ue. Unconsciously, she had been expecting to meet every one she
knew, beginning with Frederica, in the course of the two blocks or so
she had to walk. Very naturally, she didn't catch even a glimpse of any
one she even remotely knew. Suppose there should be any one in the
store! But this, she realized, wasn't likely.

It wasn't a really smart shop. It paid an enormous rent there in that
neighborhood in order to pretend to be, and the gowns on the wax figures
in its windows, were taken on faith by pleasurably scandalized
pedestrians as the very latest scream of fashion. The prices on these
confections were always in the process of a violent reduction, as large
exclamatory placards grievously testified. The legend eighty-eight
dollars crossed out in red lines, with thirty-nine seventy-five written
below, for a sample. The most exclusive smartness for the economy-loving
multitude. This was the slogan.

Rose, arriving promptly at the hour agreed on, had a wait of fifteen
minutes before any of her sisters of the sextette, or Mrs. Goldsmith
arrived. She told the suave manager that she was waiting for friends,
but this didn't deter him from employing a magnificent wave of the hand
to summon one of the saleswomen and consigning Rose almost tenderly, to
her care. He didn't know her, but he knew that that ulster of hers had
come straight over from Paris, had cost not less than two hundred
dollars, and had been selected by an excellently discriminating eye; and
that was enough for him.

"I don't want anything just now," Rose told the saleswoman. But she
hadn't, in these few weeks of Clark Street, lost the air of one who will
buy if she sees anything worth buying. In fact, the saleswoman thought,
correctly, that she knew her and was in for a shock a little later when
Mrs. Goldsmith and the other five members of the sextette arrived.

Meanwhile, she showed Rose the few really smart things they had in the
store--a Poiret evening gown, a couple of afternoon frocks from Jennie,
and so on. There wasn't much, she admitted, it being just between
seasons. Their Palm Beach things weren't in yet.

Rose made a few appreciative, but decidedly respect-compelling comments,
and faithfully kept one eye on the door.

The rest of the sextette arrived in a pair and a trio. One of them
squealed, "Hello, Dane!" The saleswoman got her shock on seeing Rose nod
an acknowledgment of this greeting and just about that time, they heard
Mrs. Goldsmith ex