Others. So the little girl began to wink hard,
while staring fixedly at a given point. You could often pass it off that
way, and nobody a whit the wiser.

"I've happened to have the Works on my mind a little of late," added
Carlisle, almost as if in apology. "But I--I'm really glad to see
you again."

She perceived the signs of agitation in the little work-girl, and
attributing it all to the twenty-dollar bill, saw that she must pave the
way to a conversation. And conversation, now that the ice was broken,
she eagerly desired, fascinated by the thought that this girl knew at
first-hand everything about the Works.

"Let me see--your name is Corinne, isn't it?"

Kern's eyes, wider than ever, shot back to the lady's face. A new
wonder here!--Miss Heth said it just like in the Dream: _Co-rinne_.

"Yes, ma'am," said Co-rinne, with a little gulp and a sniff.

"And what are you doing at the Men's Furnishing counter, Corinne?" said
Carlisle, pleasantly but quite at random. "Buying a present for Mr.
V.V., I suppose?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Having taken Carlisle completely aback, she hesitated and then added
timidly:

"Only a fulldress-shirt protector--for his birthday, y' know?... All his
sick give him little presents now'n then, ma'am, find out his sizes and
all. You know how he is, spending all his money on them, and never
thinking about himself, and giving away the clo'es off his back."

"Yes, I know.... Find out his sizes?"

"Yes, ma'am. Like, say, 'Why, Mr.--why, Dr. Vivian, what small feet you
got, sir, for a gempman!' And he'll say, like, 'I don't call six and a
half C so small!' Yes, ma'am--just as innocent."

A block and a half away, Hugo Canning's car whirled to a standstill, and
Hugo sat gazing at the select door of Morland's. In Baird & Himmel's
vast commonwealth, Kern Garland sat beside Miss Carlisle Heth at
Gentlemen's Furnishings, and could not look at the lady's lovely clothes
since her eyes could not bear to leave the yet lovelier face. Kern had
not confided the secret of the protector without a turning of her heart,
but now at least the thrill in her rose above that.... She and Mr.
V.V.'s beautiful lady, side by side.... It was nearly as good as the
velvet settee in the Dream--only for the founting, and the boy with the
pink lamp on his head, and Mr. V.V....

An extremely full-busted Saleslady, with snapping black eyes, deposited
a lean bundle and a ten-cent piece before the work-girl, oddly murmured