Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Novelists -- Fiction; Secretaries -- Fiction; Voyages and travels -- Fiction; West Indies -- Fiction
I would insert an advertisement for a female typewriter, if only to
spite Statia Barton! Dr. Chambers had almost forbidden me to travel
alone. I had a right to select my companion, and it was the business of
no one--least of all of a woman who had thrown me over--whether the
person I chose wore pantaloons or petticoats.
Going to one of the desks I took up a pen, dipped it in ink, and tried
to indite a suitable announcement. My hand shook, for I had not
recovered a quarter of my normal strength. When I had written the first
line it would have puzzled the best copy-holder in the office above to
decipher it. I tore it up, took a second piece of paper and began again.
When I had written the advertisement at last it did not suit me, and
once more I essayed the task with new construction. Other men and
several women were using the desks about me, and I glanced at them to
see if any nervousness was visible on their countenances. There appeared
to be none, however, which fact made my own sensations harder than ever
to bear.
Several times I fancied that the clerks behind the wire guards were
watching me, that they had managed in some mysterious manner to see over
my shoulder, and were laughing at my efforts. Still I hated to give up
beaten. It is a part of my nature to carry out any task which I have
attempted, no matter how insignificant. I took the pen once more and
finally completed with difficulty the following:
TYPEWRITER WANTED--To travel in the Tropics for the winter. Duties
light, salary satisfactory. Machine Furnished. Address--Herald
up-town.
Just as I was about to take this to one of the clerks, an extremely
pretty young woman came to the desk I was using and attracted my
attention. She had a pair of solitaire diamonds in her beautiful ears
and half a dozen costly rings on her pretty fingers. She wore a tastily
trimmed hat, with veil, a well fitting seal coat and a plaided silk
skirt of subdued colors. I judged her to be the wife or daughter of some
wealthy man, who had come to advertise for a maid or cook. With a few
quick strokes of the pen, in a hand that I saw was clear and bold, she
completed her writing and stepped quickly to the nearest counter. I
followed her; and as there was already one customer engaging the
attention of the clerk, I plainly saw the notice she had written, as she
held it daintily against her muff. Its purport was as follows:
A YOUNG LADY, stranger in the city, beautiful of face and form, 22
years of age, suddenly thrown on her own resources, wishes the
acquaintance of elderly gent.
The clerk looked up and nodded to the fair creature, when her turn came.
He had evidently seen her there before.
"You have forgotten again," he said, smiling. "Object matrimony."
"So, I have," she answered, in mellifluous tones. "It seems so silly,
you know."
"A rule of the office," he responded, adding the words for her. "Dollar
and a half."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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