She went about her work from dawn to dark, and often entire days passed when she did not hear the sound of her own voice.

She was alone, a solitary, abandoned woman, lost in the lowest eddies of the great city's tide--the tide that always ebbs.
When Trina had been discharged from the hospital after the operation on her fingers, she found herself alone in the world, alone with her five thousand dollars.

The interest of this would support her, and yet allow her to save a little.
But for a time Trina had thought of giving up the fight altogether and of joining her family in the southern part of the State.

But even while she hesitated about this she received a long letter from her mother, an answer to one she herself had written just before the amputation of her right-hand fingers--the last letter she would ever be able to write.
Mrs.Sieppe's letter was one long lamentation; she had her own misfortunes to bewail as well as those of her daughter.

The carpet-cleaning and upholstery business had failed.