“Occasionally one meets people who don’t know what they do want!
“‘Well, I reckon I do. And it don’t happen to be carpet slippers. I’d look a guy. What are you taking off that shoe for anyway? That foot’s all right!’
“‘It wouldn’t be right long. One flat shoe and one French heel make a poor pair. You are going to wear both.’
“‘They’re miles too large. They’d fall off on the road.’
“‘Oh, no they won’t. I’ll take care of that,’ he said coolly, and took from his pocket two strong black bootlaces which he proceeded to criss-cross over the instep and round the ankles. She sat quite still watching him, her eyes very bright, her hands twisted together on her lap. When he had finished she put out her feet and stared at them—they did look boats!—then she looked down at him. He was still kneeling, and there was not a sound to be heard in that kitchen but the tick of the old clock and the beat, beat, beat of Pixie O’Shaughnessy’s heart.
“‘Don’t you care,’ said she softly, ‘a mite how—I—look?’
“‘Not a mite,’ says he coolly. ‘I care how you feel!’
“There was a look in his eyes which was not carpet slippers, far from it, and Honor leaped up and swept to the door with what was intended to be a haughty ‘sweep,’ but the slippers pad-padded at each step in a sort of shuffle, which was the unhaughtiest thing you could possibly imagine. Then Mr Carr gathered up the two tiny brown shoes and dusted them carefully with his handkerchief, and slipped one into each pocket of his Norfolk coat. Honor never bothered about her shoes: I suppose you don’t when you own factories, but Mr Carr walked all the way with his hands in his pockets as if he had got something there that he liked to hold.
“The children of the village followed us as we went, and called out, ‘Hi, look at her feet! Hi, Miss, is there room for me in them slippers?’ as of course they would, bless them! And I will say for her she took it smiling.
“Two miles along the road the car met us, poor Dawson apoplectic with distress and confusion. The engine had gone wrong, and he had had a terrible time getting it put right, and was distracted because he could find no way of sending on the hampers. We tumbled in and whirled home in peace and safety, but some of us were glad it had not come before.