new well, to return again; but not one in a
thousand was honest enough to make a confession of poverty! She lived
in an atmosphere of vanity and affectation, and put on her haughty
manners every morning with her black satin dress; but at night she was
only a poor, tired, working woman, going home to a dingy lodging, and
dividing her earnings with an invalid mother and a family of struggling
brothers and sisters. Her heart went out to this other girl who was so
evidently a lady despite her poverty, and when Bridgie mentioned a
ludicrously small sum as the limit to which she was prepared to go, she
showed neither surprise nor the thinly-veiled contempt which is usual
under the circumstances, but volunteered some really useful information
in its place.

"You will not be able to buy any ready-made costume for that price,
madam, but there will be a special sale of dress materials on Tuesday
next. If you could be here quite early in the morning, and go straight
to the counter under the clock, you would find some wonderful bargains.
I should advise you to leave it until then, but perhaps there is some
other department to which I could direct you."

"Thank you, I'm dreadfully tired. Could we go somewhere, and have a cup
of tea?"

The way was pointed out, and the sisters mounted the stairs once more,
took possession of a little table in a corner, and leant back wearily in
their chairs. The room was crowded like the others, but it was
comparatively quiet, for the ladies were resting after the fray,
stifling surreptitious yawns, and sipping tea with languid enjoyment.

It was a long time before Bridgie could find anyone to attend to her
wants, and meantime the temptation of the parcels lying before her was
too great to be resisted. "I really must look at those gloves and the
lace ties that are wrapped up with them! I never had so many new pairs
in my life, but they were so cheap that I hadn't the heart to leave
them. 'Twill be a refreshment to gloat over them until the tea comes!"
She untied the string and complacently folded back the paper, but, alas!
what was then revealed was the reverse of refreshing, for, in some
mysterious manner, the gloves and laces had disappeared, and in their
place lay a fragment of dull, prosaic flannel, at which the poor
bargain-hunter stared with dilated eyes.

"F-flannel!" she gasped. "Flannel! It was gloves when it was made up.
What's the matter with it--is it witchcraft?"

"I'd ca