James Oppenheim

“ The street was darkening; the lamp-lighter was crossing the gutter; and Elsa, watching the light leap up in the gloom, felt that it was impossible to stay alone in this cold little room any longer. She must go where there was comfort, warmth, light, human faces. She knew: she would go down-town and see Enid—Enid in her tiny house. ”

“ She had something to fight for indeed! She was helping to emancipate women; she was struggling to give woman her place in the world against poverty, against ridicule, against even—love! Every fight she had fought from the time she was a girl reinforced he now. How weak she had been, how faint! No, in spite of the black moment, she was going to fight through; and as for Mr. Fitch, she had pushed him out of her life, and now he should not find her.
"I'll take a cheaper room," she told herself, "and I'll do any kind of work. I'll even stop college for a while if I must! Ah, Elsa Brack!" ”

“ She had less than five dollars now in all the world; but she was beginning to feel faint and light-headed with hunger. And more than food, possibly, she needed the warmth and stimulation of resting in a lighted room with people all about her.
So she found a little place in a basement that, with tiling, mirrors, and electric lights, was warm and neat and sparkling; and, dismally sitting there in a corner alone, she ate of courage and hope; and all the while she thought: "He asked after me! No, I mustn't go to Enid's any more!" ”

“ It ain't fun living in a boarding-house."
Elsa looked at Mr. Fitch tremulously, and he laughed cynically.
"Boarding-house, mother," he broke in "lodging-house. Eats in restaurants. What do you think of that?"
Elsa felt that she should have felt hurt; and yet somehow this evening she could not. Nothing could hurt her feelings after the bitter loneliness, the ghastly privation; just to sit in this warm room, with two human beings, and eat plentifully was a marvelous experience. She was just an animal sitting by the fire, content, vacant-minded, purring with warmth. ”

“ She longed in that moment to rest back on the common sense of the race; to give herself to the seasonal rhythms of the common life; to the strong, fixed,, comforting routine of eating, drinking, sleeping, loving, begetting; yes, to those things which are the solid fruits of the millions of years of evolution. ”

“ But she had not worked for this powerful young man more than a few nights when she found herself obsessed by his personality; day by day she felt the growing danger of love for him; and finally, on a stormy evening, the matter had reached a crisis: he had plainly intimated that he wanted a wife who was "feminine" and "old-fashioned," and he had plainly intimated that he wished she were that woman. ”

“ And then she saw the room he now occupied.
Mrs. Fitch lost her embarrassment and talked. "A good boy he's always been, independent and strong. He was always head of the gang, and never afraid of anything. Of course he was bad at times; but that's natural to boys. But after he commenced earning money, never a bit of trouble. Just brought home his pay-envelope every Saturday night (you know he worked in that mill down there at the end of the street—worked his way right up) —brought it home and gave it me. That's what I call a good son. A great worker! ”

“ Though it was only three in the afternoon, the gray smokes of Pittsburg suggested twilight; she was thinking of lighting the gas above her head, for the manuscript she was copying was becoming illegible. This manuscript represented an attempt to make money, the following of a suggestion made by a medical student that, as she had failed to find work—and it was only part-time work that she could do—she should try earning her living by writing. Why not write some popular medical articles—how to avoid tuberculosis, for instance. ”