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Books at bedtime by Calming Anxiety, a pair of silk stockings by Kate Choppin.

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Little Miss Summers, one day, bound herself, the unexpected possessor of fifteen dollars.

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It seemed to her a very large amount of money, and the way in which it stuffed and bulged

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her worn old, Port Monet gave her a feeling of importance, such as she had never enjoyed

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for years.

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The question of investment was one that occupied her greatly.

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For a day or two, she walked about apparently in a dreamy state, but rarely absorbed in speculation

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and calculation.

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She did not wish to act hastily.

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To do anything she might afterward regate.

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But it was during the still hours of the night when she lay awake revolving plans in

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her mind, that she seemed to see her way clearly towards a proper and judicious use of the

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money.

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A dollar or two should be added to the price usually paid for Janie's shoes, which would

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ensure their lasting and appreciable time longer than they usually did.

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She would also buy so and so many yards of parcel for the new wastes for the boys and

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Janie and Mag.

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She had intended to make the old ones do by skillful patching.

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Mag should have another gown.

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She had seen some beautiful patterns, veritable bargains in the shop windows, and still there

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would be left enough for new stockings, two pairs of peace, and what darning that would

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save for a while.

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She would get caps for the boys and sailor hats for the girls.

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The vision of her little brood looking fresh and dainty and new for once in their lives

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excited her and made her restless and wakeful with anticipation.

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The neighbours sometimes talked of certain better days that little Mrs. Summers had known

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before she had ever thought of being Mrs. Summers.

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She herself indulged in no such more bidretrospection.

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She had no time, no second of time to devote to the past.

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The needs of the present absorbed her every faculty.

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A vision of the future, like some dim, gaunt monster sometimes appalled her, but luckily

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tomorrow never comes.

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Mrs. Summers was one who knew the value of bargains, who could stand for hours making her way

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inch by inch towards the desired object that was selling below cost.

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She could elbow her way if need be.

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She had learned to clutch a piece of goods and hold it and stick to it with persistence

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and determination till her turn came to be served, no matter when it came.

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But that day she was a little faint and tired.

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She had swallowed a light luncheon, no, when she came to think of it, between getting the

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children fed and the place righted and preparing herself for a shopping-bout.

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She had actually forgotten to eat any luncheon at all.

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She sat herself upon a revolving stool before a counter that was comparatively deserted,

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trying to gather strength and courage to charge through an eager multitude that was besieging

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breastworks of shirting and figured lawn.

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An all-gone-limp feeling had come over her and she rested her hand aimlessly upon the counter.

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She wore no gloves.

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By degrees she grew aware that her hand had encountered something very soothing, very pleasant to touch.

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She looked down to see that her hand lay upon a pile of silk stockings.

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A placard nearby announced that they had been reduced in price from $2.50 to $1.98.

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And a young girl who stood behind the counter asked if she wished to examine their line of

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silk rosary.

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She smiled, just as if she had asked to inspect Tiara of diamonds with the ultimate view of

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purchasing it.

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But she went on feeling the soft, sheany, luxurious things with both hands now, holding

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them up to see them glisten and to feel them glide serpent-like through her fingers.

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Two hectic plotches came suddenly into her pale cheeks.

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She looked up at the girl.

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Do you think they are any eights and a half a month these?

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They were any number of eight and a half.

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In fact they were more than a size than any other.

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Here was a light blue pair.

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There was some lavender, some all black and various shades of tan in grey.

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This is Summers selected a black pair and looked at them very long and closely.

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She pretended to be examining their texture, which the clerk assured her was excellent.

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A dollar and $0.98 she moosed aloud.

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Well, I'll take this pair, she handed the girl a $5 bill and waited for her change and

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her parcel.

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Not a very small parcel it was.

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It seemed lost in the depths of her shabby old shopping bag.

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Mrs Summers, after that did not move in the direction of the bargain counter.

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She took the elevator, which carried her to an upper floor into the region of the ladies

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waiting room.

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Here in a retired corner, she exchanged her cotton sockings for the new silk ones which

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she had just bought.

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She was not going through any acute mental process or reasoning with herself.

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Nor was she striving to explain to her satisfaction the motive her action.

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She was not thinking at all.

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She seemed for the time to be taking a rest from the laborious and fatiguing function and

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to have abandoned herself to some mechanical impulse that directed her actions and freed

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her of responsibility.

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How good was the touch of the raw silk to her flesh.

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She felt like lying back in a cushion chair and reveling for a while in the luxury of

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it.

