A bargain-table of odds and ends of woollen jackets, golf vests, and old
fashioned blouse sweaters, selling off at a dollar apiece, solved the
problem of a wrap. She selected a dark blouse, of an ugly, purply blue,
but thick and warm. Then with her precious packages she asked a
pleasant-faced saleswoman if there were any place near where she could
slip on a walking skirt she had just bought to save her other skirt from
the muddy streets. She was ushered into a little fitting-room near by. It
was only about four feet square, with one chair and a tiny table, but it
looked like a palace to the girl in her need, and as she fastened the door
and looked at the bare painted walls that reached but a foot or so above
her head and had no ceiling, she wished with all her heart that such a
refuge as this might be her own somewhere in the great, wide, fearful
world.
Rapidly she slipped off her fine, silk-lined cloth garments, and put on
the stiff sateen waist and the coarse black skirt. Then she surveyed
herself, and was not ill pleased. There was a striking lack of collar and
belt. She sought out a black necktie and pinned it about her waist, and
then, with a protesting frown, she deliberately tore a strip from the edge
of one of the fine hem-stitched handkerchiefs, and folded it in about her
neck in a turn-over collar. The result was quite startling and unfamiliar.
The gown, the hair, the hat, and the neat collar gave her the look of a
young nurse-girl or upper servant. On the whole, the disguise could not
have been better. She added the blue woollen blouse, and felt certain that
even her most intimate friends would not recognize her. She folded the
rain-coat, and placed it smoothly in the suit-case, then with dismay
remembered that she had nothing in which to put her own cloth dress, save
the few inadequate paper wrappings that had come about her simple
purchases. Vainly she tried to reduce the dress to a bundle that would be
covered by the papers. It was of no use. She looked down at the suit-case.
There was room for the dress in there, but she wanted to send Mr. Dunham's
property back at once. She might leave the dress in the store, but some
detective with an accurate description of that dress might be watching,
find it, and trace her. Besides, she shrank from leaving her garments
about in public places. If there had been any bridge near at hand where
she might unobserved throw the dress into a dark river, or a consuming
fire where she might dispose of it, she would have done it. But whatever
she was to do with it must be done at once. Her destiny must be settled
before the darkness came down. She folded the dress smoothly and laid it
in the suit-case, under the rain-coat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account