a
made-to-order boot. He picked up a pair of dull kid shoes and looked at
them. His leather-wise eyes saw much, and I think he would have taken
his hat off the hook, and his offended business principles out of the
shop forever if Sophy had not completed her purchase and strolled over to
him at the psychological moment.

She smiled up at him, impudently. "Well, Pink Cheeks," she said, "how do
you like our little settlement by the lake, huh?"

"These shoes aren't worth two-fifty," said Louie, indignation in his
voice.

"Well, sure," replied Sophy. "I know it. What do you think this is? A
charity bazaar?"

"But back home----" began Louie, hotly.

"Ferget it, kid," said Sophy. "This is a big town, but it ain't got no
room for back-homers. Don't sour on one job till you've got another
nailed. You'll find yourself cuddling down on a park bench if you do.
Say, are you honestly from Oskaloosa?"

"I certainly am," answered Louie, with pride.

"My goodness!" ejaculated Sophy. "I never believed there was no such
place. Don't brag about it to the other fellows."

"What time do you go out for lunch?" asked Louie.

"What's it to you?" with the accent on the "to."

"When I want to know a thing, I generally ask," explained Louie, gently.

Sophy looked at him--a long, keen, knowing look. "You'll learn," she
observed, thoughtfully.

Louie did learn. He learned so much in that first week that when Sunday
came it seemed as though aeons had passed over his head. He learned that
the crime of murder was as nothing compared to the crime of allowing a
customer to depart shoeless; he learned that the lunch hour was invented
for the purpose of making dates; that no one had ever heard of Oskaloosa,
Iowa; that seven dollars a week does not leave much margin for laundry
and general recklessness; that a madonna face above a V-cut gown is apt
to distract one's attention from shoes; that a hundred-dollar nest egg is
as effective in Chicago as a pine stick would be in propping up a stone
wall; and that all the other men clerks called Sophy "sweetheart."

Some of his newly acquired knowledge brought pain, as knowledge is apt to
do.

He saw that State Street was crowded with Sophys during the noon hour;
girls with lovely faces under pitifully absurd hats. Girls who aped the
fashions of the dazzling creatures they saw stepping from limousines.
Girls who starved body and soul in order to possess a set of false curls,
or a pa