Eleanor MORE walked away from the coat. She looked back at it across the glass case of fichus and ribbon bows, and went on down the aisle of show-cases to the coats and suits at the end. Stewart’s was having a sale of coats and suits, and Eleanor More was there—not because she could afford to buy anything, even at a sale, but because she was a woman.
She had been passing the store and seen the crowd pressing in through the wide doors... She had hesitated a minute and gone in.
It was nearly six o’clock now, and the crowd had thinned. Here and there a wandering figure could be seen, half ready for flight, pausing to peck at some bargain crumb; and helpers with long gray covers were appearing and shrouding the glass cases and counters for the night. The light in the shop began to seem gray and a little ghostly; out of it the gold and blue colors of the Chinese coat gleamed freshly, like a bit of Oriental flame caught in this dull sale of Western goods and held fast.
Eleanor More glanced at the coat again—down through the gray-shrouded counters. Then she turned swiftly and went back. It stood by itself on its dummy figure at the end of the glass cases; in the fading light from a window above, the fantastic gold shadows of the dragons chased each other and played hazily across it.
She halted before it, and half reached out her hand to it.
A woman with a large bust and paper cuffs on her sleeves came drifting toward her. “Anything I can show you, madam?”
Eleanor More looked up. “I was looking at this coat.” Her hand moved vaguely to the dragons.
The woman’s eyes followed the gesture. “It’s a great bargain!” She put out her hand to it.
“Would you like to slip it on?”
Eleanor More drew back. “Oh—I wasn’t thinking of buying. I was looking. I just happened—to see it——”
The woman’s hands were busy with the neck of the coat. She slipped it deftly from the lay figure and held it up. “No harm in trying,” she said.
Eleanor More looked at it and drew away—and came back. She held out her hands with a little laughing gesture.
“No—I cannot afford—” She put her hands into the blue sleeves with the quaint trailing ends and drew it up about her.
The woman gave a little pat to the shoulders and smiled, pointing to a long mirror at the right.
Eleanor More moved to the mirror; she stood looking at herself.
Behind her stretched the gray counters—shrouded in for the night’s rest. Only a figure here and there was visible in the distance. Her eyes caught the empty spaces behind her.
“It is late!” she said hastily. “I am keeping you!” She looked over her shoulder at the woman who seemed, in the gray light, receding dimly.
But she came forward with a smile. “There is no hurry.” She touched the coat and adjusted it.
“It suits you perfectly!”
Eleanor More glanced again into the long mirror. The blue and gold covered her from head to foot; and above it, her face looked out at her, a little mistily, and smiled to her.
She shook her head and the mirrored lady shook her head—slowly. Then they both smiled radiantly and the gold dragons crumpled their tails as the coat was flung swiftly back.
“I don’t know why I put it on! I think it bewitched me! Here—take it! Thank you very much.” She spoke—half under her breath, and the woman took the coat in her hands. She stood smoothing the folds.
“It is a great bargain—marked down for to-day.” She touched the tag with casual finger, and Eleanor’s eyes followed the motion.
“I know—It’s absurdly cheap—and very beautiful! But I simply cannot afford it! Thank you for showing it to me—so late!” She moved, a little blindly, toward the stairs. The elevator had ceased to run.
When she was gone the woman stood with the coat in her hand irresolute. A helper coming by with an armful of gray covers cast a flitting glance at it.
“Want a top?”
But she shook her head. “I will put it in the box for to-night.”
The helper went on down the aisle. The woman drew a box from beneath the counter and folded the dragons with careful hand, and smoothed their tails and placed the coat in its box. Through a bit of tissue-paper across the top of the blue and gold it gleamed and shimmered softly, and the woman brushed light finger-tips across it as she pressed the paper down and tucked it in and set the box aside.
Then she went down the room, and disappeared among the shadows of counters and cases, and the shop was left alone. Darkness slipped in from outside, and pushed the grayness before it. It clothed the dummy figure in black, and descended on the box of dragons, blotting it out. It covered the whole room.
In the darkness beneath the counter lay the Chinese coat, with its bit of tissue-paper lying across the glory of blue and gold, safely tucked away.
Only the vast oblongs of windows remained to show faintly, against the street outside, where the light came in.
THAT night she dreamed of the coat. She saw its soft folds descending on her out of the sky, and she held up her hands to it and caught it to her and wrapped it about her and ran in the wind, singing. And all the dragons came alive and pranced beside her—and she threw off the coat and ran with the dragons, unclothed. And the freedom of it was like life—flooding down on her out of the sky; and then the dragons moved from her—they were receding into the distance, their great heads held high; and she ran, stumbling, after them, alone and naked—and suddenly she was in a crowded street and the people were looking at her, and shame drew about her as a vast garment; she shrank back into it, trying to hide—but there was no cover for her—and she woke with a dry, choking sob.
She got carefully out of bed and tiptoed from the room, closing the door behind her. In the next room, she could see the daylight straggling through the curtains. She threw up the shades and watched it come. A flush of light was in the sky over the mean little houses at the rear; even the houses themselves, not yet touched by the light, had a fresh, waiting look; and in the chicken-yards the hens ran about busily, pecking at something, or nothing. In one of the vacant lots a man was hoeing. His bent back had a look of strength. As she watched him, he stopped his work a moment and looked up at the sky. Then he went on hoeing, with slow strokes.
