hrough Win's head:
Why had she been imported to make an odd number? It was an exciting
question, taken in connection with the floorwalker's warning.
Until sale time these counters were out of the congested region; and
the six saleswomen were taking advantage of the lull before the storm
to put finishing touches on the arrangement of the stock. The instant
that Win was inside the square it was as if she had been suddenly
swallowed up in a thunder cloud. The head saleswoman (she must be
that, Win thought, judging from the attention paid her by the rest)
was in a black rage--a beautiful Jewess, older than the others, and
growing overplump, but magnificently browed, and hardly thirty yet.
"It's damnable!" she panted, full breast heaving, throat swelling with
stifled sobs, "to put this onto me! Anybody with half an eye can see
through the trick. The Queen of England couldn't get rid of these
nasty rags at a charity bazaar."
She went on without noticing the newcomer, except to flash across
Win's face and figure a lightning, Judith glance which seemed to pitch
a creature unknown and unwanted into the bottomless pit where all was
vile. Her satin-smooth olive hands, with brilliantly polished coral
nails, trembled as, gesticulating, she waved them over the stock which
littered the four counters. She seemed to be throwing her curse upon
blouses, sashes, and ladies' neckwear; and had she been a witch, with
power of casting spells, the masses of silk and satin would have burst
into coloured flame.
"Oh, Miss Stein, don't feel that way about it," pleaded a thin girl
who looked utterly bloodless. "The things are marked down so low maybe
they'll go off."
"Look at them--_look_ at them!" broke out the Jewess. "Is there
anything you'd take for a present, one of you? They might as well have
sent me to the basement and be done with it. But I'll show _him_, and
her, too, how much I care before the day's out."
So fierce was the splendid creature's emotion that Win felt the hot
contagion of it. What had happened she did not know, though evidently
the others did and sympathized, or pretended to. But even she, a
stranger, could spring at a conclusion.
Miss Stein was called upon to sell things which she thought no
customers would buy. Somebody in power had put her in this position,
out of spite, to get her into trouble. There was another woman in the
case. There must be jealousy. This tigerish Judith was suffering as
keenly as a hu
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