"
Then they separated, and he took the road to the north,
which was still snowbound, while she went on into the
chilly yellow west, with the odd sweet illusion that a
summer day was dawning.
CHAPTER IX
The office of Messrs Fulke, Warner, & Murchison was in
Market Street, exactly over Scott's drug store. Scott
with his globular blue and red and green vessels in the
window and his soda-water fountain inside; was on the
ground floor; the passage leading upstairs separated him
from Mickie, boots and shoes; and beyond Mickie, Elgin's
leading tobacconist shared his place of business with a
barber. The last two contributed most to the gaiety of
Market Street: the barber with the ribanded pole, which
stuck out at an angle; the tobacconist with a nobly
featured squaw in chocolate effigy who held her draperies
under her chin with one hand and outstretched a packet
of cigars with the other.
The passage staircase between Scott's and Mickie's had
a hardened look, and bore witness to the habit of
expectoration; ladies, going up to Dr Simmons, held their
skirts up and the corners of their mouths down. Dr Simmons
was the dentist: you turned to the right. The passage
itself turned to the left, and after passing two doors
bearing the law firm's designation in black letters on
ground glass, it conducted you with abruptness to the
office of a bicycle agent, and left you there.
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