Mary Wing's pretty sitting-room had, indeed, established definitely in
Angela's mind the close connection between money and work in an office.
But, for the sound reasons explained by her to Cousin Mary, Angela could
never consider work in an office as a possibility for herself. What,
really, would become of the Home, while she went rushing daily to an
office, to make money for her personal adornment? Besides, she could not
but see that Cousin Mary was herself proof of the fact that going to an
office had a very unfortunate effect upon a girl. Argue as you liked,
the fact remained that, even in this so-called advanced age, the normal,
sweet, attractive girls, the girls who were prominent socially, were
never office-girls.
In short, how to get money without working for it? That, truly, was the
great question confronting every nice girl, every womanly woman....
To Angela, it gradually came to seem that nothing pleasant was ever to
happen to her again. Not only that, but the pleasantest sort of things
seemed to be happening all the time to everybody else.
Returning Mary Wing's call one day, in the hope of news (Cousin Mary's
disgrace was being generously forgiven, now that the Badwoman had gone
away), Angela picked up two items that depressed her curiously. One was
that Donald Manford had got that position he was trying for in Wyoming:
that meant that one member of the coterie would vanish for good within
three months' time. The other item concerned a remarkable series of
articles about Cousin Mary that were coming out in the magazines all of
a sudden, and which Cousin Mary said were written by Mr. Garrott, though
admitting that his name wasn't signed to them. The Finchmans, whom
Angela had met on the street, said, "How do you like having a celebrity
for a cousin?" Cousin Mary, for her part, seemed to like being a
celebrity immensely. Angela had never seen her in such high spirits; it
really seemed in bad taste, considering the recent past. And, of course,
Angela wondered a little if Mr. Garrott, the departed, wouldn't have
written something about her, too, but for the misunderstanding.
A chance meeting with Mr. Tilletts, on the way home from this visit,
hardly helped much. The seeking widower, afoot for once, had seemed
hurried; he merely paused for a hasty word or two, and then was on his
way again.
"Considering I haven't a soul to help me, I think I've done remarkably
well," the girl protested once more, as if answering an inner voice, to
her mother next day. "We've been here only a little while, and I have
three men-friends already."
"Who is the third?" inquired Mrs. Flower.
When Angela mentioned Mr. Tilletts, her mother said, laconically: "He
has never called."
"Men don't call any more, mother, I've said again and again! It's
practically gone out."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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