n Twenty-sixth
Street, just off Sixth Avenue. The Hungarian and one girl assistant were
trying by futile garish window-decorations to draw trade from the great
department stores and the five-and-ten-cent stores on one side of them
and the smart shops on the other side. But the Hungarian was clever, too
clever. He first found out all of Father's plans, then won Father's
sympathy. He coughed a little, and with a touching smile which was
intended to rouse admiration, declared that his lungs were bad, but
never mind, he would fight on, and go away for a rest when he had
succeeded. He insinuated that, as he was not busy now, he could do all
the buying and get better terms from wholesalers or bankruptcy bargain
sales than could Father himself. The Hungarian's best stock in trading
with Father was to look young and pathetically threadbare, to smile and
shake his head and say playfully, as though he were trying to hide his
secret generosity by a pretense of severity, "But of course I'd charge
you a commission--you see I'm a hard-hearted fella."

It was January. In a month, now, Mother would be grunting heavily and
beginning the labor of buying for the tea-room. So far she had done
nothing but crochet two or three million tidies for the tea-room chairs,
"to make them look homey."

The Hungarian showed Father tea-cups with huge quantities of gold on
them. He assured Father that it was smarter to buy odd cups--also
cheaper, as thus they could take advantage of broken lots and
closing-out sales. Fascinated, Father kept hanging around, and at last
he bolted frantically and authorized the Hungarian to purchase
everything for him.

Which the Hungarian had already done, knowing that the fly was on the
edge of the web.

You know, the things didn't look so bad, not so very bad--as long as
they were new.

Tea-cups and saucers gilded like shaving-mugs and equally thick.
Golden-oak chairs of mid-Chautauquan patterns, with backs of saw-mill
Heppelwhite; chairs of cane and rattan with fussy scrolls and curlicues
of wicker, the backs set askew. Reed tables with gollops of wicker;
plain black wooden tables that were like kitchen tables once removed;
folding-tables that may have been suitable to card-playing, if you
didn't play anything more exciting than casino. Flat silver that was
heavily plated except where it was likely to wear. Tea-pots of mottled
glaze, and cream-jugs with knobs of gilt, and square china ash-trays on
which one inst