eis. By
the middle of the week the window itself was ravished of its show. By
the end of the week there remained only a handful of the duller and less
desirable pieces--the minor saints, so to speak. Saturday night Mrs.
Brandeis did a little figuring on paper. The lot had cost her two
hundred dollars. She had sold for six hundred. Two from six leaves four.
Four hundred dollars! She repeated it to herself, quietly. Her mind
leaped back to the plush photograph album, then to young Bauder and his
cool contempt. And there stole over her that warm, comfortable glow born
of reassurance and triumph. Four hundred dollars. Not much in these
days of big business. We said, you will remember, that it was a pitiful
enough little trick she turned to make it, though an honest one. And--in
the face of disapproval--a rather magnificent one too. For it gave to
Molly Brandeis that precious quality, self-confidence, out of which is
born success.

CHAPTER THREE

By spring Mrs. Brandeis had the farmer women coming to her for their
threshing dishes and kitchenware, and the West End Culture Club for
their whist prizes. She seemed to realize that the days of the general
store were numbered, and she set about making hers a novelty store.
There was something terrible about the earnestness with which she
stuck to business. She was not more than thirty-eight at this time,
intelligent, healthy, fun-loving. But she stayed at it all day. She
listened and chatted to every one, and learned much. There was about her
that human quality that invites confidence.

She made friends by the hundreds, and friends are a business asset.
Those blithe, dressy, and smooth-spoken gentlemen known as traveling men
used to tell her their troubles, perched on a stool near the stove, and
show her the picture of their girl in the back of their watch, and asked
her to dinner at the Haley House. She listened to their tale of woe,
and advised them; she admired the picture of the girl, and gave some
wholesome counsel on the subject of traveling men's lonely wives; but
she never went to dinner at the Haley House.

It had not taken these debonair young men long to learn that there was a
woman buyer who bought quickly, decisively, and intelligently, and that
she always demanded a duplicate slip. Even the most unscrupulous could
not stuff an order of hers, and when it came to dating she gave no
quarter. Though they wore clothes that were two leaps ahead of the
styles wor