noon
Mary would have bought a bedstead and screened it , but her companion pointed out the extravagance and inconvenience of such a course , and initiated her forthwith into the main secret of New York 's apartment life . `` You 'll want your divan new , '' she said , and led her in the great department store to a hideous object of gilded iron which opened into a double bed , and closed into a divan . At first Mary rejected this Janus-faced machine unequivocally , but became a convert when Miss Mason showed her how cretonne -LRB- she pronounced it `` _ cree _ ton '' -RRB- or rugs would soften its nakedness to dignity , and how bed-clothes and pillows were swallowed in its maw by day to be released when the studio became a sleeping room at night . These trappings they purchased at first hand , and obliging salesmen promised Miss Mason with their lips , but Mary with their eyes , that they should go out on the noon delivery . For other things , however , the two searched the second-hand stores which stand in that district like logs in a stream , staying abandoned particles of the city 's ever moving current . Here they bought a high , roomy chest of drawers of painted pine , a Morris chair , three single chairs , and a sturdy folding table in cherry , quite old , which Mary felt to be a `` find , '' and which she destined for Stefan 's paints . Miss Mason recommended a `` rocker , '' and Mary , who had had visions of stuffed English easy chairs , acquiesced on finding in the rocker and Morris types the only available combinations of cheapness and comfort .