Winnie Childs

Childs, by C. N. Williamson

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Williamson
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Title: Winnie Childs The Shop Girl
Author: C. N. Williamson A. M. Williamson
Release Date: February 10, 2005 [EBook #15014]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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CHILDS ***

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WINNIE CHILDS
THE SHOP GIRL

BY
C.N. & A.M. WILLIAMSON
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
Made in the United States of America

1914, 1916, by C.N. & A.M. WILLIAMSON

CONTENTS
Chapter
I.
THE DRYAD DOOR
II. BALM OF GILEAD
III. AN ILL WIND
IV. THE KINDNESS OF MISS ROLLS
V. SCENES FOR A "MOVIE"
VI. THE HANDS WITH THE RINGS
VII. THE TWO PETERS
VIII. No. 2884
IX. THE TEST OF CHARACTER

X. PETER ROLLS'S LITTLE WAYS
XI. DEVIL TAKE THE HINDMOST
XII. BLUE PETER
XIII. ONE MAN AND ANOTHER
XIV. FROM SCYLLA TO CHARYBDIS
XV. THE LADY IN THE MOON
XVI. THE SEED ENA PLANTED
XVII. TOYLAND
XVIII. THE BIG BLUFF
XIX. "YES" TO ANYTHING
XX. THE CLOSED HOUSE
XXI. THE TELEPHONE
XXII. THE FRAGRANCE OF FRESIAS
XXIII. MOTHER
XXIV. THINGS EXPLODING
XXV. A PIECE OF HER MIND
XXVI. WHEN THE SECRET CAME OUT
XXVII. THE BATTLE

THE SHOP GIRL

THE SHOP GIRL
CHAPTER I
THE DRYAD DOOR
It was a horrible day at sea, horrible even on board the new and
splendid Monarchic. All the prettiest people had disappeared from the
huge dining-saloon. They had turned green, and then faded away, one
by one or in hurried groups; and now the very thought of music at
meals made them sick, in ragtime.
Peter Rolls was never sick in any time or in any weather, which was his
one disagreeable, superior-to-others trick. Most of his qualities were
likable, and he was likable, though a queer fellow in some ways, said
his best friends--the ones who called him "Petro." When the ship
played that she was a hobby-horse or a crab (if that is the creature
which shares with elderly Germans a specialty for walking from side to
side), also a kangaroo, and occasionally a boomerang, Peter Rolls did
not mind.
He was sorry for the men and girls he knew, including his sister, who
lay in deck chairs pretending to be rugs, or who went to bed and wished
themselves in their peaceful graves. But for himself, the wild turmoil of
the waves filled him with sympathetic restlessness. It had never
occurred to Peter that he was imaginative, yet he seemed to know what
the white-faced storm was saying, and to want to shout an answer.
The second morning out (the morning after the Monarchic had to pass
Queenstown without taking on the mails or putting off enraged
passengers) Peter thought he would go to the gymnasium and work up
an appetite for luncheon. He had looked in the first day, and had seen a
thing which could give you all the sensations and benefits of a camel
ride across the desert. He had ridden camels in real deserts and liked
them. Now he did not see why waves should not answer just as well as
dunes, and was looking forward to the experiment; but he must have

been absent-minded, for when he opened what ought to have been the
gymnasium door, it was not the gymnasium door. It was--good
heavens!--what was it?
Peter Rolls, the unimaginative young man, thought that he must be in
his berth and dreaming he was here. For this room that he was looking
into could not possibly be a room on a ship, not even on the Monarchic,
that had all the latest, day-after-to-morrow improvements and luxuries.
The very bread was to-morrow's bread; but these marvellous creatures
could not be supplied by the management as improvements or luxuries
of any kind. Peter seemed to have opened a door into a crystal-walled
world peopled entirely by dryads.
He thought of dryads, because in pictures, beings called by that name
were taller, slimmer, more graceful, more beautiful, and had longer legs
than young females of mortal breed. There were five of them (at least
he believed there were five), and though it was eleven o'clock in the
morning, they were dressed as if for the prince's ball in the story of
"Cinderella." Unless on the stage, Peter had never seen such dresses or
such girls.
He heard himself gasp; and afterward, when he and a wave together
had banged the door shut, he hoped that he