"Oh, that"s all right! I used to struggle, but I"m used to it now. It took me a long time to realise that this was my real face and the only kind I could ever expect to have."
The plump woman"s kindly face grew kinder.
"But you"re really not so--"
"Oh, yes, I am. Upholstering can"t change me. There are various kinds of homely women--some who are hideous in blue maybe, but who soften up in pink. Then there"s the one you read about, whose features are lighted up now and then by one of those rare, sweet smiles that make her plain face almost beautiful. But once in a while you find a woman who is ugly in any colour of the rainbow; who is ugly smiling or serious, talking or in repose, hair down low or hair done high--just plain dyed-in-the-wool, sewed-in-the-seam homely. I"m that kind. Here for a visit?"
"I"m a buyer," said the plump woman.
"Yes; I thought so. I"m the lingerie and infants"-wear buyer for Schiff, Chicago."
"A buyer!" The plump woman"s eyes jumped uncontrollably again to Sophy Gold"s scrambled features. "Well! My name"s Miss Morrissey--Ella Morrissey. Millinery for Abelman"s, Pittsburgh. And it"s no snap this year, with the shops showing postage-stamp hats one day and cart-wheels the next. I said this morning that I envied the head of the tinware department. Been over often?"
Sophy made the shamefaced confession of the novice: "My first trip."
The inevitable answer came:
"Your first! Really! This is my twentieth crossing. Been coming over twice a year for ten years. If there"s anything I can tell you, just ask. The first buying trip to Paris is hard until you know the ropes. Of course you love this town?"
Sophy Gold sat silent a moment, hesitating. Then she turned a puzzled face toward Miss Morrissey.
"What do people mean when they say they love Paris?"
Ella Morrissey stared. Then a queer look came into her face--a pitying sort of look. The shrewd eyes softened. She groped for words.
"When I first came over here, ten years ago, I--well, it would have been easier to tell you then. I don"t know--there"s something about Paris--something in the atmosphere--something in the air. It--it makes you do foolish things. It makes you feel queer and light and happy. It"s nothing you can put your finger on and say "That"s it!" But it"s there."
"Huh!" grunted Sophy Gold. "I suppose I could save myself a lot of trouble by saying that I feel it; but I don"t. I simply don"t react to this town. The only things I really like in Paris are the Tomb of Napoleon, the Seine at night, and the strawberry tart you get at Vian"s.
Of course the parks and boulevards are a marvel, but you can"t expect me to love a town for that. I"m no landscape gardener."
That pitying look deepened in Miss Morrissey"s eyes.
"Have you been out in the evening? The restaurants! The French women!
The life!"
Sophy Gold caught the pitying look and interpreted it without resentment; but there was perhaps an added acid in her tone when she spoke.
"I"m here to buy--not to play. I"m thirty years old, and it"s taken me ten years to work my way up to foreign buyer. I"ve worked. And I wasn"t handicapped any by my beauty. I"ve made up my mind that I"m going to buy the smoothest-moving line of French lingerie and infants" wear that Schiff Brothers ever had."
Miss Morrissey checked her.
"But, my dear girl, haven"t you been round at all?"
"Oh, a little; as much as a woman can go round alone in Paris--even a homely woman. But I"ve been disappointed every time. The noise drives me wild, to begin with. Not that I"m not used to noise. I am. I can stand for a town that roars, like Chicago. But this city yelps. I"ve been going round to the restaurants a little. At noon I always picked the restaurant I wanted, so long as I had to pay for the lunch of the _commissionnaire_ who was with me anyway. Can you imagine any man at home letting a woman pay for his meals the way those shrimpy Frenchmen do?
"Well, the restaurants were always jammed full of Americans. The men of the party would look over the French menu in a helpless sort of way, and then they"d say: "What do you say to a nice big steak with French-fried potatoes?" The waiter would give them a disgusted look and put in the order. They might just as well have been eating at a quick lunch place.
