"I know it, Miss Sadie; that's the right way to do it, but I think I can get around her all right. Wasn't she down here in the basement the day I first heard about my promotion, and didn't she give me the glad hand and seem right friendly to me? I can get around her all right, Miss Sadie. I can always tell if a person likes me or not." "Anyways, if her eyes ain't too bad, Mr. Meltzer, I got a date with my friend if his car is out of the shop from having the limousine top taken off. We--we're going for a little spin." A quick red belied her insouciance and she made a little foray into the bin of mill-ends. "Gee! if I've made three sales this livelong day I don't know nothing about two of them." Max Meltzer met her dancing gaze, pinioning it with his own quiet eyes. "You're right to pick out the lucky fellows who can buy a good time. A little girl like you ought to have every enjoyment there is. If I could give it to you, do you think I would let the other fellows beat me to it? The best ain't none too good for a little lady like you." "Aw, Mr. Meltzer!" Her bosom filled and waned. "Aw, Mr. Meltzer!" "I mean it." An electric bell grilled through his words. Miss Barnet sprang reflexly from the harness of an eight-hour day. "Aw, looka, and I wanted to sneak up before closing and get Dee Dee to snip me two yards of red satin, and she won't cut an inch after the bell. Ain't that luck for you? Ain't that luck?" Her lips drew to a pout. "Lemme get it for you, Miss Sadie. I know a girl up in the ribbons--" "No, no, Mr. Meltzer. I--I got to charge it to Dee Dee, and, anyways, she gets mad like anything if I keep her waiting. I gotta go. 'Night, Mr. Meltzer! 'Night!" She was off through the maze of the emptying store, in the very act of pinning on her little hat with its jaunty imitation fur pompon, and he breathed in as she passed, as if of the perfume of her personality. At the ribbon counter on the main floor the last of a streamlet of outgoing women detached herself from the file as Miss Barnet ascended the staircase. "Hurry up, Sadie." "Dee Dee! How'd you girls up here get on your duds so soon? I thought maybe if I'd hurry upstairs you--you'd find time to cut me a two-yard piece of three-inch red satin for my hat, Dee Dee--to-morrow being Sunday. Two yards, Dee Dee, and that'll make two-sixty-nine I owe you. Aw, Dee Dee, it won't take a minute, to-morrow Sunday and all! Aw, Dee Dee!" Miss Barnet slid ingratiating fingers into the curve of the older woman's arm; her voice was smooth as salve. "Aw, Dee Dee, who ever heard of wearing fur on a hat in April? I gotta stick a red bow on my last summer's sailor, Dee Dee." Miss Edith Worte stiffened so that the muscles sprang out in the crook of her arm and the cords in her long, yellowing neck. Years had dried on her face, leaving ravages, and through her high-power spectacles her pale eyes might have been staring through film and straining to see. "Please, Dee Dee!"