s
taste being faultless, it often happened that the things he recommended
were not the most expensive: this again endeared him to customers.
When sales slips were brought to him by ladies who wished to make an
exchange, he affixed his O. K. with a magnificent flourish, and with
such evident pleasure, that patrons felt genuine elation, and plunged
into the tumult with new enthusiasm. It was not long before there were
always people waiting for his counsel; and husbands would appear at
the store to convey (a little irritably) some such message as: "Mrs.
Sealyham says, please choose her a scarf that will go nicely with that
brown moire dress of hers. She says you will remember the dress."--This
popularity became even a bit perplexing, as for instance when old Mrs.
Dachshund, the store's biggest Charge Account, insisted on his leaving
his beat at a very busy time, to go up to the tenth floor to tell her
which piano he thought had the richer tone.

Of course all this was very entertaining, and an admirable opportunity
for studying his fellow-creatures; but it did not go very deep into
his mind. He lived for some time in a confused glamour and glitter;
surrounded by the fascinating specious life of the store, but drifting
merely superficially upon it. The great place, with its columns of
artificial marble and white censers of upward-shining electricity,
glimmered like a birch forest by moonlight. Silver and jewels and silks
and slippers flashed all about him. It was a marvellous education, for
he soon learned to estimate these things at their proper value; which is
low, for they have little to do with life itself. His work was tiring in
the extreme--merely having to remain upright on his hind legs for
such long hours WAS an ordeal--but it did not penetrate to the secret
observant self of which he was always aware. This was advantageous. If
you have no intellect, or only just enough to get along with, it does
not much matter what you do. But if you really have a mind--by which
is meant that rare and curious power of reason, of imagination, and
of emotion; very different from a mere fertility of conversation and
intelligent curiosity--it is better not to weary and wear it out over
trifles.

So, when he left the store in the evening, no matter how his legs ached,
his head was clear and untarnished. He did not hurry away at closing
time. Places where people work are particularly fascinating after
the bustle is over. He loved to