d probably do well there. Thoughts of Drouet returned--of
the things he had told her. She now felt that life was better, that it
was livelier, sprightlier. She boarded a car in the best of spirits,
feeling her blood still flowing pleasantly. She would live in Chicago,
her mind kept saying to itself. She would have a better time than she
had ever had before--she would be happy.

Chapter IV. THE SPENDINGS OF FANCY--FACTS ANSWER WITH SNEERS

For the next two days Carrie indulged in the most high-flown
speculations.

Her fancy plunged recklessly into privileges and amusements which would
have been much more becoming had she been cradled a child of fortune.
With ready will and quick mental selection she scattered her meagre
four-fifty per week with a swift and graceful hand. Indeed, as she sat
in her rocking-chair these several evenings before going to bed and
looked out upon the pleasantly lighted street, this money cleared for
its prospective possessor the way to every joy and every bauble which
the heart of woman may desire. "I will have a fine time," she thought.

Her sister Minnie knew nothing of these rather wild cerebrations, though
they exhausted the markets of delight. She was too busy scrubbing the
kitchen woodwork and calculating the purchasing power of eighty cents
for Sunday's dinner. When Carrie had returned home, flushed with her
first success and ready, for all her weariness, to discuss the now
interesting events which led up to her achievement, the former had
merely smiled approvingly and inquired whether she would have to spend
any of it for car fare. This consideration had not entered in before,
and it did not now for long affect the glow of Carrie's enthusiasm.
Disposed as she then was to calculate upon that vague basis which
allows the subtraction of one sum from another without any perceptible
diminution, she was happy.

When Hanson came home at seven o'clock, he was inclined to be a little
crusty--his usual demeanour before supper. This never showed so much in
anything he said as in a certain solemnity of countenance and the
silent manner in which he slopped about. He had a pair of yellow carpet
slippers which he enjoyed wearing, and these he would immediately
substitute for his solid pair of shoes. This, and washing his face with
the aid of common washing soap until it glowed a shiny red, constituted
his only preparation for his evening meal. He would then get his evening
paper and read in