They had
supper at six, after which McTeague smoked his pipe and read the papers
for half an hour, while Trina and Augustine cleared away the table and
washed the dishes. Then, as often as not, they went out together. One of
their amusements was to go "down town" after dark and promenade
Market and Kearney Streets. It was very gay; a great many others were
promenading there also. All of the stores were brilliantly lighted and
many of them still open. They walked about aimlessly, looking into
the shop windows. Trina would take McTeague's arm, and he, very much
embarrassed at that, would thrust both hands into his pockets and
pretend not to notice. They stopped before the jewellers' and milliners'
windows, finding a great delight in picking out things for each other,
saying how they would choose this and that if they were rich. Trina did
most of the talking. McTeague merely approving by a growl or a movement
of the head or shoulders; she was interested in the displays of some of
the cheaper stores, but he found an irresistible charm in an enormous
golden molar with four prongs that hung at a corner of Kearney Street.
Sometimes they would look at Mars or at the moon through the street
telescopes or sit for a time in the rotunda of a vast department store
where a band played every evening.
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