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She did for a little while.

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Then she replaced her shoes, rolled the cotton stockings together and thrust them into

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her bag.

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After doing this, she crossed straight over to the shoe department and took her seat to

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be fitted.

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She was fastidious.

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The clerk could not make her out.

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He could not reconcile her shoes with her stockings and she was not too easily pleased.

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She held back her skirts and turned her feet one way and her head the other way.

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She glanced down at the polished pointed tipped boots.

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Her foot and ankle looked very pretty.

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She could not realise that they belonged to her and were part of herself.

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She wanted an excellent and stylish fit.

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She told the young fellow who served her and she did not mind the difference of a dollar

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or two more in the price so long as she got what she desired.

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It was a long time since Mrs. Summers had been fitted with gloves.

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On rare occasions when she had bought a pair they were always bargains, so cheap that would

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have been preposporous and unreasonable to have expected them to be fitted to the hand.

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Now she rested her elbow on the cushion of the glove counter and a pretty pleasant young

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creature delicate and deft of touch drew a long rested kid over Mrs. Summers hand.

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She smoothed it down over the wrist and buttoned it neatly and both lost themselves for a second

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or two in admiring contemplation of the little symmetrical glove hand.

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But there were other places where money might be spent.

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There were books, magazines piled up in the window of a stall a few paces down the street.

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Mrs. Summers bought two high price magazines such as she had been accustomed to read in

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the days when she had been accustomed to other pleasant things.

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She carried them without wrapping as well as she could she lifted her skirts at the crossings.

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Her stockings and boots and well fitting gloves had worked marvels in her bearings and had

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given her a feeling of assurance, a sense of belonging to the well-dressed multitude.

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She was very hungry.

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Another time she would have still the cravings for food until reaching her own home where

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she would have brewed herself a cup of tea and taken a snack of anything that was available.

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With the impulse that was guiding her we'd not suffer her to entertain any such thought.

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There was a restaurant at the corner.

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She had never entered its doors.

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From the outside she had sometimes caught glimpses of spotless damascan shining crystal

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and soft stepping-waiters serving people of fashion.

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When she entered her appearance created no surprise, no consternation as she had half feared it

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might.

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She seated herself at a small table alone and an attentive waiter at once approached

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to take her order.

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She did not want a profusion.

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She craved a nice and tasty bite, a half dozen plu-points, a plump chop with crest, a

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something sweet.

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A creme frappe, for instance, a glass of rind wine and after all a small cup of black coffee.

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While waiting to be served she removed her gloves very leisurely and laid them beside her.

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Then she picked up her magazine and glanced through it, cutting the pages with a blunt edge

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of her knife.

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It was all very agreeable.

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The damascan was even more spotless than it had seemed through the window and the crystal

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more sparkling.

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There were quiet ladies and gentlemen who did not notice her, launching at the small

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tables like their own.

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A soft, pleasing strain of music could be heard and a gentle breeze was blowing through

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the window.

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She tasted a bite and she read a word or two and she sipped the amber wine and wiggled her

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toes in the stocking shoes.

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The price of it made no difference.

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She counted the money out to the waiter and left an extra coin on its tray, whereupon he

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bowed before her as before a princess of royal blood.

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There was still money in her purse and her next temptation presented itself in the shape

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of a matinee poster.

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It was a little later when she entered a theatre.

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The play had begun and the house seemed to her to be packed.

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But there were vacant seats here and there and into one of them she was ashered, between

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brilliantly dressed women who had gone there to kill time and eat candy and display their

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cordy attire.

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There were many others who were there solely for the play in acting.

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It is safe to say there was no one present who bore quite the attitude which Mrs.

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Summers did to her surroundings.

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She gathered in the whole stage and players and the people in one wide impression and absorbed

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it and enjoyed it.

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She laughed at the comedy and wept and she and the gaudy lady next to her wept over the

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tragedy and they talked a little together over it.

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And the gaudy woman wiped her eyes and sniffled on a tiny square of flimsy perfumed lace

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and passed little Miss Summers a box of candy.

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The play was over, the music ceased, the crowd filed out.

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It was like a dream ended.

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People scattered in all directions.

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Mrs. Summers went to the corner and waited for the cable car.

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A man with keen eyes who sat opposite her seemed to like the study of her small pale face.

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It puzzled him to decipher what he saw there.

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In truth he saw nothing.

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Unless he were a wizard enough to detect a poignant wish, a powerful longing that the

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cable car would never stop anywhere but go on and on with her forever.

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