this counter a great deal of attention--to tell her correctly, so
she began to lie in wait for customers. Some came to her of their
own accord, and they smiled back into her eager, smiling face.

In two or three instances her intent black eyes and manner seemed
to attract attention and arrest the steps of those who had no
intention of stopping. One case was so marked that the alert foreman
drew near to note the result. An elderly lady, whose eye Belle had
apparently caught by a look of such vivacity and interest that the
woman almost felt that she had been spoken to, came to the girl,
saying, "Well, my child, what have you that is pretty to-day?"

"Just what will please you, madam."

"YOU please me, whether your ribbons will or not. It's pleasant
for a customer to be looked at as if she were not a nuisance," she
added significantly, and in a tone that Belle's companions, with
their cold, impassive faces, could not fail to hear. "You may pick
out something nice for one of my little granddaughters."

Dimpling with smiles and pleasure, Belle obeyed. Feeling that the eye
of the arbiter of their fates was upon them, the young women near
might have been statues in their rigid attitudes. Only the hot blood
mounting to their faces betrayed their anger. There was evidently
something wrong at the ribbon counter--something repressed, a
smouldering and increasing indignation, a suggestion of rebellion.
So the foreman evidently thought, from his frequent appearances;
so the floor-walker clearly surmised, for with imperious glances
and words he held each one sternly to her duty. Belle was smiling
and working in the midst of a gathering storm, and she was becoming