been located, all done in hardwood and ornamented by novel gas-fixtures.
One could see through a door at one end of the lobby to the barbershop, with its chairs and array of shaving-mugs.
Outside were usually two or three buses, arriving or departing, in accordance with the movement of the trains.
To this caravanserai came the best of the political and social patronage of the State.
Several Governors had made it their permanent abiding place during their terms of office.
The two United States Senators, whenever business called them to Columbus, invariably maintained parlor chambers at the hotel.
One of them, Senator Brander, was looked upon by the proprietor as more or less of a permanent guest, because he was not only a resident of the city, but an otherwise homeless bachelor.
Other and more transient guests included Congressmen, State legislators and lobbyists, merchants, professional men, and, after them, the whole raft of indescribables who, coming and going, make up the glow and stir of this kaleidoscopic world.
Mother and daughter, suddenly flung into this realm of superior brightness, felt immeasurably overawed.
They went about too timid to touch anything for fear of giving offense.
The great red-carpeted hallway, which they were set to sweep, had for them all the magnificence of a palace; they kept their eyes down and spoke in their lowest tones.
When it came to scrubbing the steps and polishing the brass-work of the splendid stairs both needed to steel themselves, the mother against her timidity, the daughter against the shame at so public an exposure.
Wide beneath lay the imposing lobby, and men, lounging, smoking, passing constantly in and out, could see them both.
"Isn't it fine?" whispered Genevieve, and started nervously at the sound of her own voice.
"Yes," returned her mother, who, upon her knees, was wringing out her cloth with earnest but clumsy hands.
"It must cost a good deal to live here, don't you think?"
"Yes," said her mother.
"Don't forget to rub into these little corners. Look here what you've left."
Jennie, mortified by this correction, fell earnestly to her task, and polished vigorously, without again daring to lift her eyes.
With painstaking diligence they worked downward until about five o'clock; it was dark outside, and all the lobby was brightly lighted.
Now they were very near the bottom of the stairway.
Through the big swinging doors there entered from the chilly world without a tall, distinguished, middle-aged gentleman, whose silk hat and loose military cape-coat marked him at once, among the crowd of general idlers, as some one of importance.
His face was of a dark and solemn cast, but broad and sympathetic in its lines, and his bright eyes were heavily shaded with thick, bushy, black eyebrows.
Passing to the desk he picked up the key that had already been laid out for him, and coming to the staircase, started up.
The middle-aged woman, scrubbing at his feet, he acknowledged not only by walking around her, but by graciously waving his hand, as much as to say,
"Don't move for me."
The daughter, however, caught his eye by standing up, her troubled glance showing that she feared she was in his way.
He bowed and smiled pleasantly.
"You shouldn't have troubled yourself," he said.
Jennie only smiled.
When he had reached the upper landing an impulsive sidewise glance assured him, more clearly than before, of her uncommonly prepossessing appearance.