Kate Chopin

“ Upon the table there she found a box of exquisite white spring blossoms that a messenger had brought from Meredith Holt, during her absence. Without an instant’s hesitation, Georgie cast the spotless things into the wide, sooty, fireplace. ”

“ From the set of his thin, firm lips one might guess that he was in the foremost rank in the interesting game of “push” that occupies mankind. One might further guess that his cleverness in using opportunities had brought him there, and that a dexterous management of elbows had served him no less. The other picture was that of Georgie’s fiancé, Mr. Meredith Holt, approaching more closely than he liked to his forty-fifth year and an unbecoming corpulence. ”

“ Georgie was going to marry him because his personality pleased her; because his easy knowledge of life – such as she apprehended it – commended itself to her approval; because he was likely to interfere in no way with her “work”. Yet she might not have given any of these reasons if asked for one. Mr. Meredith Holt was simply an eligible man, whom almost any girl in her set would have accepted for a husband. ”

“ Only one who knew beforehand that he was a viveur could have detected evidence of such in his face, which told little more than that he was a good-looking and amiable man of the world, who might be counted on to do the gentlemanly thing always. ”

“ Club. Four-thirty – “and here followed cabalistic abbreviations which meant: “Join committee of ladies to investigate moral condition of St. Louis factory-girls. Six o’clock – dine with papa. Eight o’clock – hear Henry George’s lecture on Single Tax.”
So far, Mademoiselle Salambre was only a name to Georgie McEnders, one of several submitted to her at her own request by her furnishers, Push and Prodem, an enterprising firm charged with the construction of Miss McEnders’ very elaborate trosseau. Georgie liked to know the people who worked for her, as far as she could. ”