And when I received
my first wages--the first money I had ever earned by the work of
my hands--it seemed as if it were the first money I had ever
earned honestly
By little and little I got used to my work and even to enjoy its
processes.
Moreover, the thinking and the dreaming I usually indulged in
while plying my machine became a great pleasure to me. It
seemed as though one's mind could not produce such interesting
thoughts or images unless it had the rhythmic whir of a
sewing-machine to stimulate it
I now ate well and slept well. I was in the best of health and in the
best of spirits. I was in an uplifted state of mind. No one seemed
to be honorable who did not earn his bread in the sweat of his
brow as I did. Had I then chanced to hear a Socialist speech I
might have become an ardent follower of Karl Marx and my life
might have been directed along lines other than those which
brought me to financial power
The girls in the shop, individually, scarcely interested me, but their
collective presence was something of which I never seemed to be
quite unconscious.
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