do, if she's poor and
has to live in New York? Mrs. Ess Kay had said the shop was a cheap
shop, so there must be others where even the flowered wrappers and
collars and hatpins are more. And besides, a girl couldn't go through
life dressed entirely in such things. However, judging from the girls I
have seen so far, they are all very rich, except the lower classes; and
of course, it's much simpler to do without things if you can just be
poor and give up to it comfortably, without thinking of appearances,
like us.

As soon as I saw the Notion Counter, I knew why they had named it that;
only it would be still more expressive if it were called the
Imagination counter. It was lovely, and looked like thousands of little
Christmas presents spread out for everyone.

There were a great many pretty people buying things at it, and in most
of the other departments where I went with Mrs. Ess Kay and Sally; but
when I admired them, and the sweet blouses they wore, and the way they
carried their shoulders and hips, Mrs. Ess Kay sniffed, and said there
was nobody in New York, now,--nobody at all who was worth looking at,
and wouldn't be till October, except those who were just in the city
for a day or two of shopping, like us. When I suggested that these
charming beings in white muslins and summer silks might be here in that
way, she did not think it at all probable.

"How can you tell?" I asked. "They look just as nice as we do."

Indeed, I thought some of them looked nicer, but I've been much too
well brought up to make such remarks as that.

"I can tell, because I don't know their Faces," said Mrs. Ess Kay,
decidedly, in a tone that gave a capital letter to her last word, and
yet intimated that the poor, unknown (by her) Things couldn't possibly
be worth a glance.

Now, Mother and Aunt Sophy are rather like that. It's almost terrible
when they say "Who _Is_ she?" But I shouldn't have expected it to be
the same in America, if Sally hadn't warned me. I suppose it's quite
easy to remember just Four Hundred faces, as you're sure there will
never be any more, even if they have children, because they're being
cut down instead of going up in number.

When we had been for about an hour and a half in the big shop, we'd
finished all we had to do there, and must motor to another farther up,
before meeting Mr. Parker, who was to give us lunch at a place called
Sherry's, at one o'clock. On the way, Sally suddenly exclaimed, "Oh,
Cousin