about one to ten
Martie , tinkling pins into a saucer on the bureau , opening the upper drawer to sweep her brush and comb into it , and jerking the limp linen scarf straight , only smiled and shrugged in answer . She had been widowed three months , and already reviving energy and self-confidence were running in her veins . Already she realized that it had been a mistake to accept her father 's hospitality in the first panic of being dependent . However graceful and dignified her position was to the outsider 's eye , in this old house in the sunken block , she knew now that Pa was really unable to offer her anything more than a temporary relief from financial worry , and that her chances of finding employment in Monroe as compared to New York were about one to ten . Malcolm Monroe had been deeply involved for several years in `` the firm '' by which term he and Len referred to their real estate business together . A large tract of grassy brown meadow , south of the town , had been in his possession for thirty years ; it was only with the opening of the new `` Monroe 's Grove '' that he had realized its possibilities , or rather that Len had realized them . Len had held one or two office positions in Monroe unsatisfactorily before his twentieth year , and then had persuaded his father to send him to Berkeley , to the State University .