dinner
he'd had in months. You know how tired those traveling men get of hotel
grub."

"Cut out the description and get down to action," snapped Sophy.

"Well, he knew me right away. And he made me go out to lunch with him.
A real lunch, starting with soup. Gee! It went big. He asked me what I
was doing. I told him I was working here, and he opened his eyes, and
then he laughed and said: 'How did you get into that joint?' Then he
took me down to a swell little shoe shop on State Street, and it turned
out that he owns it. He introduced me all around, and I'm going there to
work next week. And wages! Why say, it's almost a salary. A fellow can
hold his head up in a place like that."

"When you leavin'?" asked Sophy, slowly.

"Monday. Gee! it seems a year away."

Sophy was late Saturday morning. When she came in, hurriedly, her cheeks
were scarlet and her eyes glowed. She took off her hat and coat and fell
to straightening boxes and putting out stock without looking up. She
took no part in the talk and jest that was going on among the other
clerks. One of the men, in search of the missing mate to the shoe in his
hand, came over to her, greeting her carelessly. Then he stared.

"Well, what do you know about this!" he called out to the others, and
laughed coarsely, "Look, stop, listen! Little Sophy Bright Eyes here has
pulled down the shades."

Louie turned quickly. The immodest V of Sophy's gown was filled with a
black lace yoke that came up to the very lobes of her little pink ears.
She had got some scraps of lace from--Where do they get those bits of
rusty black? From some basement bargain counter, perhaps, raked over
during the lunch hour. There were nine pieces in the front, and seven in
the back. She had sat up half the night putting them together so that
when completed they looked like one, if you didn't come too close. There
is a certain strain of Indian patience and ingenuity in women that no man
has ever been able to understand.

Louie looked up and saw. His eyes met Sophy's. In his there crept a
certain exultant gleam, as of one who had fought for something great and
won. Sophy saw the look. The shy questioning in her eyes was replaced
by a spark of defiance. She tossed her head, and turned to the man who
had called attention to her costume.

"Who's loony now?" she jeered. "I always put in a yoke when it gets
along toward fall. My lungs is delicate. And anyway, I see by th