England -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
feverishly, almost desperately, he felt in the other pocket;
there were three coins there; by the size he could tell that one at
least was a penny; he took it out and gave it to the girl; he had not
the courage to put down the flowers and go without them. Then he
turned away. A narrow passage ran down between the draper's and the
next house; fewer people went that way and in the window there, common
and less expensive goods were displayed. The Captain went down the
foot-way and examined the two remaining coins. They were a shilling
and a penny.
People passed and repassed along the main road; carts and carriages
rumbled over the uneven stones; no one heeded the shabby hopeless
figure by the side window. They were lighting up in the draper's
though outside there was still daylight; the gas jets were considered
to make the place look more attractive. They shone warmly on the furs
and silk scarves in the front window, making them look rich and
luxurious. Two girls stopped to look in; then, their means being more
suitable to the goods there, they came to examine the side window.
They were two servants out for the afternoon; they wore winter coats
open over summer dresses and hats that might be called autumnal,
seeing that they were an ingenious blending of the best that was left
from the headgear of both seasons.
"I shall get one of them woolly neck things, I shall," one said;
"they're quite as nice as fur and not so dear."
The other could not agree. "Don't care about them myself," she said;
"I must say I like a bit of sable."
"Can't get it under two and eleven," her companion rejoined; "and
those things are only a shilling three. Look at that pink one there;
it looks quite as good as feathers any day. I'm not so gone on sable
myself; you can't have it pink, and pink's my colour."
They moved on to another window; they, no more than the passers by,
noticed the old man who stood just at their elbow. When they had gone
he looked drearily in where they had looked. There were the woolly
things they had spoken of, short woven strips of loopy wool, to be
tied about the neck by the two-inch ribbons that dangled from the
ends. "Ostrich wool boas in all colours, price, one shilling and three
farthings," they were ticketed. He read the ticket mechanically. He
still held his two coins; he held them mechanically; had he thought
about it he would scarcely have troubled to do so, they were so
cruelly, so mockingly inadequate. He read the ticket again; it
obtruded itself upon him as trivial things do at unexpected times.
But now its meaning began to be impressed upon his brain--"one
shilling and three farthings"--that, then, was the interpretation of
the servant girl's "shilling three." He had a shilling and a penny--a
shilling and three farthings. He could buy one of those ostrich wool
boas--he would buy it--that pink one for Julia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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