"Do you like it?"
"I should prefer the book department. That is up-stairs, on the second floor. My tastes are litery."
I am sure this was the word Ruth used. I was not disposed to criticise, however, only I wondered mildly how it happened that a young woman of literary tastes should make such a mistake.
"I suppose you are fond of reading?"
"Oh, yes, I have read considerable."
"What, for instance?"
"I have read one of Cooper's novels, I disremember the name, and the Gunmaker of Moscow, by Sylvanus Cobb, and Poe's Tales, but I didn't like them much, they are so queer, and—and ever so many others."
"I see you are quite a reader."
"I should read more and find out more about books if I was in the book department. A friend of mine—Mary Ann Toner—is up there, and she knows a lot about books and authors."
"Do any authors ever come in here, or rather to the book department?"