Last, Madam Moores, her small figure full of nerves; two spots of red high on her cheeks; her erstwhile graying hairs, a bit premature and but a sprinkling of them, turned to the inward of a new and elaborate coiffure; and meeting this high tide with a smile, newly enhanced by bridge-work and properly restrained to that dimension of insolence demanded by the rich of those who serve them well.

In the springtime Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue turn lightly to thoughts of Narragansett Pier and Bronx Park.  Fifth Avenue sheds its furs and Sixth Avenue its woolen underwear.  At the dusk of one such day, when the taste of summer was like poppy leaves crushed between the teeth, and open streetcars and open shirtwaists blossomed forth even as the distant larkspur in the distant field, Madam Moores beheld the electric-protection door swing behind the last customer and relaxed frankly against a table piled high with fabrics of a dozen sheens.

“Whew!  Thank heavens, she’s gone!”

To a symphony of six-o’clock whistles the rumble of machines from the workrooms suddenly ceased.

“Turn out the shower lights, Phonzie, and see that Van Nord’s black lace goes out in time for opera to-night.  When she telephoned at noon I told her it was on the way.”

Mr. Alphonse Michelson hurtled a mauve-colored footstool and hastened rearward toward the swinging-door that led to the emptying workrooms.  The tallest of the perfect-thirty-sixes, stepping out of her beaded slippers into sturdier footwear of the street, threw him a smile as he passed that set her glittering earrings and metal-yellow ringlets bobbing like bells in a breeze.

“Hand me the shoe-buttoner, Phonzie.  The doctor says stooping is bad for my hair-pins.”

Their laughter, light as foam, met and mingled.

“Oh, you nervy Gertie!”

“What’s your hurry, Phonzie dearie?”

“I don’t see you stopping me.”

“Fine chance, with her crouching over there, ready to spring.”

“Hang around, sweetness.  Maybe I’m not on duty, and I’ll take you to supper if you’ve not got a date with one of your million-dollar Charlies.”

“Soft pedal, Phonzie!  You know I’d break a date with any one of ’em any day in the week for a sixty-cent table d’hote with you!”

“Hang around then, sweetness.”

“Hang around!  Gawd, if I hang around you any more than I have been doing in the last five years, following you from one establishment to the other, they’ll have to kill me to put me out of my misery.”

“You’re all right, Gert.  And when you haven’t any of the greenback boys around to fill in, you can always fall back on me.”

“You’re a nice old boy, Phonzie, and I like the kink in your hair, but—­but sometimes when I get blue, like to-night, I—­I just wish I had never clapped eyes on you.”

“How she hates me.”

“I wish to God I did.”