, in the honored place of
the window, was the wonderful breakfast cap for which she had received
twelve dollars from Mercedes. It was marked twenty-eight dollars. Saxon
went in and interviewed the shopkeeper, an emaciated, shrewd-eyed and
middle-aged woman of foreign extraction.

"Oh, I don't want to buy anything," Saxon said. "I make nice things
like you have here, and I wanted to know what you pay for them--for that
breakfast cap in the window, for instance."

The woman darted a keen glance to Saxon's left hand, noted the
innumerable tiny punctures in the ends of the first and second fingers,
then appraised her clothing and her face.

"Can you do work like that?"

Saxon nodded.

"I paid twenty dollars to the woman that made that." Saxon repressed
an almost spasmodic gasp, and thought coolly for a space. Mercedes had
given her twelve. Then Mercedes had pocketed eight, while she, Saxon,
had furnished the material and labor.

"Would you please show me other hand-made things nightgowns, chemises,
and such things, and tell me the prices you pay?"

"Can you do such work?"

"Yes."

"And will you sell to me?"

"Certainly," Saxon answered. "That is why I am here."

"We add only a small amount when we sell," the woman went on; "you see,
light and rent and such things, as well as a profit or else we could not
be here."

"It's only fair," Saxon agreed.

Amongst the beautiful stuff Saxon went over, she found a nightgown and
a combination undersuit of her own manufacture. For the former she had
received eight dollars from Mercedes, it was marked eighteen, and the
woman had paid fourteen; for the latter Saxon received six, it was
marked fifteen, and the woman had paid eleven.

"Thank you," Saxon said, as she drew on her gloves. "I should like to
bring you some of my work at those prices."

"And I shall be glad to buy it... if it is up to the mark." The woman
looked at her severely. "Mind you, it must be as good as this. And if it
is, I often get special orders, and I'll give you a chance at them."

Mercedes was unblushingly candid when Saxon reproached her.

"You told me you took only a commission," was Saxon's accusation.

"So I did; and so I have."

"But I did all the work and bought all the materials, yet you actually
cleared more out of it than I did. You got the lion's share."

"And why shouldn't I, my dear? I was the middleman. It's the way of the
world. 'Tis the middlemen that get the lion's share."