no style in the world.”

“She was stunning in the black velvet,” broke in the first speaker stubbornly. “I can’t help it, I think she had style. There was something—well, kind of gracious about her, as if she were a lady in disguise.”

“Oh Florence, you’re so hopelessly romantic! That’s away behind the times. You don’t find Cinderellas nowadays. Things are more practical. If a lady has a disguise she takes it off. That’s more up to date.”

“Well, you know yourself she was different. You can’t say she wasn’t perfectly at home with those clothes. She wore them like a princess.”

“She had a beautiful form,” put in an older salesperson. “That’s a whole lot.”

“It takes something more than form,” said the girl persistently. “You know that Charlotte Bakerman had a form. They said she was perfect in[Pg 50] every measurement, but she walked like a cow, and she carried herself like a gorilla in a tree when she sat down.”

[Pg 50]

“Oh, this girl was graceful, if that’s what you mean,” conceded the fat one ungraciously.

“It wasn’t just grace, either,” persisted the champion of the unknown customer. “She didn’t seem to be conscious she had on anything unusual at all. She walked the same way when she came in. She walked the same way when she went out in her nineteen ninety-eight. She sort of glorified it. And when she had on the Lanvin Green ensemble it was just as if she had always worn such things. It sort of seemed to belong to her, as if she was born with it, like a bird’s feathers.”

“I know what you mean,” said the woman with tired eyes and artificial color. “She wasn’t thinking about her clothes. They weren’t important to her. She would only care if they were suitable. And she would know at a glance without discussing it whether they were suitable. You saw how she looked at that flashy little sports frock, the one with the three shades of red stripes and a low red leather belt. She just turned away and said in a low tone: ‘Oh, not that one, Murray!’ as if it hurt her.”

“Did she call him Murray?” asked the fat one greedily.

“Yes. They seemed to know each other real well. She was almost as if she might have been a sister, only we know he hasn’t got any sisters. She might have been a country cousin.”

[Pg 

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