A Lickpenny Lover

by O. Henry

　　There, were 3,000 girls in the Biggest Store.Masie was one of them. She was eighteen and aselleslady in the gents' gloves. Here she becameversed in two varieties of human beings - the kind ofgents who buy their gloves in department stores andthe kind of women who buy gloves for unfortunategents. Besides this wide knowledge of the humanspecies, Masie had acquired other information. Shehad listened to the promulgated wisdom of the 2,999other girls and had stored it in a brain that was assecretive and wary as that of a Maltese cat. Perhaps nature, foreseeing that she would lack wisecounsellors, had mingled the saving ingredient ofshrewdness along with her beauty, as she has endowedthe silver fox of the priceless fur above the otheranimals with cunning.For Masie was beautiful. She was a deep-tintedblonde, with the calm poise of a lady who cooks buttercakes in a window. She stood behind her counter inthe Biggest Store; and as you closed your band overthe tape-line for your glove measure you thoughtof Hebe; and as you looked again you wondered howshe had come by Minerva's eyes.When the floorwalker was not looking Masiechewed tutti frutti; when he was looking she gazedup as if at the clouds and smiled wistfully.That is the shopgirl smile, and I enjoin you toshun it unless you are well fortified with callosity ofthe heart, caramels and a congeniality for the capersof Cupid. This smile belonged to Masie's recreationhours and not to the store; but the floorwalker musthave his own. He is the Shylock of the stores.When be comes nosing around the bridge of his noseis a toll-bridge. It is goo-goo eyes or "git" whenbe looks toward a pretty girl. Of course not all floor-walkers are thus. Only a few days ago the papersprinted news of one over eighty years of age.One day Irving Carter, painter, millionaire, trav-eller, poet, automobilist, happened to enter the Biggest Store. It is due to him to add that his visit wasnot voluntary. Filial duty took him by the collar anddragged him inside, while his mother philanderedamong the bronze and terra-cotta statuettes.Carter strolled across to the glove counter in orderto shoot a few minutes on the wing. His need forgloves was genuine; he had forgotten to bring a pairwith him. But his action hardly calls for apology, because he had never heard of glove-counter flirtations.As he neared the vicinity of his fate he hesitated,suddenly conscious of this unknown phase of Cupid'sless worthy profession.Three or four cheap fellows, sonorously garbed,were leaning over the counters, wrestling with themediatorial hand-coverings, while giggling girlsplayed vivacious seconds to their lead upon thestrident string of coquetry. Carter would have retreated, but he had gone too far. Masie confrontedhim behind her counter with a questioning look ineyes as coldly, beautifully, warmly blue as the glintof summer sunshine on an iceberg drifting in Southernseas.And then Irving Carter, painter, millionaire, etc.,felt a warm flush rise to his aristocratically pale face.But not from diffidence. The blush was intellectualin origin. He knew in a moment that he stood in theranks of the ready-made youths who wooed the giggling girls at other counters. Himself leaned againstthe oaken trysting place of a cockney Cupid with adesire in his heart for the favor of a glove salesgirl.He was no more than Bill and Jack and Mickey.And then be felt a sudden tolerance for them, andan elating, courageous contempt for the conventionsupon which he had fed, and an unhesitating deter-mination to have this perfect creature for his own.When the gloves were paid for and wrapped theCarter lingered for a moment. The dimples atcorners of Masie's damask mouth deepened. All gentlemen who bought gloves lingered in just that way.She curved an arm, showing like Psyche's throughher shirt-waist sleeve, and rested an elbow upon theshow-case edge.Carter had never before encountered a situation ofwhich he had not been perfect master. But now hestood far more awkward than Bill or Jack or Mickey.He had no chance of meeting this beautiful girl socially. His mind struggled to recall the nature andhabits of shopgirls as be had read or heard of them.Somehow be had received the idea that they sometimes did not insist too strictly upon the regularchannels of introduction. His heart beat loudly atthe thought of proposing an unconventional meetingwith this lovely and virginal being. But the tumultin his heart gave him courage.After a few friendly and well-received remarks ongeneral subjects, he laid his card by her hand on thecounter."Will you please pardon me," he said, "if I seemtoo bold; but I earnestly hope you will allow me thepleasure of seeing you again. There is my name; Iassure you that it is with the greatest respect thatI ask the favor of becoming one of your --acquaintances. May I not hope for the privilege?"Masie knew men - especially men who buy gloves.Without hesitation she looked him frankly and smilingly in the eyes, and said:"Sure. I guess you're all right. I don't usuallygo out with strange gentlemen, though. It ain'tquite ladylike. When should you want to see meagain?""As soon as I may," said Carter. "If you wouldallow me to call at your home, I -- "Masie laughed musically. "Oh, gee, no!" shesaid, emphatically. "If you could see our flat once!There's five of us in three rooms. I'd just like to seema's face if I was to bring a gentleman friendthere!""Anywhere, then," said the enamored Carter,"that will be convenient to you.""Say," suggested Masie, with a bright-idea lookin her peach-blow face; "I guess Thursday night willabout suit me. Suppose you come to the corner ofEighth Avenue and Forty-eighth Street at 7:30. Ilive right near the corner. But I've got to be backhome by eleven. Ma never lets me