The Trimmed Lamp

by O. Henry

Of course there are two sides to the question. Let us look at theother. We often hear "shop-girls" spoken of. No such persons exist.There are girls who work in shops. They make their living thatway. But why turn their occupation into an adjective? Let us befair. We do not refer to the girls who live on Fifth Avenue as"marriage-girls."Lou and Nancy were chums. They came to the big city to find workbecause there was not enough to eat at their homes to go around.Nancy was nineteen; Lou was twenty. Both were pretty, active,country girls who had no ambition to go on the stage.The little cherub that sits up aloft guided them to a cheap andrespectable boarding-house. Both found positions and becamewage-earners. They remained chums. It is at the end of six monthsthat I would beg you to step forward and be introduced to them.Meddlesome Reader: My Lady friends, Miss Nancy and Miss Lou.While you are shaking hands please take notice--cautiously--oftheir attire. Yes, cautiously; for they are as quick to resent astare as a lady in a box at the horse show is.Lou is a piece-work ironer in a hand laundry. She is clothed in abadly-fitting purple dress, and her hat plume is four inches toolong; but her ermine muff and scarf cost $25, and its fellow beastswill be ticketed in the windows at $7.98 before the season is over.Her cheeks are pink, and her light blue eyes bright. Contentmentradiates from her.Nancy you would call a shop-girl--because you have the habit. Thereis no type; but a perverse generation is always seeking a type; sothis is what the type should be. She has the high-ratted pompadour,and the exaggerated straight-front. Her skirt is shoddy, but has thecorrect flare. No furs protect her against the bitter spring air,but she wears her short broadcloth jacket as jauntily as thoughit were Persian lamb! On her face and in her eyes, remorselesstype-seeker, is the typical shop-girl expression. It is a look ofsilent but contemptuous revolt against cheated womanhood; of sadprophecy of the vengeance to come. When she laughs her loudest thelook is still there. The same look can be seen in the eyes of Russianpeasants; and those of us left will see it some day on Gabriel'sface when he comes to blow us up. It is a look that should witherand abash man; but he has been known to smirk at it and offerflowers--with a string tied to them.Now lift your hat and come away, while you receive Lou's cheery"See you again," and the sardonic, sweet smile of Nancy that seems,somehow, to miss you and go fluttering like a white moth up over thehousetops to the stars.The two waited on the corner for Dan. Dan was Lou's steady company.Faithful? Well, he was on hand when Mary would have had to hire adozen subpoena servers to find her lamb."Ain't you cold, Nance?" said Lou. "Say, what a chump you are forworking in that old store for $8. a week! I made $l8.50 last week.Of course ironing ain't as swell work as selling lace behind acounter, but it pays. None of us ironers make less than $10. And Idon't know that it's any less respectful work, either.""You can have it," said Nancy, with uplifted nose. "I'll take my eighta week and hall bedroom. I like to be among nice things and swellpeople. And look what a chance I've got! Why, one of our glove girlsmarried a Pittsburg--steel maker, or blacksmith or something--theother day worth a million dollars. I'll catch a swell myself sometime. I ain't bragging on my looks or anything; but I'll take mychances where there's big prizes offered. What show would a girlhave in a laundry?""Why, that's where I met Dan," said Lou, triumphantly. "He came infor his Sunday shirt and collars and saw me at the first board,ironing. We all try to get to work at the first board. Ella Maginniswas sick that day, and I had her place. He said he noticed my armsfirst, how round and white they was. I had my sleeves rolled up.Some nice fellows come into laundries. You can tell 'em by theirbringing their clothes in suit cases; and turning in the door sharpand sudden.""How can you wear a waist like that, Lou?" said Nancy, gazing downat the offending article with sweet scorn in her heavy-lidded eyes."It shows fierce taste.""This waist?" cried Lou, with wide-eyed indignation. "Why, I paid$16. for this waist. It's worth twenty-five. A woman left it to belaundered, and never called for it. The boss sold it to me. It's gotyards and yards of hand embroidery on it. Better talk about thatugly, plain thing you've got on.""This ugly, plain thing," said Nancy, calmly, "was copied from onethat Mrs. Van Alstyne Fisher was wearing. The girls say her bill inthe store last year was $12,000. I made mine, myself. It cost me$1.50. Ten feet