Carnegie's Maid

On Clara’s way home from Slab Town, she stops at a Catholic church and sees “Missing” posters for Irish immigrants who never arrived or disappeared after landing in America. Although she is overwhelmed with despair by the fate of her countryfolk, Clara gets an inspiration. She thinks that internal change might further her aims better than external efforts. When she arrives back home, she finds Mr. Ford brooding at the kitchen table. He has just received word that his wife and daughter are not listed among the enslaved at the Francis Plantation. Having no other link to trace them, he believes that he will never find them.

By March, Clara is busy educating herself on the Carnegie business holdings. She makes charts and graphs to understand the entities’ complicated relationships to one another. She also amasses some valuable insider information by standing silently and listening during business conversations. All this information will be useful when she is in a position to invest small amounts of her savings. One day, while hard at work in the library, she is discovered by Andrew, who arrived home early from his European tour. He has now been gone for 10 months.