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Pt the door of the fist-house, stam
mering that it was his "night off."
"I thought perhaps you'd go to a
show?"
George' returned to the flat on his
next night out. After that he pre--sented
himself at every opportunity
He took Bertha sometimes to the
theater, sometimes to an "Italian
table d'hote." There seemed to be
little doubt of his intentions, and the
mother from behind her blue specta
cles watched the progress of his
courtship with suppressed excite
ment. Late one night, when he had
brought Fertha back to her door, in
an agitated, half-coherent speech, he
asked her to marry him.
"I know I'm not good enough for
you! But ever since I first saw you
in the basement "
Watching him with intent eyes, de
liberately she compared him to the
figures in her dreams. She thought:
"We should never be different. It
would always be just this!" Cling
ing to her old visions, her own un
reasonable hopes, she told him the
truth: she did not love him. He stood
still for a while; then his eyes filled
with tears, and, turning at last, he
walked away.
She went upstairs to the window
facing east and stared out over the
housetops.
Weeks afterward, when her moth
,er, unable longer to contain herself,
asked what had become -of George,
Bertha said calmly:
"I refused him."
For a minute the mother sat mo
tionless. Behind her blue spectacles
she seemed disguised, and Bertha,
looking at her, had for the first time"
in her lifean incomprehensible sen
sation of antagonism. At length, in
a low, trembling voice, the mother
exclaimed: "So that's what you've
done!" . And after a moment, rising
to leave the room, added in weak ac
cents: '"I'd hoped things might be a
little different some time before IV
died. I thought maybe I deserved it
at least for a little while."
Next morning, with wide eyes,
Bertha saw the dawn creep through
the window, and that day she tele
phoned to the hospital where George
had worked. He was gone; she could
obtain no information of him.
The same afternoon she was rest
ing on one of the green sofas in the
shop, which happened for the mo
ment to be empty. Beside her reclin
ed the forewoman who, while re
counting wittily an intimate adven
ture of a friend of hers, managed to '
exhibit, as if casually, a new ring
set with a large emerald. Listening
absent-mindedly to the forewoman's
story, replete with details of a sort
which nowadays did not disturb her
in the slightest, Bertha looked up and
saw entering the room a young wo
man and a young man, both stran
gers. The young woman was blond,
handsome and well dressed. Her
companion, following with that self
conscious pose of tolerance which
men are apt to assume when lured
into such places, was the embodi
ment of Bertha's dreams!
He was tall and heavy about the
shoulders; his smooth-shaven face
was finely modeled; his yellow hair,
clipped short, rippled above his white
forehead. He and the woman with
him looked alike; evidently she was
his sister.
She wanted a new ball dress in a
great hurry; she had been every
where else, but had not found any
thing to suit her. Perhaps the fore
woman had something already made,
from Paris, that would fit her with a
few alterations? The forewoman,
with, a suave and competent manner,
produced from a wardrobe a low
neck gown of silver tissue, covered
with minute embroidery, all in one
piece. The customer, assuming the
illegible expression of a bargainer,
examined it, while Ber brother snap
ped his -watch-case, yawned, and be
gan indifferently to inspect the sales- .
girls.
"But the price is exorbitant!"
