It manifested itself in more ways than one: in his strut, in the
foppishness of his dress, in his elaborate affectation of an English
accent. He was a small person by the average standard, and slender, but
well-formed, and wore clothing admirably tailored if always of an
extreme cut. His cheeks were too fleshy, almost plump: something which
had the effect of making his rather delicate features seem pinched.
Near-sighted, he wore customarily a horn-rimmed pince-nez from which a
wide black ribbon dangled like a mourning-band.
His name was Hubert Fowey.
So Joan tolerated him, encouraged him moderately through motives of
self-interest, checked him with laughter when he tried to make love to
her, secretly admired him even when his conceit was most fatiguing, and
wondered what manner of women he had known to make him think that she
would ever yield to his insistence....
She had been nearly six weeks in New York when she awoke one morning to
rest in languorous regret of a late supper the preceding night, and to
wonder whither she was tending, spurred to self-examination by that
singularly clear introspective vision which not infrequently follows
intemperance--at least, when one is young.
She was reminded sharply that, since returning to Town, she had made
hardly a single attempt to find work, beyond having her professional
cards printed.
And this was the edge of Summer....
Where would the Autumn find her?
Slipping quickly out of bed, she collected her store of money, and
counted it for the first time in several weeks.
The sum total showed a shocking discrepancy between cold fact and the
small fortune she had all along been permitting herself to believe she
possessed. Even allowing for these heavy initial purchases on returning
to New York, her capital had shrunk alarmingly.
She began anew, that day, the rounds of managers' offices.
Also, she laid down for her guidance a rigid schedule of economies. Only
by strict observance thereof would she be able to scrape through the
Summer without work or financial assistance from some quarter.
Characteristically, she mourned now, but transiently, that she had so
long deferred going to see her mother and Edna--something now obviously
out of the question; they would want money, to a certainty, and Joan had
none to spare them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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