Page:Magdalen by J S Machar.pdf/35

 While still young she allowed herself to be misled,—not from love or passion, but simply from curiosity. Then her father was discharged. They went to Prague. Here she became a governess to two children of a rich townsman. Her master was a man of the world, and her mistress pursued her at every step with groundless jealousy.

Her father took every penny from her, all the time complaining that it was too little Oh, that father! In all her life she had not heard one word of love from his lips. She held her mother in pious memory, and did not believe in the love of fathers. In three months that house was a veritable hell to her. She left. Her father found her a place as a saleswoman in a shop. A new hell. She did not manage to earn sufficient wages there. Her companions tormented her with biting remarks. Her employer scolded her with coarse words. She soon left the place.

Her father held a lengthy discourse with