WHAT SHE WORE by EDNA FERBER

A young man from a prairie town comes to the Big City and finds a job in a discount shoe store where works a young woman who has been working for starving wages.  They become working friends to the point where , when he screws up enough courage, he advises her against wearing a deep V dress, saying that his mother back home would never allow it.  Edna Ferber's excellent characterization of both makes them come alive and the story becomes a "moment in time" look back to Chicago of 1912. For more stories check out www.bestof1001stories.com.