a Breed of Women by Fiona Kidman

could find some employment, however menial. To underrate Alice’s knowledge of the local scene was unrealistic, as she had been through job placement for her own children years before, not long after the war. They had proved no particular problem for her, because they were clever and diligent, and Alice and Ted, her late husband, had sunk the appropriate amounts of money into seeing that they were justly rewarded with a place in the academicsun. Alice thanked God (a very important figure in her life) that she’d never been placed in the position of some parents, and felt that it would break her up if she’d ever had to try and place a child of hers in Weyville. Of course as Harriet wasn’t hers, she felt a certain challenge in trying to find her a position, without the emotional trauma that would have attended the matter if Harriet had been her own child. Harriet discovered this by surreptitiously listening to equally surreptitious telephone calls, to people whom ‘Ted used to know’ and who might be able to help.
    Alice’s general view of Harriet seemed fairly depressing, and within a couple of days, despite the confidence that her appearance now engendered, Harriet felt herself slowly slipping. It had never occurred to her that she wasn’t good. Of course, she was going to be very good. Not good at anything specific, just good — the question of her ultimate goodness was never in doubt. But serious doubts were forming in her own mind, and she was beginning to see very little reason to challenge Alice’s view of her.
    To make matters more difficult, the previous year’s school leavers who had stayed on in Weyville already had the available jobs.
    Finally, when things were starting to seem fairly desperate, and Alice was going around with a distracted expression, the phone rang. The caller was a friend of hers who had gone back to work in a local department store when her children had left home. Elsie had rung to pass on a bit of gossip. Julie, who worked on the haberdashery counter, was having a baby. And she wasn’t married, either. An awful tragedy for her mother, but there you were, and now wasn’t that the end?
    Alice agreed, and they commiserated over Julie’s mother for some minutes. Then, with a gleam in her eye, Alice pounced.
    ‘Who is going to take Julie’s place?’ she asked.
    It seemed that Elsie hadn’t thought about that, and supposed that they could really get by without a replacement After all, Julie hadn’t done much work round the place, and now all she could think about was weddings. The little hussy was actually thinking about getting married in white, could you believe it?
    Within half an hour Alice and Harriet were being interviewed by the store manager. With considerable deference to Alice, whom Harriet guessed had probably been a very good customer for many years, he said he could really see no reason why Harriet shouldn’t start the following day. Mr Stubbs looked remarkably like his name,being short and thickset, with tufty gingery hair round his coarse-skinned face, yet with oddly tiny white soft hands. He blew his nose, mopped his face with a handkerchief and said that the sooner this other girl got on her way the better. Not that he could exactly sack her, but he wouldn’t encourage her to stay any longer than a week or so. It would not hurt her and Harriet to be on the counter together for the time being, either. Julie mightn’t be much use, but at least she knew where the buttons and hooks and eyes were and what size was kept in what drawer, and what with having her School Certificate and all, Harriet was certainly a better sort of girl than some they employed.
    Alice asked if it would be possible for Harriet to leave five minutes earlier on Thursday nights so that she could go to her typing class at night school.
    Mr Stubbs’ eyes narrowed. ‘Doesn’t Harriet intend to stay?’ he asked.
    ‘Oh, yes,’ Alice assured him hurriedly. ‘But Harriet could find it useful to