Josephine Dodge Daskam

“ But the German assistant smiled at her. “Yes,” she said, “it is. And when you have been teaching seven years the difference becomes very apparent.” She gathered up her books, still smiling in a reminiscent way. And as she went out of the door, she looked back at the glaring, sunny room as if already it were far behind her, as if already she felt the house-mother’s kiss, and heard the ’cello, and saw Klara’s tiny daughter standing by the door, throwing kisses, calling, “Da ist sie, ja!” ”

“ The very fancy filled her heart with sudden calm. A love so deep and sure, so broad and sweet—could it not dignify any woman’s life? And she had been thought worthy and had refused this love! O fool!
Suppose she went and found— her heart beat too quickly, and her face flushed. She called on the bright girl in the front row.
“And what have you learned?” she said.
The girl coughed importantly. “It is a poem of Goethe’s,” she announced in her high, satisfied voice. “Kennst du das Land—”
“That will do,” said the German assistant. “I fear we shall not have time for it to-day. The hour is up. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”