The rooms were filled with light when she came from her bath; and she threw open the windows, and went about getting breakfast with quick steps.
She put the plates on the table and paused and went to the door and opened it. The little porch outside, half-shaded with vines, was streaked with sunshine along the floor. She stepped out on to it, holding out her hand, as if to test the warmth.
She drew a table from the wall and brought a cloth for it and laid the table for breakfast on the porch.
Presently she looked up. A man in the doorway was surveying her with a smile.
She came across to him and lifted her face.
He bent to kiss it. “Up early, weren’t you!”
“I couldn’t sleep—Do you like it—out here?” She waved her hand.
“Fine!” He surveyed the table. “Couldn’t be beat! Shall I bring things out?”
“I was afraid you might not like it.” She poured his coffee. “Father never liked it—eating out-of-doors—at home.”
“This is home,” said the man. He was sipping his coffee and looking contentedly at the vine-shadows on the floor.
“My other home, I mean.”
“You never had any other home.”
“Well—what I called home—till I knew better!” She laughed the words at him, and he nodded gravely.
“Father used to wear his hat—some days his muffler—if we tried to eat out-of-doors. So we gave it up. I am glad you like it!”
She fell silent, watching the shadows; and he watched her face. She was quiet a long time.
The man finished his breakfast—he looked at her.
“What are you thinking of?” he asked.
She started. “Oh—I—Nothing very much.” She flashed a little look at him and got up from the table.
“Better tell me,” he suggested.
“It wasn’t anything—not anything that will ever be—anything.” She began to gather up dishes.
“Made you look pretty happy,” he said.
“Did it?” she laughed out. She stood a moment, looking thoughtfully at the vine-shadows on the cloth.... “It was a coat I saw at Stewart’s, yesterday—a perfectly absurd coat—for me!”
“No coat could be absurd for you—not if you wanted it!”
“Yes—I wanted it—I suppose.” She looked again at the white cloth and waited. “I think it bewitched me.... It was a Chinese coat, you see!”
He looked at her blankly. “A Chinese coat—for you!”
She nodded. “I told you it was absurd!”
“Well—” He regarded it thoughtfully. “If you want it... But what could you do with—a Chinese coat?”
“That’s what I don’t know.” She was very meek. “I just seemed to think—I wanted it.”
“You couldn’t wear it to church?”
“No-o—” She hesitated. “I could wear it to the opera—if we should go.”
He laughed out. “And to the circus!” He came around and touched her hair where the light fell on it. “How much did it cost—this Chinese thingumabob?”
“Fifty dollars—” It came out slowly—and he whistled softly between his teeth.
“For the opera!” he said.
She threw out her hands. “Of course I didn’t mean it! But you asked me—what I was thinking about——”
“Of course I did!” He was prompt. “And I’ll see what we have—to spare.”
He moved toward the door. “Sure you couldn’t use it for anything else”—he looked back over his shoulder—“except the opera?”
“Well—I could make a kimono of it.” She glanced at him half-pleadingly—then she laughed out. “I don’t want the old thing! I don’t know why I told you!”
If she thought of the coat through the day, there was no sign of it in her face. She went about her work with busy, preoccupied look. She did the dishes, and dusted and made beds and went to market; and after luncheon, which she had by herself on the porch, she lay down, a little while, watching the streaks of light that came through the blind-slats and fell across the matting, and almost reached to the bed... and when she saw them again, they were lying along the pillow close to her—and it was five o’clock.
She sprang up with a little exclamation and hurried to the kitchen.
But, after all, Richard was late, and everything was ready when he came.
He cast a happy look about the room,
“Nice home!” he said.
She smiled and set the dinner on the table.
“You were late.”
“Well, rather! It’s been a great day—” He looked at her thoughtfully across the table, and took up the carving-knife and tested it gently on his thumb. “Martin came in—about the lot, next door!”
She glanced quickly at him. “What did he say?”
“Said he’s ready—to sell.”
They were both silent.
Presently she gave a little sigh. “Well, of course we can’t—But it’s too bad!”
He looked at her, smiling. “That’s the queer thing! It’s just possible——”
“What do you mean?”
“Well—I’d been looking things over—about your Chinese coat, you know——”
“Oh-h!” Her glance held his.
He nodded. “I’d made up my mind to get it for you—if it took our last
“But I told you—”
He held up a hand. “And I’d just figured out how I could do it—when Martin came in and offered the lot for three hundred—fifty dollars down.”
Her eyes were on his face.
“Of course, yesterday, or day before, I should have said—we couldn’t do it.... But there was the money—in my hand, practically.”
“Did you give it to him?” She leaned forward, a little breathless.
He looked at her. “Do you think I did?”
“Why—I—don’t know.”
He got up and came over to her and bent down. “It is your Chinese coat!” he said. “You didn’t suppose I was going to mortgage your possessions—without letting you know!”
“You mean I can have it—the coat!” She had clasped her hands—she was gazing at something far beyond him—far beyond the room, it seemed.
He watched her face a minute. “You sure can have your coat—if you want it!” he said softly.
She drew a long breath and the light ran back into her face, flooding it.
“Oh—!” She threw out her hands. “I don’t want it!—I just wanted to be sure I could want it—if I wanted to!”
“I know.” He looked down at her with quiet understanding.
“So it is the lot?” he said.
“Of course it is the lot! Go and eat your dinner, silly boy!”
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