stay out aftereleven."Carter promised gratefully to keep the tryst, andthen hastened to his mother, who was looking aboutfor him to ratify her purchase of a bronze Diana.A salesgirl, with small eyes and an obtuse nose,strolled near Masie, with a friendly leer."Did you make a hit with his nobs, Mase?" sheasked, familiarly."The gentleman asked permission to call." answered Masie, with the grand air, as she slipped Car-ter's card into the bosom of her waist."Permission to call!" echoed small eyes, with asnigger. "Did he say anything about dinner in theWaldorf and a spin in his auto afterward?""Oh, cheese it!" said Masie, wearily. "You'vebeen used to swell things, I don't think. You've hada swelled bead ever since that hose-cart driver tookyou out to a chop suey joint. No, be never mentionedthe Waldorf; but there's a Fifth Avenue address onhis card, and if he buys the supper you can bet yourlife there won't be no pigtail on the waiter what takesthe order."As Carter glided away from the Biggest Storewith his mother in his electric runabout, he bit his lipwith a dull pain at his heart. He knew that love hadcome to him for the first time in all the twenty-nineyears of his life. And that the object of it shouldmake so readily an appointment with him at a streetcorner, though it was a step toward his desires, tortured him with misgivings.Carter did not know the shopgirl. He did notknow that her home is often either a scarcely habitable tiny room or a domicile filled to overflowing withkith and kin. The street-corner is her parlor, thepark is her drawing-room; the avenue is her gardenwalk; yet for the most part she is as inviolate mistress of herself in them as is my lady inside hertapestried chamber.One evening at dusk, two weeks after their firstmeeting, Carter and Masie strolled arm-in-arm into alittle, dimly-lit park. They found a bench, tree-shadowed and secluded, and sat there.For the first time his arm stole gently around her.Her golden-bronze head slid restfully against hisshoulder."Gee!" sighed Masie, thankfully. "Why didn'tyou ever think of that before?""Masie," said Carter, earnestly, "you surelyknow that I love you. I ask you sincerely to marryme. You know me well enough by this time to haveno doubts of me. I want you, and I must have you.I care nothing for the difference in our stations.""What is the difference?" asked Masie, curiously."Well, there isn't any," said Carter, quickly, "except in the minds of foolish people. It is in my powerto give you a life of luxury. My social position is beyond dispute, and my means are ample.""They all say that," remarked Masie. "It's thekid they all give you. I suppose you really work in adelicatessen or follow the races. I ain't as green asI look.""I can furnish you all the proofs you want," saidCarter, gently. "And I want you, Masie. I lovedyou the first day I saw you.""They all do," said Masie, with an amused laugh,"to hear 'em talk. If I could meet a man that gotstuck on me the third time he'd seen me I think I'dget mashed on him.""Please don't say such things," pleaded Carter."Listen to me, dear. Ever since I first looked intoyour eyes you have been the only woman in the worldfor me.""Oh, ain't you the kidder!" smiled Masie. "Howmany other girls did you ever tell that?"But Carter persisted. And at length be reachedthe flimsy, fluttering little soul of the shopgirl thatexisted somewhere deep down in her lovely bosom.His words penetrated the heart whose very lightnesswas its safest armor. She looked up at him with eyesthat saw. And a warm glow visited her cool cheeks.Tremblingly, awfully, her moth wings closed, andshe seemed about to settle upon the flower of love.Some faint glimmer of life and its possibilities onthe other side of her glove counter dawned upon her.Carter felt the change and crowded the opportunity."Marry me, Masie," be whispered softly, "and wewill go away from this ugly city to beautiful ones.We will forget work and business, and life will be onelong holiday. I know where I should take you - Ihave been there often. Just think of a shore wheresummer is eternal, where the waves are always rippling on the lovely beach and the people are happyand free as children. We will sail to those shores andremain there as long as you please. In one of thosefar-away cities there are grand and lovely palacesand towers full of beautiful pictures and statues.The streets of the city are water, and one travelsabout in --""I know," said Masie, sitting up suddenly."Gondolas.""Yes," smiled Carter."I thought so," said Masie."And then," continued Carter, "we will travel onand see whatever we wish in the world. After theEuropean cities we will visit India and the ancientcities there, and ride on elephants and see the wonderful temples of the Hindoos and Brahmins and theJapanese gardens and the camel trains and chariotraces in Persia, and all the queer sights of foreigncountries. Don't you think you would like it, Masie?Masie rose to her feet."I think we had better be going home," she said,coolly. "It's getting late."Carter humored her. He had come to know hervarying, thistle-down moods, and that it was uselessto combat them. But he felt a certain happy triumph.He had held for a moment, though but by a silkenthread, the soul of his wild Psyche, and hope wasstronger within him. Once she had folded her wingsand her cool hand had closed about his own.At the Biggest Store the next day Masie's chum,Lulu, waylaid her in an angle of the counter."How are you and your swell friend making it?she asked."Oh, him?" said Masie, patting her side curls."He ain't in it any more. Say, Lu, what do youthink that fellow wanted me to do?""Go on the stage?" guessed Lulu, breathlessly."Nit; he's too cheap a guy for that. He wantedme to marry him and go down to Coney Island fora wedding tour!"