Cruelest of all, however, at least to Trina, was when Miss Baker herself began to buy, unable to resist a bargain.

The last time she came up she carried a bundle of the gay tidies that used to hang over the chair backs.
"He offered them, three for a nickel," she explained to Trina, "and I thought I'd spend just a quarter.

You don't mind, now, do you, Mrs.
McTeague ?" "Why, no, of course not, Miss Baker," answered Trina, bravely.
"They'll look very pretty on some of my chairs," went on the little old dressmaker, innocently.

"See." She spread one of them on a chair back for inspection.

Trina's chin quivered.
"Oh, VERY pretty," she answered.
At length that dreadful day was over.