away you couldn't tell it from hers.""Oh, well," said Lou, good-naturedly, "if you want to starve and puton airs, go ahead. But I'll take my job and good wages; and afterhours give me something as fancy and attractive to wear as I am ableto buy."But just then Dan came--a serious young man with a ready-made necktie,who had escaped the city's brand of frivolity--an electrician earning30 dollars per week who looked upon Lou with the sad eyes of Romeo,and thought her embroidered waist a web in which any fly shoulddelight to be caught."My friend, Mr. Owens--shake hands with Miss Danforth," said Lou."I'm mighty glad to know you, Miss Danforth," said Dan, withoutstretched hand. "I've heard Lou speak of you so often.""Thanks," said Nancy, touching his fingers with the tips of her coolones, "I've heard her mention you--a few times."Lou giggled."Did you get that handshake from Mrs. Van Alstyne Fisher, Nance?"she asked."If I did, you can feel safe in copying it," said Nancy."Oh, I couldn't use it, at all. It's too stylish for me. It'sintended to set off diamond rings, that high shake is. Wait till Iget a few and then I'll try it.""Learn it first," said Nancy wisely, "and you'll be more likely toget the rings.""Now, to settle this argument," said Dan, with his ready, cheerfulsmile, "let me make a proposition. As I can't take both of you upto Tiffany's and do the right thing, what do you say to a littlevaudeville? I've got the rickets. How about looking at stagediamonds since we can't shake hands with the real sparklers?"The faithful squire took his place close to the curb; Lou next, alittle peacocky in her bright and pretty clothes; Nancy on theinside, slender, and soberly clothed as the sparrow, but with thetrue Van Alstyne Fisher walk--thus they set out for their evening'smoderate diversion.I do not suppose that many look upon a great department store as aneducational institution. But the one in which Nancy worked wassomething like that to her. She was surrounded by beautiful thingsthat breathed of taste and refinement. If you live in an atmosphereof luxury, luxury is yours whether your money pays for it, oranother's.The people she served were mostly women whose dress, manners, andposition in the social world were quoted as criterions. From themNancy began to take toll--the best from each according to her view.From one she would copy and practice a gesture, from another aneloquent lifting of an eyebrow, from others, a manner of walking, ofcarrying a purse, of smiling, of greeting a friend, of addressing"inferiors in station." From her best beloved model, Mrs. VanAlstyne Fisher, she made requisition for that excellent thing, asoft, low voice as clear as silver and as perfect in articulationas the notes of a thrush. Suffused in the aura of this high socialrefinement and good breeding, it was impossible for her to escape adeeper effect of it. As good habits are said to be better than goodprinciples, so, perhaps, good manners are better than good habits.The teachings of your parents may not keep alive your New Englandconscience; but if you sit on a straight-back chair and repeat thewords "prisms and pilgrims" forty times the devil will flee fromyou. And when Nancy spoke in the Van Alstyne Fisher tones she feltthe thrill of _noblesse oblige_ to her very bones.There was another source of learning in the great departmentalschool. Whenever you see three or four shop-girls gather in a bunchand jingle their wire bracelets as an accompaniment to apparentlyfrivolous conversation, do not think that they are there for thepurpose of criticizing the way Ethel does her back hair. The meetingmay lack the dignity of the deliberative bodies of man; but ithas all the importance of the occasion on which Eve and her firstdaughter first put their heads together to make Adam understand hisproper place in the household. It is Woman's Conference for CommonDefense and Exchange of Strategical Theories of Attack and Repulseupon and against the World, which is a Stage, and Man, its Audiencewho Persists in Throwing Bouquets Thereupon. Woman, the mosthelpless of the young of any animal--with the fawn's grace butwithout its fleetness; with the bird's beauty but without its powerof flight; with the honey-bee's burden of sweetness but withoutits--Oh, let's drop that simile--some of us may have been stung.During this council of war they pass weapons one to another, andexchange stratagems that each has devised and formulated out of thetactics of life."I says to 'im," says Sadie, "ain't you the fresh thing! Who do yousuppose I am, to be addressing such a remark to me? And what do youthink he says back to me?"The heads, brown, black, flaxen, red, and yellow bob