When Della reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence and reason. Grand as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old leather strap that he used in place of a chain. With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly anxious about the time in any company. Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 78 cents. Quietness and value-the description applied to both. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim's. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation-as all good things should do. There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside out. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. She was ransacking the stores for Jim's present. Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. "Twenty dollars," said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand. "Take yer hat off and let's have a sight at the looks of it." Madame, large, too white, chilly, hardly looked the "Sofronie." Hair Goods of All Kinds." One Eight up Della ran, and collected herself, panting. Where she stopped the sign read: "Mme Sofronie. With a whirl of skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she cluttered out of the door and down the stairs to the street. On went her old brown jacket on went her old brown hat. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet. And then she did it up again nervously and quickly. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her. So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her, rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy. Had the Queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out of the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty's jewels and gifts. One was Jim's gold watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's. Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. Short wedge haircut for older women full#Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length. Her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its colour within twenty seconds. Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. Della, being slender, had mastered the art. A very thin and very agile person may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Perhaps you have seen a pier-glass in an $8 Bat. Short wedge haircut for older women windows#There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Something fine and rare and sterling-something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honour of being owned by Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. To-morrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a grey cat walking a grey fence in a grey backyard. Which is all very good.ĭella finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called "Jim" and greatly hugged by Mrs. Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, the letters of "Dillingham" looked blurred, as though they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. The "Dillingham" had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name "Mr. In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the look-out for the mendicancy squad. While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating. There was clearly nothing left to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied.
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