"I don't just like it," lied Katie.
Mrs. Binks blinked her bead-like eyes. That the girl's reply could be true was inconceivable.
"Try it on," she suggested.
"Where's the use? I don't want it."
"Oh, try it on anyway."
"I'll be too busy, Mrs. Binks. The customers 're startin' to pour in this very minute."
"Then try it on at your lunch time. I'll leave it handy here, over this chair."
She did leave it there all day long. Katie, whose one dress was now, in spite of endless feminine make-shifts, beginning to show wear, had to go through her task with the baited hook constantly dangling before her. Nevertheless, when the long-delayed closing hour arrived, the suit was just where Mrs. Binks had left it. Katie carefully abstained from touching it; she would not even put it away.
"What's this?" asked the mildly surprised owner, as she stumbled over the garment. "I declare it's that handsome walking-suit I wanted you to have, Miss Flanagan."
Katie turned and regarded the neglected garment precisely as Mrs. Binks was regarding it.