Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-01-14
THE EVENING STORY.
VELVET ORCHIDS.
Downright. 1914. by W. werDer.)


Adele pinned another bunch Of great
velvet orchids to the dropping brim,
twisted a length of gaudy and expen-
sive ribbon through them, put the hat
on her he: | and turned slowly around
so that the customer, a large middle
aged and very ford woman. might see
the effect. Her slowness came as much
from languor as from desire to allow
plenty of time for judging. The day,
though late in October. had been very
warm. the crowds enormous. 1t was
the rush of opening week, and Adele was
b very tired. From under dropping eyelids
she envtously looked at the woman on
whom she was waiting. Overdressed, but
not handsome, her fat red hands and
wrists blazed with expensive stones. Adele
came from home whose entire furniture
could nave been purchased with the least
expensive of those stones. Adele's
mother, tired overworked frantic with
the unending effort to make 90 cents do
tho work OF $50 took, from necessity
not desire. nearly all OF Adele's small
pay. The velvet orchids were So bunch
and three punches trimmed a hat sparse
ty. On farther table We're cotton imita-
lions at 80 cents bunch. Adele had
been trying with bitter economy for three
weeks to get two lunches of the cheap
flowers. Her present iat was two years
old She fancied that Jim-he worked in
the auditing department of the same
store-had been ashamed of it the last
time that he took her to the theater
Saturday evening he would take her
again, and they were to sit in a box with
four OF his friends. She simply couldn't
wear 1t with only that faded quill
'Yes-I like it, said the customer.
languidly. eying critically the mauve
velvet brim that dropped about Adele's
white oval face. Only I-another
skinny. Yes, put four And have it
trimmed by evening. No, you needn't
send II. wish to wear it this evening.
So I'll stop for 1t at 5:45. The store
I'll want to try that hat on I wish"
discontentedly, that the mauve were
trife lighter
1T Is the lightest We have. madam"
Adele said. mechanically for at least the
twentieth time in the last two hours. She
scrubbed the items-hat. s2i chat velvet
vas imported panne); flowers, s4s: rib
Don, yard and three-fourths, at 81 a
ard. jeweled pin--AdeIe pressed
The pencil so hard that the point broke
woman, whose looks couldn't be made
charming by all the flowers and veivet
n the world. And she. young and aching
for pretty things had 90 cents to keep
Jim from being ashamed of her. 1T
isn't fair sh" muttered as she took the
Rat and ;.dornments to the trimming
-oom- Then she came back to another
% the crowd of customers. 1t seemed
that every woman In town had money
FOR a new hat-except the girl who sold
them. And handling all the fresh new
stuff made her own seem older and
dlngier than II was. TT isn't fair,
che repeated in n resentful whisper.
say. grille" remarked a large, fiashy
blond pick me out something nifty and
cheap.
How much:" asked Adele. absentiy.
Cheap might mean SO many different
araounts.
oh. real cheap" earnestly. mot over
SD. but nifty. How's that French felt
With the tuTt of egrets?''
Adele handed it from the showcase
tter lips curled mutinously. Twenty dol
lars--cheap! Not in all Adele's life had
she spent twenty whole dollars for head
gear. The mutinous curl of her lips
changed to a perceptible culver. She
wouldn't care if 1t weren't for jim Last
time at the theater girl had swept