ets and many straps.

"I hate to trouble you, but did you get a package for Mrs. Hoyt? It's
from Field's."

It was five-thirty. Cora had her hat on. She did not ask the woman to
come in. "I'll see. I ordered some things from Field's to-day, too. I
haven't opened them yet. Perhaps yours ... I'll look."

The package with Mrs. Hoyt's name on it was there. "Well, thanks so
much. It's some georgette crepe. I'm making myself one those new
two-tone slip-over negligees. Field's had a sale. Only one sixty-nine a
yard."

Cora was interested. She sewed rather well when she was in the mood.
"Are they hard to make?"

"Oh, land, no! No trick to it at all. They just hang from the shoulder,
see? Like a slip-over. And then your cord comes round----"

She stepped in. She undid the box and shook out the vivid folds of the
filmy stuff, vivid green and lavender. "You wouldn't think they'd go
well together but they do. Makes a perfectly stunning negligee."

Cora fingered the stuff. "I'd get some. Only I don't know if I could cut
the----"

"I'll show you. Glad to." She was very friendly. Cora noticed she used
expensive perfume. Her hair was beautifully marcelled. The woman folded
up the material and was off, smiling. "Just let me know when you get it.
I've got a lemon cream pie in the oven and I've got to run." She called
back over her shoulder. "Mrs. Hoyt."

Cora nodded and smiled. "Mine's Atwater." She saw that the woman's
simple-seeming black dress was one she had seen in a Michigan Avenue
shop, and had coveted. Its price had been beyond her purse.

Cora mentioned the meeting to Ray when he came home. "She seems real
nice. She's going to show me how to cut out a new negligee."

"What'd you say her name was?" She told him. He shrugged. "Well, I'll
say this: she must be some swell cook. Whenever I go by that door at
dinner time my mouth just waters. One night last week there was
something must have been baked spare-ribs and sauerkraut. I almost broke
in the door."

The woman in 618 did seem to cook a great deal. That is, when she
cooked. She explained that Mr. Hoyt was on the road a lot of the time
and when he was home she liked to fuss for him. This when she was
helping Cora cut out the georgette negligee.

"I'd get coral colour if I was you, honey. With your hair and all," Mrs.
Hoyt had advised her.

"Why, that's my name! That is, it's what Ray calls me. My name's really
Cora." They were quite good friends now.

It was