together; theanswer is given; and the parry to the thrust is decided upon, to beused by each thereafter in passages-at-arms with the common enemy,man.Thus Nancy learned the art of defense; and to women successfuldefense means victory.The curriculum of a department store is a wide one. Perhaps no othercollege could have fitted her as well for her life's ambition--thedrawing of a matrimonial prize.Her station in the store was a favored one. The music room was nearenough for her to hear and become familiar with the works of thebest composers--at least to acquire the familiarity that passed forappreciation in the social world in which she was vaguely tryingto set a tentative and aspiring foot. She absorbed the educatinginfluence of art wares, of costly and dainty fabrics, of adornmentsthat are almost culture to women.The other girls soon became aware of Nancy's ambition. "Here comesyour millionaire, Nancy," they would call to her whenever any manwho looked the role approached her counter. It got to be a habit ofmen, who were hanging about while their women folk were shopping, tostroll over to the handkerchief counter and dawdle over the cambricsquares. Nancy's imitation high-bred air and genuine dainty beautywas what attracted. Many men thus came to display their gracesbefore her. Some of them may have been millionaires; others werecertainly no more than their sedulous apes. Nancy learned todiscriminate. There was a window at the end of the handkerchiefcounter; and she could see the rows of vehicles waiting for theshoppers in the street below. She looked and perceived thatautomobiles differ as well as do their owners.Once a fascinating gentleman bought four dozen handkerchiefs, andwooed her across the counter with a King Cophetua air. When he hadgone one of the girls said:"What's wrong, Nance, that you didn't warm up to that fellow. Helooks the swell article, all right, to me.""Him?" said Nancy, with her coolest, sweetest, most impersonal, VanAlstyne Fisher smile; "not for mine. I saw him drive up outside. A12 H. P. machine and an Irish chauffeur! And you saw what kind ofhandkerchiefs he bought--silk! And he's got dactylis on him. Give methe real thing or nothing, if you please."Two of the most "refined" women in the store--a forelady and acashier--had a few "swell gentlemen friends" with whom they now andthen dined. Once they included Nancy in an invitation. The dinnertook place in a spectacular cafe whose tables are engaged for NewYear's eve a year in advance. There were two "gentlemen friends"--onewithout any hair on his head--high living ungrew it; and we can proveit--the other a young man whose worth and sophistication he impressedupon you in two convincing ways--he swore that all the wine wascorked; and he wore diamond cuff buttons. This young man perceivedirresistible excellencies in Nancy. His taste ran to shop-girls; andhere was one that added the voice and manners of his high socialworld to the franker charms of her own caste. So, on the followingday, he appeared in the store and made her a serious proposal ofmarriage over a box of hem-stitched, grass-bleached Irish linens.Nancy declined. A brown pompadour ten feet away had been using hereyes and ears. When the rejected suitor had gone she heaped carboysof upbraidings and horror upon Nancy's head."What a terrible little fool you are! That fellow's a millionaire--he'sa nephew of old Van Skittles himself. And he was talking on the level,too. Have you gone crazy, Nance?""Have I?" said Nancy. "I didn't take him, did I? He isn't a millionaireso hard that you could notice it, anyhow. His family only allows him$20,000 a year to spend. The bald-headed fellow was guying him about itthe other night at supper."The brown pompadour came nearer and narrowed her eyes."Say, what do you want?" she inquired, in a voice hoarse for lack ofchewing-gum. "Ain't that enough for you? Do you want to be a Mormon,and marry Rockefeller and Gladstone Dowie and the King of Spain andthe whole bunch? Ain't $20,000 a year good enough for you?"Nancy flushed a little under the level gaze of the black, shalloweyes."It wasn't altogether the money, Carrie," she explained. "His friendcaught him in a rank lie the other night at dinner. It was aboutsome girl he said he hadn't been to the theater with. Well, I can'tstand a liar. Put everything together--I don't like him; and thatsettles it. When I sell out it's not going to be on any bargain day.I've got to have something that sits up in a chair like a man,anyhow. Yes, I'm looking out for a catch; but it's got to be able todo something more than make a noise like a toy bank.""The physiopathic ward for yours!" said the brown pompadour, walkingaway.These high ideas, if