Lilli's Quest Read Free Page A

goods, such luxuries are still plentiful in Germany?
    Now at last they are in the miraculous elevator, smoothly passing the so-named “first floor” of the great emporium, which is devoted to men’s apparel ranging from formal wear to shooting jackets, and includes hats, shoes, sleepwear and whatever other garments the man of wealth and standing might require.
    Lilli’s heart gives a thump as the elevator slows for the second floor, women’s and girls’ apparel. Other passengers file past them and leave the car, but Grossmutter restrains Helga and Lilli, who look up in puzzlement.
    More floors flit past them . . . china, silverware, and home furnishings on the third; radios, gramophones, toys, and souvenirs on the fourth. Perhaps they are going directly to the lacy glass-roofed tea room and restaurant on the sixth floor, known as the Winter Garden. Dainty sandwiches, tiny iced cakes, and chocolate torte with whipped cream are its afternoon-tea specialties.
    It is two hours later and the girls are back in their attic room, with Gerda helping them to sort out their new clothing. Lilli had been so close to the Winter Garden that she could almost taste its goodies, but had never reached the Kaufhaus pinnacle. Instead, Grossmutter had ushered them out of the elevator on the fifth floor,sports clothes and sporting goods for the entire family, and there they had made their purchases.
    Then, at the very end of the shopping trip, Grossmutter Bayer had taken the girls down to the famed food court in the basement of the store. There, a tantalizing spectacle of gourmet specialties dazzled the girls’ eyes. Smoked meats and sausages, cheeses, bakery delicacies of every sort, jams and preserves, and an array of chocolates and other confectionery, crammed the shelves. Small samples of some of the foods were offered to the roaming shoppers.
    Lilli and Helga, hungry by this time, were permitted to help themselves to tiny squares of imported Norwegian goat cheese impaled on toothpicks. Helga gulped and spat the sweetish caramel-colored lump into her palm. Lilli managed to down hers, acknowledging that it was the most awful thing she had ever tasted. Grossmutter angrily muttered, “Manners!” and hurried both girls out of the Kaufhaus . It was the last time Lilli would ever lay eyes on the great store.
    Without a word, Gerda clips the price tags from the girls’ new clothing and neatly folds the drab-colored blouses, skirts, jackets, and high socks that are to be stored in the room’s huge wooden wardrobe, presumably for summer wear. There are also new shoes, brown oxfords with laces, and high leather boots for each girl. The only really welcome item is the new cotton underwear that will replace the worn flannels of the seemingly endless winter.
    â€œSuch long faces,” Gerda remarks. “What did you expect? Summer frocks? Parasols? Dancing shoes?”
    Helga is silent, but Lilli speaks up. “We will look like Hitler Youth marchers in these clothes, but without the swastikas sewn onto them. Where can we go on sporting trips? What can we do with hiking boots when we never leave this house? Why has Elspeth been dressed up like a doll in frills and hairbows?”
    Gerda lowers her head and shakes it from side to side. “You must speak to your Mutti. That is all I have to say.” Then she disappears from the room.
    Lilli has been lying awake for hours. Threads of various thoughts trail aimlessly through her head. It has been three days since the shopping trip and nothing has changed. In the silent, sleeping house, she hears a faint click, perhaps the turning of a key in a lock.
    Mutti has been out this evening, as she often is lately, modeling the new fashions or perhaps attending a supper party. In the morning, she will be gone again. When will Lilli have a chance to speak with her?
    Halfway down the dark stairway that ascends to the attic, there is a landing with a doorway to