I s'pose her things'll eat up the best part of a hundred dollars, won't they ?" The speaker's look of worried inquiry bespoke a lifetime of habitual economy.
"We're not going to buy what you _need_, but what you want.

You're going to have just as many pretty things as Allie." Ma was panic-stricken at this suggestion.

When Gray insisted she demurred; when he told her that one nice dress would cost at least a hundred dollars, she confessed: "Why, I don't s'pose all the clo's I've had since I was married cost much more 'n that." "I'll spend at least a thousand on you before noon," he laughed.
Mrs.Briskow gasped, she rolled her eyes and fanned herself; she appealed to Allegheny, but it was evident that the latter had kept her eyes open and had done some thinking, for she broke out, passionately: "You make me sick, Ma! It'll take all Pa can afford, and then some, to make us look like other people.

I never knew how plumb ridic'lous we are till--" "Not that," Gray protested.
"You _know_ we're ridic'lous," she cried, fiercely.

"We're a couple of sow's ears and all Pa's royalties can't make us into silk purses.
But--mebbe we can manage to look like silk, if we spend enough." Gray determined that the girl should not be disappointed if he could help it, so he went directly to the head saleswoman of the first store, and asked her to assume the role of counselor where circumstance compelled him to relinquish it, explaining that in addition to hats, gowns, shoes, and the like, both Ma and Allie needed a variety of confidential apparel with which he had only the vaguest acquaintance.
Although the woman agreed to his request, he found before long that his trust in her had been misplaced.