One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of itwas in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing thegrocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burnedwith the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied.Three times Delia counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. Andthe next day would be Christmas.
There was clearly nothing left to do but flop down on the shabby littlecouch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflectionthat life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predomi-nating.
While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the firststage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $ 8per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had thatword on the look-out for the mendicancy squad.
In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go,and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Al-so appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name" Mr. JamesDillingham Young. "
The"Dillingham"had been flung to the breeze during a former periodof prosperity when its possessor was being paid $ 30 per week. Now,when the income was shrunk to $ 20, the letters of"Dillingham"lookedblurred, as though they were thinking seriously of contracting to a rood-est and unassuming D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Youngcame home and reached his flat above he was called"Jim"and greatlyhugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you asDella. Which is all very good.
Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powderrag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a grey cat walkinga grey fence in a grey backyard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day,and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had beensaving every penny she could for months, with this result. Twentydollars a week doesn't go far. Expenses had been greater than she hadcalculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. HerJim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice forhim. Something fine and rare and sterling--something just a little bitnear to being worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim.
There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps youhave seen a pier-glass in an $ 8 flat. A very thin and very agile personmay, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinalstrips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Della, beingslender, had mastered the art.
Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass.Her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color withintwenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to itsfull length.
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