CHAPTER XIV THE DRESS PARADE
"Oh dear," sighed Dorothy, falling limply into a handsomely upholsteredrocker in the comfortable resting-room of the shop, half an hour afterthey had left Miss Mingle, "I'm completely exhausted!" She carriedseveral parcels, which she dropped listlessly on a nearby couch, on whichTavia was resting.
"How mildly you express it!" cried Tavia, "I'm just simply dead! Don'tthe crowds and the lights and confusion tire one, though! I'll own up,that for just one wee moment to-day, I thought of Dalton, and itspeaceful quiet and the blue sky and--those things, you know," she hastilyended, always afraid of being sentimental.
"I shouldn't want to think that all my days were destined to be spent inNew York. It makes a lovely holiday place, but I like the country," saidDorothy, as she watched a young girl, shabbily dressed, eating some fruitfrom a bag.
Tavia watched her too. "At least, the monotony of the country can alwaysbe overcome by simple pleasures, but here there is no escape to thepeaceful--the temptations are too many. For instance," Tavia jumped fromher restful position, and sat before a writing table, and the shabbyyoung girl who was eating an orange, stopped eating to stare at theschoolgirl. "Who wouldn't just write to one's worst enemy, if there wasno one else, just to use these darling little desks!"
"And the paper is monogramed," exclaimed Dorothy, regaining an interestin things. "What stunning paper!" She, too, drew up a chair to the daintymahogany table and grasping a pen said: "We simply must write to someone.This is too alluring to pass by."
"Here goes one to Ned Ebony," and Tavia dipped the pen into the ink andwrote rapidly in a large scrawling hand.
"Mine will be to--Aunt Winnie," said Dorothy, laughing.
The shabby girl finished her orange, and picking up a small bundle, tookone lingering look at the happy young girls at the writing desks and leftthe resting room.
"Aren't we the frivolous things," said Tavia, "writing the most perfectnonsense to our friends merely because we found a dainty writing table!"
"With the most generous supply of writing paper!" said Dorothy. "But thecouches and chairs in this room are too tempting to keep me at thewriting desk." Dorothy sealed her letter and again curled up in thespacious rocking chair.
"And while we are resting, we can study art," exclaimed Tavia, gazing atthe oil paintings and tapestry that adorned the walls.
A woman, with a grand assortment of large bundles and small children,tried to get them all into her arms at once, preparatory to leaving theresting room, but found it so difficult that she sat down once more andlaughed good-naturedly, while the children scrambled about the place,loath to leave such comfortable quarters. Dorothy watched with interest,and wondered how any woman could ever venture out with so many smallchildren clinging to her for protection, to do a day's shopping. Taviawas more interested in art at that moment.
"Why go to the art museums?" she asked, "we can do that part on our tripright here and now; we only lack catalogues."
"And we can do nicely without them," said Dorothy, dragging her wanderingattention back to Tavia. "I can enjoy all these pictures without knowingwho painted them. We can have just five minutes more in this palatialroom, and then we simply must go on."
And five minutes after the hour, Dorothy persuaded Tavia to leave theideal spot, and, entering the elevator, they were whirled upward to thedress parade.
Roped off from the velvet, carpeted sales floors, numerous statuesquegirls paraded about, dressed in garments to charm the eye of allbeholders--to lure the very short and stout person into purchasing agarment that looked divine on a willowy six-foot model; or, a wee bit ofa lady into thinking that she can no longer exist, unless robed in acloak of sable. But neither Dorothy nor Tavia cared much for the lure ofthe gorgeous garments, they were too awed at the moment to yearn foranything. A frail, ethereal creature, with a face of such delicacy andwistfulness, so dainty and graceful, with a little dimpled smile abouther lips, passed the country girls and after that the girls could seenothing else in the room. They sat down and just watched her. A trailingrobe of black velvet seemed almost too heavy for her slender whiteshoulders, and a large hat with snow white plume curling over the rim ofthe hat and encircling her bare throat, like a serpent, framed herflushed face.
"There," breathed Tavia, "is the prettiest face I've ever dreamed ofseeing."
"She's more than pretty, she has a soul," said Dorothy, reverently."There is something so wistful about her smile and the tired droop of hershoulders. I feel that I could love her!"
"She has put on an ermine wrap over the velvet gown," said Tavia.Shrinking behind Dorothy she said impulsively: "Dare we speak to her? Itmust be the most wonderful thing in the world to have a face like that!And to spend all her days just wearing beautiful gowns!"
"She wears them so differently from the others here," declared Dorothy."She's strikingly cool, so far beyond her immediate surroundings."
"I think she must be a princess," said Tavia, in a solemn voice, "no oneelse could look like that and stroll about with such an air!"
"I think she is someone who has been wealthy and is now very poor," saidDorothy, tenderly. "How she must detest being stared at all day long!This work, no doubt, is all she is fitted for, having been reared to donothing but wear clothes charmingly."
"She's changing her hat now," said Tavia, watching the model as she wasarrayed in a different hat. "We might just walk past and smile. I shallalways feel unsatisfied if we cannot hear her voice."
Together they timidly stepped near the wistful-eyed girl with the flushedface.
"You must grow so very tired," said Dorothy, sympathetically.
A cool stare was the only reply.
"Hurry with the boa, you poky thing," came from the red, pouting lips ofthe wistful-eyed girl, ignoring Dorothy and Tavia as though they werepart of the building's masonry. "I ain't got all day to wait! Gotta showten more hats before closing. Hurry up there, you girls, you make me mad!Now you hurry, or I'll report you!" and turning gracefully, she tiltedher chin to just the right angle, the shrinking, wistful smile appearedon her lips, the tired droop slipped to her shoulders, all the air ofcharm covered her like a mantle, and again she started down the strip ofcarpet, leaving behind her two sadly disillusioned young girls.
"Let us go right straight home," said Dorothy. "One never knows what tobelieve is real in this hub-bub place."
"We might have forgiven her anything," said Tavia, "if she had beenwistfully angry, or charmingly bossy; but to think that ethereal creaturecould turn into just a plain, everyday mortal!"
"The flowers were mostly artificial, the bargain counters mere stoppingplaces for pickpockets, and the most beautiful girl was rude!" criedDorothy.
"We must be tired; all things can't be wrong," said Tavia,philosophically.
"We'll take a taxi home," said Dorothy, "Come on."