St. Landry democrat., 1884-03-29

resentment. There is mockery in the
flowers scattered everywhere, and Bit
ter, intolerable remembrance in the
odor of baked meats.
The afternoon passes, and still Alice
lies with her face among the pillows,
thinking how it must all come out
finally; how everybody will know about
that brutal note. and how they will pity
her. She wishes she might die now, so
that the time would never come for her
to lift up her head and face the world,
with its knowledge of this dreadful
affair, and its soul-sickening com
miseration. One thought is always
uppermost, to fly from the scene of her
humiliation and the officious sympathy
of her friends. Filial ties. luxurious
surroundings, the perils and hardships
of flight, every consideration whatso-
ever dwindles into invisibility in the
presence of this great indignity. Her
mother comes and sits by her, and, after
several hours of remonstrance and
persuasion, induces her TO go to bed,
but when she comes in the morning,
hoping to see her somewhat soothed,
she finds only an empty room and a
hasty note.
1t is seven a. M. and the mammoth
retail dry-goods house of Gray &
Gordon begins to show signs of life
without and within. For the last half
hour continuous stream of statesmen,
shop-girls and cash-boys have been
pouring into the great building like SO
many swallows into a chimney, but
that it is the wrong time in the day.
Shades are raised, covers taken off, and
simultaneously in every part of the
house begins vigorous busting and
putting to rights.
The new cashier, 0, young man with
fine eyes and q pleasant manner, who
has been some three weeks in the estab-
lishment, comes in and goes behind his
desk. As he does so he notices that
there is a new girl at the glove counter
just opposite. Only her head is visible
above the pile of boxes she is busting.
It is crowned with red-gold hair, and
the face is very beautiful in spite OF the
hopeless depression it expresses.
Presently the business of the day be-
gins. Whenever there comes pause
in his monotonous labor of stamping
bills and making change, and he looks
out over the green wire network that
incloses his desk, his eyes rest naturally
upon the blonde head and delicate fig-
ure, because they are directly in front
of him, and in the course of the day he
learns without making any inquiries
that she is No. AZ.
AS for the girl herself, she is thinking
of nothing but that terrible day, and
whether she will live through !
it. Her face is flushed, her eyes glist- |
ening and feyerish, the joint result of
bad ventilation and bewildering trans
actions.
To her this first day behind the coun
ter seems shoreless eternity. She
can scarcely remember when it began,
and has almost lost faith in its possible
ending. Two hours of this new and
trying ordeal are enough to make her
weary; before the day is
half over she is aching miserabIy in
every limb and joint. After this, stand
ing is the purest agony. And all day
long the feminine division of humanity
bears down upon them en- masse The
welded to quick sales and
the largest possible profit, are positive
y ubiquitous in their efforts to enforce
she strictest attention to duty; obsequi-
BUS statesmen with an eye to premi-
ans and percentage step briskly about:
scurry hither and thither, and
GRAND boys find no rest for the soles of
heir feet The silk man spreads his
stock upon the counter and displays the
popular shades, by daylight, by gas
light, singly and in combinations. He
gathers them. up into soft, rich folds,
preads them, gathers them III. again,
alking glibly all the while, and is
'orne to the utmost limit of deferential
patience before the exact shade is
ound and the final decision made. The
ace man, on the alert for whom he
ny beguile, is bland and courteous,
While the girls at this same glove
COUNTER dive among the boxes and be-
ome breathless in the attempt to CON
lnce some dubious customers that a
,earl-gray glove is an exact match for
he paie-blue sample she has brought, ;
T vice versa, smiling, dropping words
t honey all the time, and wishing in
heir inmost consciousness that perdi-
ion may ultimately collect all woman ;
ind.
But it does end at last. The custom
rs are gone; the curtains are up, the :
ounters are again shrouded in white s
anvas, making thelCng aisles look like {
, many wards in a hospital. and these {
uman swallows begin to pour out of t
leir great chimney.
The cashier on his way to the cloak 5
pom sees No. Al crouching on the ledge :
ehind her counter. She is thinking of {
70 lnIanc dol 4l.A L.. -. / =.