guiding
parts. While heart, soul, and brain were bent dutifully and
indefatigably on the lingerie and infants'-wear job they also were
registering a series of kaleidoscopic outside impressions.

As she drove from her hotel to the wholesale district, and from the
wholesale district to her hotel, there had flashed across her
consciousness the picture of the chic little modistes' models and
_ouvrieres_ slipping out at noon to meet their lovers on the corner, to
sit over their _sirop_ or wine at some little near-by cafe, hands
clasped, eyes glowing.

Stepping out of the lift to ask for her room key, she had come on the
black-gowned floor clerk, deep in murmured conversation with the valet,
and she had seemed not to see Sophy at all as she groped subconsciously
for the key along the rows of keyboxes. She had seen the workmen in
their absurdly baggy corduroy trousers and grimy shirts strolling along
arm in arm with the women of their class--those untidy women with the
tidy hair. Bareheaded and happy, they strolled along, a strange contrast
to the glitter of the fashionable boulevard, stopping now and then to
gaze wide-eyed at a million-franc necklace in a jeweller's window; then
on again with a laugh and a shrug and a caress. She had seen the silent
couples in the Tuileries Gardens at twilight.

Once, in the Bois de Boulogne, a slim, sallow _elegant_ had bent for
what seemed an interminable time over a white hand that was stretched
from the window of a motor car. He was standing at the curb; in either
greeting or parting, and his eyes were fastened on other eyes within the
car even while his lips pressed the white hand.

Then one evening--Sophy reddened now at memory of it--she had turned a
quiet corner and come on a boy and a girl. The girl was shabby and
sixteen; the boy pale, voluble, smiling.

Evidently they were just parting. Suddenly, as she passed, the boy had
caught the girl in his arms there on the street corner in the daylight,
and had kissed her--not the quick, resounding smack of casual
leave-taking, but a long, silent kiss that left the girl limp.

Sophy stood rooted to the spot, between horror and fascination. The
boy's arm brought the girl upright and set her on her feet.

She took a long breath, straightened her hat, and ran on to rejoin her
girl friend awaiting her calmly up the street. She was not even flushed;
but Sophy was. Sophy was blushing hotly and burning uncomfortably, so
that her eyes smart