Josephine Daskam Bacon

“ The youngest among the assistants, themselves fresh from college, mingled naturally enough with the students; they danced and skated and enjoyed their girlish authority. The older women, seasoned to the life, settled there indefinitely, identified themselves more or less with the town, amused themselves with their little aristocracy of precedence, and wove and interwove the complicated, slender strands of college gossip. ”

“ As the door closed behind her the German assistant dropped her cordial smile, and sank back listlessly in her chair.
“After all, she's only a girl!” she murmured. For almost an hour she sat looking fixedly at the unlit logs, hardly conscious of the wasted time. Much might have gone into that hour. There was tea for her at one of the college houses—the hostess had a “day,” and went so far as to aspire to the exclusive serving of a certain kind of tinned fancy biscuit every Friday—if she wanted to drop in. ”

“ The regret that she had not found time to put on the red waist was so instant and keen that she laughed at herself when alone in her room. She moved vaguely about, aimlessly changing the position of the furniture. How absurd! To do one's hair differently, and take a long walk, and feel as if an old life were somehow far behind one!
Later she found herself before her desk, hunting for her foreign letter-paper, and once started, her pen flew. ”

“ She might call on the head of her department, who was suffering from some slight indisposition, and receive minute advice as to the conduct of her classes, mingled with general criticism of various colleagues and their methods. She might make a number of calls; but if there is one situation in which the futility of these social mockeries becomes most thoroughly obvious, it is the situation presented by an attempt to imitate the conventional society life in a woman's college. ”

“ Languages are always easy for me, and I could go on much quicker.”
“Oh, certainly. I have thought more than once that you were wasting your time. The class is too large and too slow. I will make you out an outline and give it to you after class to-morrow,” said the German assistant promptly. “Meanwhile, won't you stay and make me a little call? I will light the fire and make some tea, if that is an inducement.”
“The invitation is inducement enough, I assure you,” smiled the girl, “but I must not stay to-day, I think. ”

“ How they drawled it over, the beautiful, rich German. Hermann had begged so, but she had felt differently then. She had loved her work in anticipation. To marry and settle down—she was not ready. It would be so good to be independent. And now—But it was too late. That was years ago. Hermann must have found some yellow-braided, blue-eyed Dorothea by this—some Mädchen who cared not for calculus and Hebrew, but only to be what her mother had been, wife and house-mother. ”

“ But a woman of barely thirty, too old for friendships with young girls, too young to find her placid recreation in the stereotyped round of social functions, that seemed so perfectly imitative of the normal and yet so curiously unsuccessful at bottom—what was there for her? ”

“ I know when I'm doin' well, an' that's as I am!”
“'Tis strange that the men sh'd think different, now, but they do!”
They laughed heartily and long. The German assistant looked at the broad backs meditatively. Just now they seemed to her more consistent than any other women in the great building.
She walked quickly across the greening campus. The close-set brick buildings seemed to press up against her; every window stood for some crowded, narrow room, filled with books and tea-cups and clothes and photographs—hundreds of them, and all alike. ”

“ The girls like you, your work is good; you ought to stay.”
The girl flashed a look of surprise at her. It was her only hint of sympathy.
“You advise me to?” she asked quietly.
“I think it would be a pity to disappoint your mother,” with a light hand on her shoulder. “You are so young—four years is very, little. Of course you could do the work in half the time, but you admit that you are not an ardent student. ”

“ She herself deplored the modern tendency that sent a changing drift of young teachers through the colleges, to learn at the expense of the students a soon relinquished profession. But how ridiculous the position of the women who prided themselves on the steadiness and continuity of their service! Surely they must find it an empty success at times. They must regret. ”

“ Some of them had more books, some ran to handsome photographs, some afforded fads in old furniture; but it was only a question of more or less. It looked utterly impersonal to-day; its very atmosphere was artificial, typical, a pretended self-sufficiency.
How many years more should she live in it—three, nine, thirteen? The tide of girls would ebb and flow with every June and September ”

“ She knew they were all discussing her, wondering at her changed face, her fresh, becoming clothes; they decided that she had had money left her.
“Some of my girls saw you shopping in Springfield last Saturday—they say you got some lovely waists,” said her fellow-assistant tentatively. “Was this one? It's very sweet. You ought to wear red a great deal, you look so well in it. Did you know Professor Riggs spoke of your hat with wild enthusiasm to Mrs. Austin Sunday? He said it was wonderful what a difference a stylish hat made. ”

“ If nobody came here but the girls that really needed to, we shouldn't have the reputation that we have. The girls to whom this place means the last word in learning and the last grace of social life are estimable young women, but not so pleasant to meet as you. ”