“DO IT NOW!”
what was to be done being left to the imagination. All forenoon there had been a steady flow of customers, who came out of the shop with more than nuts or apples, greatly amazed at the change in the Pilgrim widow, who was cracking up her goods like any common sinner. Behind the railed and curtained box, in which she was supposed to keep her books and pray for the whole community, there seemed to be some secret stimulating influence, for when bad payers tried to-day to get a thing on credit, and she was on the point of yielding, she would dart into the box and out again as hard as steel, insisting that at every Revolutionary Sale the terms were cash. She was giving bargains, but at her own price, never at her customers', as it used to be. The Health Saline—extract of the finest fruit, Cooling, Refreshing, Invigorating, Tonic (though indeed it looked like an old friend from Rochelle with a dash of sugar and tartaric)—was down a ha'penny, to less than what it cost, according to another hand-done bill upon the counter. When they asked her how she could afford to sell the stuff below its cost, she seemed ashamed and startled, till she had a moment in behind the curtains, and then she told them it was all because of the large turn-over; she could not afford to sell the saline under cost if she did not sell it in tremendous quantities.
Did they want Ward's Matchless Polishing Paste?—alas! (after a dash behind the curtains) she was completely out of it. Of late it had been in such great demand that she got tired of ordering it every other week wholesale. Yes, she was out of Ward's, but (again the curtained box) what about this wonderful line in calf-foot jelly, highly praised by the—by the connoisseurs? What were connoisseurs? A connoisseur (again on reference behind the curtains) was one of those wealthy men who could swallow anything.
“I'll tell ye what it is,” said the tailor, “I see't at last! She's got a book in there; I've seen't before—The Way to Conduct a Retail Business—and when she runs behind, it's to see what she should say to the customers. That's where she got the notions for her window and the 'Do it Now!'”
But he was wrong—completely wrong, for when Kate came into the shop with “Have you seen Miss Lennox, Mrs. Wright? I sent her here a message hours ago,” Lennox herself came from the curtained box saying, “Hello, Kate; saw you first! What can we do for you to day?”
“My stars! you'll catch it!” said the maid. “They're waiting yonder on you for your dinner.”
“I was just heading for home,” said Bud, making for the door.
“My child! my child! my angel child!” cried the Pilgrim widow, going to kiss her, but Bud drew back.
“Not to-day, please; I'm miles too big for kissing to-day,” said she, and marched solemnly out of the Italian warehouse.
“What in the world were you doing away so long?” asked Kate. “Were you carrying on at anything?”