But she came forward with a smile. “There is no hurry.” She touched the coat and adjusted it. “It suits you perfectly!” Eleanor More glanced again into the long mirror. The blue and gold covered her from head to foot; and above it, her face looked out at her, a little mistily, and smiled to her. She shook her head and the mirrored lady shook her head—slowly. Then they both smiled radiantly and the gold dragons crumpled their tails as the coat was flung swiftly back. “I don’t know why I put it on! I think it bewitched me! Here—take it! Thank you very much.” She spoke—half under her breath, and the woman took the coat in her hands. She stood smoothing the folds. “It is a great bargain—marked down for to-day.” She touched the tag with casual finger, and Eleanor’s eyes followed the motion. “I know—It’s absurdly cheap—and very beautiful! But I simply cannot afford it! Thank you for showing it to me—so late!” She moved, a little blindly, toward the stairs. The elevator had ceased to run. When she was gone the woman stood with the coat in her hand irresolute. A helper coming by with an armful of gray covers cast a flitting glance at it. “Want a top?” But she shook her head. “I will put it in the box for to-night.” The helper went on down the aisle. The woman drew a box from beneath the counter and folded the dragons with careful hand, and smoothed their tails and placed the coat in its box. Through a bit of tissue-paper across the top of the blue and gold it gleamed and shimmered softly, and the woman brushed light finger-tips across it as she pressed the paper down and tucked it in and set the box aside. Then she went down the room, and disappeared among the shadows of counters and cases, and the shop was left alone. Darkness slipped in from outside, and pushed the grayness before it. It clothed the dummy figure in black, and descended on the box of dragons, blotting it out. It covered the whole room. In the darkness beneath the counter lay the Chinese coat, with its bit of tissue-paper lying across the glory of blue and gold, safely tucked away. Only the vast oblongs of windows remained to show faintly, against the street outside, where the light came in. II THAT night she dreamed of the coat. She saw its soft folds descending on her out of the sky, and she held up her hands to it and caught it to her and wrapped it about her and ran in the wind, singing. And all the dragons came alive and pranced beside her—and she threw off the coat and ran with the dragons, unclothed. And the freedom of it was like life—flooding down on her out of the sky; and then the dragons moved from her—they were receding into the distance, their great heads held high; and she ran, stumbling, after them, alone and naked—and suddenly she was in a crowded street and the people were looking at her, and shame drew about her as a vast garment; she shrank back into it, trying to hide—but there was no cover for her—and she woke with a dry, choking sob.