From the silk room they went on to another where the articles were not interesting to look at; and Matilda discovered that the coming and going people _were_. She turned her back upon the counter and watched the stream as it flowed past and around her. Miss Judith also here found herself thrown out of amusement, and came round to Matilda. They had hardly spoken to each other hitherto. Now Miss Judy's eye first went up and down the little figure which was such a new one in her surroundings. Matilda knew it, but she could bear it.
"You were never here before?" said her companion.
"I think they have nice things here," said Matilda.
Judith did not at all know what to make of this answer.
"What is aunt Zara going to get for you?"
Judith's eye ran up and down Matilda's dress again. "That was made in the country, wasn't it?"
"Yes, but you will want another. Aunt Zara--aunt Zara!--Aren't you going to get her a cloak?"
"A cloak?" said Mrs. Laval looking round. "Yes; that is what I brought her for."
"There!" said Judy, "now you know something you didn't know before. What sort of a cloak would you like?"
"I don't know," said Matilda in a flutter of delight. "Mrs. Laval knows."
"I suppose she does, but she doesn't know what you would like, unless you tell her. Let us watch the people coming in and see if we see anything you would like. Isn't it funny?"
"All of it. To see the people. They are all sorts, you know, and so funny. There are two Irish women,--very likely they have come in from the shanties near the Central Park, to buy some calico dresses. Look at them!--ten cent calicoes, and they are asking the shopman, I dare say, if they can't have that one for nine. I suppose the calicoes are made for them. No, there is somebody else wanting one. She's from the country."
"Easy enough. See how she has got her hands folded over each other; nobody does that but somebody that has come from the country. See her hat, too; that's a country hat. If you could see her feet, you would see that she has great thick country shoes."
Judy's eye as she spoke glanced down again at the floor where Matilda's feet stood; and it seemed to Matilda that the very leather of her boots could feel the look. _They_ were country boots. Did Judy mean, that?