him, and this was the only
consolation; for tea at five o'clock had left him with a healthy appetite,
and the bread and cheese, the abundant cocoa which the firm provided, were
welcome.

One day when Philip had been at Lynn's for three months, Mr. Sampson, the
buyer, came into the department, fuming with anger. The manager, happening
to notice the costume window as he came in, had sent for the buyer and
made satirical remarks upon the colour scheme. Forced to submit in silence
to his superior's sarcasm, Mr. Sampson took it out of the assistants; and
he rated the wretched fellow whose duty it was to dress the window.

"If you want a thing well done you must do it yourself," Mr. Sampson
stormed. "I've always said it and I always shall. One can't leave anything
to you chaps. Intelligent you call yourselves, do you? Intelligent!"

He threw the word at the assistants as though it were the bitterest term
of reproach.

"Don't you know that if you put an electric blue in the window it'll kill
all the other blues?"

He looked round the department ferociously, and his eye fell upon Philip.

"You'll dress the window next Friday, Carey. Let's see what you can make
of it."

He went into his office, muttering angrily. Philip's heart sank. When
Friday morning came he went into the window with a sickening sense of
shame. His cheeks were burning. It was horrible to display himself to the
passers-by, and though he told himself it was foolish to give way to such
a feeling he turned his back to the street. There was not much chance that
any of the students at the hospital would pass along Oxford Street at that
hour, and he knew hardly anyone else in London; but as Philip worked, with
a huge lump in his throat, he fancied that on turning round he would catch
the eye of some man he knew. He made all the haste he could. By the simple
observation that all reds went together, and by spacing the costumes more
than was usual, Philip got a very good effect; and when the buyer went
into the street to look at the result he was obviously pleased.

"I knew I shouldn't go far wrong in putting you on the window. The fact
is, you and me are gentlemen, mind you I wouldn't say this in the
department, but you and me are gentlemen, and that always tells. It's no
good your telling me it doesn't tell, because I know it does tell."

Philip was put on the job regularly, but he could not accustom himself to
the publicity; and he dreaded Friday morning,