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Bert was only a shoe salesman, probably twenty dollars a week,
and most careful with his pennies.
There was Clyde, the person who had real money and willing to
spend it on her freely. But could she persuade him to make such an
expensive present as this? Mr Rubinstein stood looking at her feeling the
nature of the problem that was facing her.
“Well, little girl,” he finally said, “I see you’d like to have this
coat, all right, and I’d like to have you have it, too. And now I’ll tell you
what I’ll do, and better than that I can’t and don’t want to do for anyone
else – not a person in this city. Bring me a hundred and fifteen dollars
any time within the next few days – Monday or Wednesday or Friday, if
this coat is still here, and you can have it. I’ll do even better. I’ll save it
for you. How’s that? Until next Wednesday or Friday. More than that no
one would do for you, now, would they?”
He acted as if he were indeed doing her a great favor. And
Hortense, going away, felt that if only – only she could take that coat at
one hundred and fifteen dollars, she would be making a marvelous
bargain. Also that she would be the smartest-dressed girl in Kansas City
beyond the shadow of a doubt. If only she could in some way get a
hundred and fifteen dollars before next Wednesday, or Friday.

***

Text 2

A DECENT PURCHASE

From Say No to Death
6
by Dymphna Cusack

Bart went into a pawnshop and put the camera down. The man
behind the counter picked it up and examined it carefully without saying
a word. He examined the lens thoroughly. He tested the mechanism. He
looked through the view-finder. He looked up at last, apparently
satisfied.
“A nice camera. What do you want for it?”
“What will you give me?”

6
Друкується за виданням D. Cusack. Say No to Death. – Kiev: Dnipro
Publishers, 1976, pp. 206-210.

9