ions of all sizes were
thrown from the roof above upon the moving platforms themselves, and on
one's hand or on the bald head of the man before one, or on a lady's
shoulders, or in a sudden jet of flame before one's feet, the moving
finger wrote in unanticipated letters of fire "_'ets r chip t'de_," or
simply "_'ets_." And spite of all these efforts so high was the pitch at
which the city lived, so trained became one's eyes and ears to ignore
all sorts of advertisement, that many a citizen had passed that place
thousands of times and was still unaware of the existence of the
Suzannah Hat Syndicate.

To enter the building one descended the staircase in the middle way and
walked through a public passage in which pretty girls promenaded, girls
who were willing to wear a ticketed hat for a small fee. The entrance
chamber was a large hall in which wax heads fashionably adorned rotated
gracefully upon pedestals, and from this one passed through a cash
office to an interminable series of little rooms, each room with its
salesman, its three or four hats and pins, its mirrors, its
kinematographs, telephones and hat slides in communication with the
central depot, its comfortable lounge and tempting refreshments. A
salesman in such an apartment did Denton now become. It was his business
to attend to any of the incessant stream of ladies who chose to stop
with him, to behave as winningly as possible, to offer refreshment, to
converse on any topic the possible customer chose, and to guide the
conversation dexterously but not insistently towards hats. He was to
suggest trying on various types of hat and to show by his manner and
bearing, but without any coarse flattery, the enhanced impression made
by the hats he wished to sell. He had several mirrors, adapted by
various subtleties of curvature and tint to different types of face and
complexion, and much depended on the proper use of these.

Denton flung himself at these curious and not very congenial duties with
a good will and energy that would have amazed him a year before; but all
to no purpose. The Senior Manageress, who had selected him for
appointment and conferred various small marks of favour upon him,
suddenly changed in her manner, declared for no assignable cause that he
was stupid, and dismissed him at the end of six weeks of salesmanship.
So Denton had to resume his ineffectual search for employment.

This second search did not last very long. Their money was at the e