The Ladies' Paradise by Emile Zola
Just as he was rejoining Bourndoncle and Robineau, a woman appeared; she remained for a few seconds rooted to the spot, entranced by the display. It was Denise. She had waited for nearly an hour in the street, paralysed by a terrible attack of shyness, and had at last made up her mind to come in. But she was still so beside herself with shyness that she could not follow even simple directions; the assistants, when she stammeringly enquired for Madame Aurelie, pointed out the mezzanine staircase to her in vain; she would thank them, and then turn left if she had been told to turn right; so that for ten minutes she had been wandering round the ground floor, going from one department to another, surrounded by the ill-natured curiosity and sullen indifference of the salesman. She felt a desire to run away and, at the same time, a need to stop and admire. She was so lost and small inside the monster, inside the machine, and although it was still idle, she was terrified that she would be caught up in its motion, which was already beginning to make the walls shake. And the thought of the shop at the Vieil Elbeuf, dark and cramped, made this vast shop appear even bigger to her; it seemed bathed in light, like a town, with monuments, squares, streets, in which it seemed she would never find her way.
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