"Oh! after all, the first is the best; it's for my cook. Yes, the serge, the one at two francs." And when Liénard had measured it, pale with suppressed anger, she added: "Have the goodness to carry that to pay-desk No. 10, for Madame Desforges."
Just as she was going away, she recognised Madame Marty close to her, accompanied by her daughter Valentine, a tall girl of fourteen, thin and bold, who was already casting a woman's covetous looks on the goods.
"Ah! it's you, dear madame?"
"Yes, dear madame; what a crowd—eh?"
"Oh! don't speak of it, it's stifling. And such a success! Have you seen the oriental saloon?"
"Superb—Wonderful!"
And amidst the pushing and crushing of the growing crowd of modest purses eagerly seeking the cheap lines in the woollen goods, they went into ecstasies ov
