That Katie, like many another making the same fight, escaped further contamination, that the contrast between the oppression of the hook-nosed owner on the one hand and the apparent ease and luxury of her customers on the other, did not tempt her,--for opportunities were plenty,--from the station of clerk to purchaser, was due in part to her own sturdy character and to the accident of her own Celtic temper. Other girls there were who were not so destined, but Mrs. Flanagan's weary feet one day refused to support their possessor, and Katie, knowing well the need of ready money for the doctor and the druggist, neglected to purchase, even on credit, an expensive black walking-suit that was repeatedly called to her attention. "Say, you'd look just grand in this," said the psittacidic proprietress, Mrs. Binks. She held the dress extended, putting its best points to the light. And all the other clerks echoed: "You'd look just grand in it, Miss Flanagan!" "I would that," replied Katie, who was as taciturn to her employer as she was loquacious to everybody else. "Why don't you take it?" asked Mrs. Binks. "I don't just like it," lied Katie. Mrs. Binks blinked her bead-like eyes. That the girl's reply could be true was inconceivable. "Try it on," she suggested. "Where's the use? I don't want it." "Oh, try it on anyway." "I'll be too busy, Mrs. Binks. The customers 're startin' to pour in this very minute." "Then try it on at your lunch time. I'll leave it handy here, over this chair." She did leave it there all day long. Katie, whose one dress was now, in spite of endless feminine make-shifts, beginning to show wear, had to go through her task with the baited hook constantly dangling before her. Nevertheless, when the long-delayed closing hour arrived, the suit was just where Mrs. Binks had left it. Katie carefully abstained from touching it; she would not even put it away. "What's this?" asked the mildly surprised owner, as she stumbled over the garment. "I declare it's that handsome walking-suit I wanted you to have, Miss Flanagan." Katie turned and regarded the neglected garment precisely as Mrs. Binks was regarding it. "Well, well," she said, "and is it, now?" Her mistress looked at her, again blinking suspiciously. "Did you try it on?" she demanded. "No." "Why not?" "I don't think I want it." "It's a fine suit." "It's grand." "But you don't want it?" "I don't think I do." "I told you that you could have it for a third off." "I know you did that, Mrs. Binks, and it's thank you I do for your kindness." "Hum--hum. I'll take off a dollar more--for you." "Thank you, no, Mrs. Binks. Good-night, Mrs. Binks." This sort of thing went on, with variations, for three days, at the end of which time Mrs. Binks, as she would have phrased the occurrence, "came right out with it"; and for this ceremony she chose that morning hour when the other girls in the shop had the greatest amount of leisure to observe what happened.