sponging off the oilcloth table-spread, making the bed,
pottering about with a broom or duster or cleaning rag. Towards ten
o'clock she opened the windows to air the rooms, then put on her drab
jacket, her little round turban with its red wing, took the butcher's
and grocer's books from the knife basket in the drawer of the kitchen
table, and descended to the street, where she spent a delicious
hour--now in the huge market across the way, now in the grocer's
store with its fragrant aroma of coffee and spices, and now before the
counters of the haberdasher's, intent on a bit of shopping, turning
over ends of veiling, strips of elastic, or slivers of whalebone. On the
street she rubbed elbows with the great ladies of the avenue in their
beautiful dresses, or at intervals she met an acquaintance or two--Miss
Baker, or Heise's lame wife, or Mrs. Ryer. At times she passed the flat
and looked up at the windows of her home, marked by the huge golden
molar that projected, flashing, from the bay window of the "Parlors."
She saw the open windows of the sitting-room, the Nottingham lace
curtains stirring and billowing in the draft, and she caught sight of
Maria Macapa's towelled head as the Mexican maid-of-all-work went to and
fro in the suite, sweeping or carrying away the ashes. Occasionally in
the windows of the "Parlors" she beheld McTeague's rounded back as he
bent to his work. Sometimes, even, they saw each other and waved their
hands gayly in recognition.

By eleven o'clock Trina returned to the flat, her brown net
reticule--once her mother's--full of parcels. At once she set about
getting lunch--sausages, perhaps, with mashed potatoes; or last
evening's joint warmed over or made into a stew; chocolate, which
Trina adored, and a side dish or two--a salted herring or a couple of
artichokes or a salad. At half-past twelve the dentist came in from the
"Parlors," bringing with him the smell of creosote and of ether. They
sat down to lunch in the sitting-room. They told each other of their
doings throughout the forenoon; Trina showed her purchases, McTeague
recounted the progress of an operation. At one o'clock they separated,
the dentist returning to the "Parlors," Trina settling to her work on
the Noah's ark animals. At about three o'clock she put this work away,
and for the rest of the afternoon was variously occupied--sometimes it
was the mending, sometimes the wash, sometimes new curtains to be put
up, or a bit of carpet to