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try to suggest that they deeply disapproved of the new arrivals. She could not bear to look at her two fellow lodgers, afraid that she would see something of her own gawking unease in their faces, her own sense of being unable to look as though she were enjoying herself.

Once the music changed, no more Irish tunes were performed. The accordion player began to play slow tunes on the saxophone, tunes that most of the dancers seemed to recognize. By now, the hall was full. The dancers moved slowly, and they appeared to Eilis, in how they responded to the music, more elegant than the dancers at home. As the rhythms grew slower, she was surprised at how close some of them danced; some of the women seemed almost wrapped around their partners. She saw Diana and Patty move with confidence and skill and noticed that Diana shut her eyes as she came close to her fellow lodgers, as though she meant to concentrate better on the music and the tall man with whom she was dancing and the pleasure she was taking in the night. Once she had passed, Miss McAdam said she thought it was time for them to go.

As they made their way across the hall to get their coats, Eilis wished they had waited until the set was over so that they might not be seen making such an early departure. As they walked home silently, she did not know how she felt. The tunes the band had played were so soft and beautiful. The way the couples who danced were dressed was to her eyes so fashionable and so right. She knew that it was something she would never be able to do.

“That Diana should be ashamed of herself,” Miss McAdam said. “God only knows what time she’ll come in at.”

“Is that her boyfriend?” Eilis asked.

“Who knows?” Sheila Heffernan said. “She has a different one for every day of the week and two on Sundays.”

“He looks lovely,” Eilis said. “He was a great dancer.”

Neither of her companions replied. Miss McAdam quickened her pace and forced the other two to follow. Eilis was pleased at what she had said even though it was clear that she had annoyed them. She wondered if she could think of something stronger to say so that they might not ask her to accompany them to the dance the following week. Instead, she determined that she would buy something, even just new shoes, which would make her feel more like the girls she had seen dancing. She thought for a moment that she would ask Patty and Diana for advice about clothes and make-up but reasoned that that might be going too far. As Miss McAdam and Sheila Heffernan barely said goodnight to her when they reached home, she decided that, no matter what, she would never go to a dance with them again.

At work on Monday, Miss Fortini was waiting for her. Eilis thought at first that she had done something wrong, as Miss Fortini asked her and Miss Delano, one of the other sales assistants, to follow her to Miss Bartocci’s office. When they entered the room, Miss Bartocci seemed grave as she signalled to them to sit down opposite her.

“There is going to be a big change in the store,” she said, “because there is a change going on outside the store. Coloured people are moving into Brooklyn, more and more of them.”

As she looked at all of them, Eilis could not tell whether they viewed this as a good thing for business or a piece of ominous news.

“We’re going to welcome coloured women into our store as shoppers. And we’re starting with nylon stockings. This is going to be the first store on this street to sell Red Fox stockings at cheap prices and soon we’re going to add Sepia and Coffee.”

“These are colours,” Miss Fortini said.

“Coloured women want Red Fox stockings and we are selling them and you two are going to be polite to anyone who comes into this store, coloured or white.”

“Both of them are always very polite,” Miss Fortini said, “but I’ll be watching once the first notice goes in the window.”

“We may lose customers,” Miss Bartocci interjected, “but we’re going to sell to anyone who will buy and at the best prices.”

“But the Red Fox stockings will be apart, away from the other normal stockings,” Miss Fortini said. “At least at first. And you two will be at that counter, Miss Lacey