It was warm and close at any time , but today it was stifling , and there was already a crowd of customers , for it was the day of a bargain sale . The heat and noise and chatter got on Marcella 's tortured nerves . She felt that she wanted to scream , but instead she turned calmly to a waiting customer -- a big , handsome , richly dressed woman . Marcella noted with an ever-increasing bitterness that the woman wore a lace collar the price of which would have kept Patty in the country for a year . She was Mrs. Liddell -- Marcella knew her by sight -- and she was in a very bad temper because she had been kept waiting . For the next half hour she badgered and worried Marcella to the point of distraction . Nothing suited her . Pile after pile , box after box , of shirtwaists did Marcella take down for her , only to have them flung aside with sarcastic remarks . Mrs. Liddell seemed to hold Marcella responsible for the lack of waists that suited her ; her tongue grew sharper and sharper and her comments more trying . Then she mislaid her purse , and was disagreeable about that until it turned up . Marcella shut her lips so tightly that they turned white to keep back the impatient retort that rose momentarily to her lips . The insolence of some customers was always trying to the sensitive , high-spirited girl , but today it seemed unbearable . Her head throbbed fiercely with the pain of the ever-increasing ache , and -- what was the lady on her right saying to a friend ? `` Yes , she had typhoid , you know -- a very bad form . She rallied from it , but she was so exhausted that she could n't really recover , and the doctor said -- '' `` Really , '' interrupted Mrs. Liddell 's sharp voice , `` may I ask you to attend to me , if you please ? No doubt gossip may be very interesting to you , but I am accustomed to having a clerk pay some small attention to my requirements . If you can not attend to your business , I shall go to the floor walker and ask him to direct me to somebody who can . The laziness and disobligingness of the girls in this store is really getting beyond endurance . '' A passionate answer was on the point of Marcella 's tongue . All her bitterness and suffering and resentment flashed into her face and eyes .
For one moment she was determined to speak out , XXXXX repay Mrs. Liddell 's insolence in kind .
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