not ideals--Nancy continued to cultivate on $8.per week. She bivouacked on the trail of the great unknown "catch,"eating her dry bread and tightening her belt day by day. On herface was the faint, soldierly, sweet, grim smile of the preordainedman-hunter. The store was her forest; and many times she raised herrifle at game that seemed broad-antlered and big; but always somedeep unerring instinct--perhaps of the huntress, perhaps of thewoman--made her hold her fire and take up the trail again.Lou flourished in the laundry. Out of her $18.50 per week she paid$6. for her room and board. The rest went mainly for clothes. Heropportunities for bettering her taste and manners were few comparedwith Nancy's. In the steaming laundry there was nothing but work,work and her thoughts of the evening pleasures to come. Many costlyand showy fabrics passed under her iron; and it may be that hergrowing fondness for dress was thus transmitted to her through theconducting metal.When the day's work was over Dan awaited her outside, her faithfulshadow in whatever light she stood.Sometimes he cast an honest and troubled glance at Lou's clothesthat increased in conspicuity rather than in style; but this was nodisloyalty; he deprecated the attention they called to her in thestreets.And Lou was no less faithful to her chum. There was a law that Nancyshould go with them on whatsoever outings they might take. Dan borethe extra burden heartily and in good cheer. It might be said thatLou furnished the color, Nancy the tone, and Dan the weight of thedistraction-seeking trio. The escort, in his neat but obviouslyready-made suit, his ready-made tie and unfailing, genial, ready-madewit never startled or clashed. He was of that good kind that you arelikely to forget while they are present, but remember distinctlyafter they are gone.To Nancy's superior taste the flavor of these ready-made pleasureswas sometimes a little bitter: but she was young; and youth is agourmand, when it cannot be a gourmet."Dan is always wanting me to marry him right away," Lou told heronce. "But why should I? I'm independent. I can do as I please withthe money I earn; and he never would agree for me to keep on workingafterward. And say, Nance, what do you want to stick to that oldstore for, and half starve and half dress yourself? I could get youa place in the laundry right now if you'd come. It seems to me thatyou could afford to be a little less stuck-up if you could make agood deal more money.""I don't think I'm stuck-up, Lou," said Nancy, "but I'd rather liveon half rations and stay where I am. I suppose I've got the habit.It's the chance that I want. I don't expect to be always behind acounter. I'm learning something new every day. I'm right up againstrefined and rich people all the time--even if I do only wait onthem; and I'm not missing any pointers that I see passing around.""Caught your millionaire yet?" asked Lou with her teasing laugh."I haven't selected one yet," answered Nancy. "I've been lookingthem over.""Goodness! the idea of picking over 'em! Don't you ever let one getby you Nance--even if he's a few dollars shy. But of course you'rejoking--millionaires don't think about working girls like us.""It might be better for them if they did," said Nancy, with coolwisdom. "Some of us could teach them how to take care of theirmoney.""If one was to speak to me," laughed Lou, "I know I'd have aduck-fit.""That's because you don't know any. The only difference betweenswells and other people is you have to watch 'em closer. Don't youthink that red silk lining is just a little bit too bright for thatcoat, Lou?"Lou looked at the plain, dull olive jacket of her friend."Well, no I don't--but it may seem so beside that faded-lookingthing you've got on.""This jacket," said Nancy, complacently, "has exactly the cut andfit of one that Mrs. Van Alstyne Fisher was wearing the other day.The material cost me $3.98. I suppose hers cost about $100. more.""Oh, well," said Lou lightly, "it don't strike me as millionairebait. Shouldn't wonder if I catch one before you do, anyway."Truly it would have taken a philosopher to decide upon the valuesof the theories held by the two friends. Lou, lacking that certainpride and fastidiousness that keeps stores and desks filled withgirls working for the barest living, thumped away gaily with heriron in the noisy and stifling laundry. Her wages supported hereven beyond the point of comfort; so that her dress profited untilsometimes she cast a sidelong glance of impatience at the neat butinelegant apparel of Dan--Dan the constant, the immutable, theundeviating.As for Nancy, her case was one of tens of thousands. Silk and jewelsand laces and ornaments