As for the French women, every time I picked what I took to be a real Parisienne coming toward me I"d hear her say as she pa.s.sed: "Henry, I"m going over to the Galerie Lafayette. I"ll meet you at the American Express at twelve. And, Henry, I think I"ll need some more money.""
Miss Ella Morrissey"s twinkling eyes almost disappeared in wrinkles of laughter; but Sophy Gold was not laughing. As she talked she gazed grimly ahead at the throng that shifted and glittered and laughed and chattered all about her.
"I stopped work early one afternoon and went over across the river.
Well! They may be artistic, but they all looked as though they needed a shave and a hair-cut and a square meal. And the girls!"
Ella Morrissey raised a plump, protesting palm.
"Now look here, child, Paris isn"t so much a city as a state of mind. To enjoy it you"ve got to forget you"re an American. Don"t look at it from a Chicago, Illinois, viewpoint. Just try to imagine you"re a mixture of Montmartre girl, Latin Quarter model and d.u.c.h.ess from the Champs elysees. Then you"ll get it."
"Get it!" retorted Sophy Gold. "If I could do that I wouldn"t be buying lingerie and infants" wear for Schiffs". I"d be crowding Duse and Bernhardt and Mrs. Fiske off the boards."
Miss Morrissey sat silent and thoughtful, rubbing one fat forefinger slowly up and down her knee. Suddenly she turned.
"Don"t be angry--but have you ever been in love?"
"Look at me!" replied Sophy Gold simply. Miss Morrissey reddened a little. "As head of the lingerie section I"ve selected trousseaus for I don"t know how many Chicago brides; but I"ll never have to decide whether I"ll have pink or blue ribbons for my own."
With a little impulsive gesture Ella Morrissey laid one hand on the shoulder of her new acquaintance.
"Come on up and visit me, will you? I made them give me an inside room, away from the noise. Too many people down here. Besides, I"d like to take off this armour-plate of mine and get comfortable. When a girl gets as old and fat as I am--"
"There are some letters I ought to get out," Sophy Gold protested feebly.
"Yes; I know. We all have; but there"s such a thing as overdoing this duty to the firm. You get up at six to-morrow morning and slap off those letters. They"ll come easier and sound less tired."
They made for the lift; but at its very gates:
"h.e.l.lo, little girl!" cried a masculine voice; and a detaining hand was laid on Ella Morrissey"s plump shoulder.
That lady recognised the voice and the greeting before she turned to face their source. Max Tack, junior partner in the firm of Tack Brothers, Lingerie and Infants" Wear, New York, held out an eager hand.
"h.e.l.lo, Max!" said Miss Morrissey not too cordially. "My, aren"t you dressy!"
He was undeniably dressy--not that only, but radiant with the self-confidence born of good looks, of well-fitting evening clothes, of a fresh shave, of glistening nails. Max Tack, of the hard eye and the soft smile, of the slim figure and the semi-bald head, of the flattering tongue and the business brain, bent his attention full on the very plain Miss Sophy Gold.
"Aren"t you going to introduce me?" he demanded.
Miss Morrissey introduced them, buyer fashion--names, business connection, and firms.
"I knew you were Miss Gold," began Max Tack, the honey-tongued. "Some one pointed you out to me yesterday. I"ve been trying to meet you ever since."
"I hope you haven"t neglected your business," said Miss Gold without enthusiasm.
Max Tack leaned closer, his tone lowered.
"I"d neglect it any day for you. Listen, little one: aren"t you going to take dinner with me some evening?"
Max Tack always called a woman "Little one." It was part of his business formula. He was only one of the wholesalers who go to Paris yearly ostensibly to buy models, but really to pay heavy diplomatic court to those hundreds of women buyers who flock to that city in the interests of their firms. To entertain those buyers who were interested in goods such as he manufactured in America; to win their friendship; to make them feel under obligation at least to inspect his line when they came to New York--that was Max Tack"s mission in Paris. He performed it admirably.
"What evening?" he said now. "How about to-morrow?" Sophy Gold shook her head. "Wednesday then? You stick to me and you"ll see Paris. Thursday?"