Carrie passed along the busy aisles, much affected by the remarkable displays of trinkets, dress goods, stationery, and jewelry.

Each separate counter was a show place of dazzling interest and attraction.
She could not help feeling the chain of each trinket and valuable upon her personally, and yet she did not stop.

There was nothing there which she could not have used-nothing which she did not long to own.

The dainty slippers and stockings, the delicately frilled skirts and petticoats, the laces, ribbons, hair-combs, purses, all touched her with individual desire, and she felt keenly the fact that not any of these things were in the range of her purchase.

She was a work-seeker, an outcast without employment, one whom the average employee could tell at a glance was poor and in need of a situation.
It must not be thought that any one could have mistaken her for a nervous, sensitive, high-strung nature, east unduly upon a cold, calculating, and un-poetic world.