and the perfume and music of the fine worldof good-breeding and taste--these were made for woman; they are herequitable portion. Let her keep near them if they are a part of lifeto her, and if she will. She is no traitor to herself, as Esau was;for she keeps he birthright and the pottage she earns is often veryscant.In this atmosphere Nancy belonged; and she throve in it and ate herfrugal meals and schemed over her cheap dresses with a determinedand contented mind. She already knew woman; and she was studyingman, the animal, both as to his habits and eligibility. Some day shewould bring down the game that she wanted; but she promised herselfit would be what seemed to her the biggest and the best, and nothingsmaller.Thus she kept her lamp trimmed and burning to receive the bridegroomwhen he should come.But, another lesson she learned, perhaps unconsciously. Her standardof values began to shift and change. Sometimes the dollar-mark grewblurred in her mind's eye, and shaped itself into letters thatspelled such words as "truth" and "honor" and now and then just"kindness." Let us make a likeness of one who hunts the moose or elkin some mighty wood. He sees a little dell, mossy and embowered,where a rill trickles, babbling to him of rest and comfort. At thesetimes the spear of Nimrod himself grows blunt.So, Nancy wondered sometimes if Persian lamb was always quoted atits market value by the hearts that it covered.One Thursday evening Nancy left the store and turned across SixthAvenue westward to the laundry. She was expected to go with Lou andDan to a musical comedy.Dan was just coming out of the laundry when she arrived. There was aqueer, strained look on his face."I thought I would drop around to see if they had heard from her,"he said."Heard from who?" asked Nancy. "Isn't Lou there?""I thought you knew," said Dan. "She hasn't been here or at thehouse where she lived since Monday. She moved all her things fromthere. She told one of the girls in the laundry she might be goingto Europe.""Hasn't anybody seen her anywhere?" asked Nancy.Dan looked at her with his jaws set grimly, and a steely gleam inhis steady gray eyes."They told me in the laundry," he said, harshly, "that they saw herpass yesterday--in an automobile. With one of the millionaires, Isuppose, that you and Lou were forever busying your brains about."For the first time Nancy quailed before a man. She laid her handthat trembled slightly on Dan's sleeve."You've no right to say such a thing to me, Dan--as if I had anythingto do with it!""I didn't mean it that way," said Dan, softening. He fumbled in hisvest pocket."I've got the tickets for the show to-night," he said, with agallant show of lightness. "If you--"Nancy admired pluck whenever she saw it."I'll go with you, Dan," she said.Three months went by before Nancy saw Lou again.At twilight one evening the shop-girl was hurrying home along theborder of a little quiet park. She heard her name called, and wheeledabout in time to catch Lou rushing into her arms.After the first embrace they drew their heads back as serpents do,ready to attack or to charm, with a thousand questions trembling ontheir swift tongues. And then Nancy noticed that prosperity haddescended upon Lou, manifesting itself in costly furs, flashinggems, and creations of the tailors' art."You little fool!" cried Lou, loudly and affectionately. "I see youare still working in that store, and as shabby as ever. And howabout that big catch you were going to make--nothing doing yet, Isuppose?"And then Lou looked, and saw that something better than prosperityhad descended upon Nancy--something that shone brighter than gemsin her eyes and redder than a rose in her cheeks, and that dancedlike electricity anxious to be loosed from the tip of her tongue."Yes, I'm still in the store," said Nancy, "but I'm going to leave itnext week. I've made my catch--the biggest catch in the world. Youwon't mind now Lou, will you?--I'm going to be married to Dan--toDanwhy, Lou!"Around the corner of the park strolled one of those new-crop,smooth-faced young policemen that are making the force moreendurable--at least to the eye. He saw a woman with an expensive furcoat, and diamond-ringed hands crouching down against the iron fenceof the park sobbing turbulently, while a slender, plainly-dressedworking girl leaned close, trying to console her. But the Gibsoniancop, being of the new order, passed on, pretending not to notice,for he was wise enough to know that these matters are beyond help sofar as the power he represents is concerned, though he rap thepavement with his nightstick till the sound goes up to thefurthermost stars.

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