ave ter pull me up by the roots like that old tree if yer
took me out of this street. I remember w'en 'arf this street was open
paddicks, an' now yer can't stick a pin between the 'ouses. I was a
young gell then, an' a lot better lookin' than yer'd think. Ada's
father thought a lot o' me, I tell yer. That was afore 'e took ter
drink. I was 'is first love, as the sayin' is, but beer was 'is
second. 'E was a good 'usbind ter me wot time 'e could spare from the
drink, an' I buried 'im out of this very 'ouse, w'en Ada could just
walk. I often think life's a bloomin' fraud, Joe, w'ichever way yer
look at it. W'en ye're young, it promises yer everythin' yer want, if
yer only wait. An' w'en ye're done waitin', yer've lost yer teeth an'
yer appetite, or forgot wot yer were waitin' for. Yes, Joe, the street
an' me's old pals. We've seen one another in sickness an' sorrer an'
joy an' jollification, an' it 'ud be a poor job ter part us now.
Funny, ain't it? This street is more like a 'uman bein' ter me than
plenty I know. Yer see, I can't read the paper, an' see 'oo's bin
married and murdered through the week, bein' no scholar, but I can read
Cardigan Street like a book. An' I've found that wot 'appens in this
street 'appens everywhere else, if yer change the names an' addresses."

About a week after the triumphant opening of the Silver Shoe, Jonah was
running his eye down some price-lists, when he was disturbed by a loud
noise. He looked round, and was surprised to see Miss Giltinan, head
of the ladies' department, her lips tight with anger, replacing a heap
of cardboard boxes with jerks of suppressed fury.

She was his best saleswoman, gathered in from the pavement a week after
she had been ejected from Packard's factory for cheeking the boss. She
had spent a few weeks dusting shoes and tying up parcels, and then,
brushing the old hands aside, had taken her place as a born saleswoman.
Sharp as a needle, the customers were like clay in her hands. She
recognized two classes of buyers--those who didn't know what they
wanted, and always, under her guidance, spent more than they intended,
and those who knew quite well what they wanted, the best quality at an
impossible price. Both went away satisfied, for she took them into her
confidence, and, with covert glances for fear she should be overheard,
gave them her private opinion of the articles in a whisper. And they
went away satisfied that they had saved money, an