Ester Ried's Namesake by Pansy
A Christian Fiction
As Esther exchanged her street dress for one that did duty in the kitchen there was a cloud on her face; she could not get away from the contrasts. The girls were at home by this time; they had a suite of rooms in one of the most expensive boarding-houses in the city. When Esther felt especially lugubrious, she dwelt on the fact that these rooms were luxuriously furnished and included even a private bath. It was sometimes difficult not to contrast them with the very straitened quarters and meagre accommodations for which she gave daily service. When she was gay, she seized her brokennosed pitcher, and as she dashed down two flights of stairs to the kitchen hydrant to fill it, told herself that she was going to her private bath! But when she was not gay, she hated even these trivial evidences of her cramped life, and could not help telling herself that the good things of this world were very unevenly divided.
