out of the buildings, their labor ended for the day.  She noticed that they were pleased, and thoughts of her sister’s home and the meal that would be awaiting her quickened her steps.  She hurried on, tired perhaps, but no longer weary of foot.  What would not Minnie say!  Ah, the long winter in Chicago-the lights, the crowd, the amusement!  This was a great, pleasing metropolis after all.  Her new firm was a goodly institution Its windows were of huge plate glass.  She could probably do well there.  Thoughts of Drouet returned-of the things he had told her.  She now felt that life was better that it was livelier, sprightlier.  She boarded a car in the best of spirits, feeling her blood still flowering pleasantly.  She would live in Chicago, her mind kept saying to itself.  She would have a better time than she had ever had before she would be happy.

Chapter IV THE SPENDINGS OF FANCY:  FACTS ANSWER WITH SNEERS

For the next two days Carrie indulged in the most high flown speculations.

Her fancy plunged recklessly into privileges and amusements which would have been much more becoming had she been cradled a child of fortune.  With ready will and quick mental selection she scattered her meager four-fifty per week with a swift and graceful hand.  Indeed, as she sat in her rocking-chair these several evenings before going to bed and looked out upon the pleasantly lighted street, this money cleared for its prospective possessor the way to every joy and every bauble which the heart of woman may desire. " I will have a fine time,” she though.

Her sister Minnie knew nothing of these rather wild cerebrations, though they exhausted the markets of delight.  She was too busy scrubbing the kitchen woodwork and calculating the purchasing power of eighty cents for Sunday’s dinner.  When Carrie had returned home, flushed with her first success and ready, for all her weariness, to discuss the now interesting events which led up to her achievement, the former had merely smiled approvingly and inquired whether she would have to spend any of it for car fare.  This consideration had not entered in before, and it did not now for long affect the glow of Carrie’s enthusiasm.  Disposed as she then was to calculate upon that vague basis which allows the subtraction of one sum from another without any perceptible diminution, she was happy.

When Hanson came home at seven o’clock, he was inclined to be a little crusty-his usual demeanor before supper.  This never showed so much in anything he said as in a certain solemnity of countenance and the silent manner in which he slopped about.  He had a pair of yellow carpet slippers which he enjoyed wearing, and these he would immediately substitute for his soiled pair of shoes.  This, and washing his face with the aid of common washing soap until it glowed a shiny red, constituted his only preparation for his evening meal.  He would then get his evening paper and read in silence.