Olive Higgins Prouty

“ CATALOGUES
MARCUS BELDEN did not have a very high opinion of women. The Italian fruit-dealer at the corner polished his apples, and laid the best ones on the top of the basket. Women were a lot like them, Marcus said. Underneath their selected top layer of sometimes really glorious charms the size of soul ran small, green and undeveloped. It was easy enough to see the powder on their faces, the polish on their nails, the rouge on their lips, but Marcus had never been able to discover anything very solid or durable underneath this veneer. ”

“ Scarcely had the redness disappeared from Ada's tear-stained eyes when, burning with indignation, fired with revolt, she called at Frye's Business College. A fortnight later, on the same morning that Beatrice started in on a course of rolling for reducing flesh, Ada began her shorthand and typewriting.
She could rely upon her mother's and sisters' silence. They would not tell her father. Whatever qualities the three older Belden girls might lack, they were kind and good-hearted. However foolish their little kid-sister seemed to them, they would not thwart her—not for anything. ”

“ But there was one compensation, and Ada was not unaware of it. As the summer wore on, she was frequently in her father's private office, and to her amazement, even in the face of his determination to break her if he could, she found that as Miss Belle, the stenographer, she could not help but feel admiration for her employer. Often, sitting quiet and mouse-like in her stenographer's chair, she overheard bits of Marcus Belden's keen conversation, listened to men asking her father's advice, intuitively became aware of the good opinion in which he was held. ”

“ His daughters were glorious, beautifully kept girls—well developed, small-hipped creatures with fine, pink skin, powdered to a velvety texture; nails professionally manicured; hair always perfectly coiffed and waved—that is, all but Ada's, and she, of course, was still a youngster. Marcus realized that it wasn't their fault that they were girls, possessed of feminine tastes, and governed by feminine instincts. ”

“ I had just ordered a new suit when I saw those books in the window, and what I did was to go back and cancel my suit, and order the books instead."
"Yes," retorted Marcus, "I've had that game worked before. Next time you happen to run across a diamond bracelet you want, or a pearl necklace, it will be instead of that suit again. I know women!"
"You know I don't care about jewelry, father," said Ada.
Just like a girl, thought Marcus. No use trying to argue with them. They always chase down a side-path after your similes and examples, and lose sight of the main issue. ”

“ Naturally, his taste ought to determine the seasoning of the food, the heat of his blood gauge the temperature of the rooms in winter, the whims of his moods govern the course of the conversation at dinner. ”

“ The Belden girls were always at home at six o'clock. It was a great nuisance, since dancing in the afternoon had become so popular, but it was their father's wish, and almost no sacrifice was too great to avoid his displeasure.
To-night when Marcus came in, although all the girls were at home, there wasn't a spark of playfulness about him. Ada had again disregarded his orders. It was another of fate's jokes, he supposed, that Ada should be the daughter to cause him more trouble than the other three all put together. Ada had been the last chance that he and Mary had had for a boy. ”

“ San Francisco! Last summer, the City of the Golden Gate had gone the way of the Stevenson, the college course, and the trip to Europe with two school friends two years ago. Ada ran the green tickets through her fingers. Names of long-beckoning cities, and dream-spots, flashed before her eyes. But she only shrugged her shoulders. "I hope you can redeem mine, father," she said.
Her mother and the three older girls started ten days later, and Ada and Marcus were left alone in the forlorn city house. Ada had never stayed in town all summer. ”

“ Was she, Ada, willing to labor for the vague something symbolized in the Stevenson? It might be managed. Her father never knew how she or her sisters spent the time when he was at his office. It flashed over Ada that if she was willing to humiliate herself to the extent of asking her tailor to send a bill for a suit she had never ordered, she might meet the expenses of tuition at Frye's Business College, as well as attend the course, without her father's knowledge. With the money she could earn, she could offer to herself resources for better things, now forbidden her. ”

“ Silly little dilettante creature; trying to be smart and clever; making little dots and curves. Shorthand! Humph! Fancy-work to her! He'd settle her!
He did not glance at her as she left the private office ten minutes later. He made no sign of recognition throughout the afternoon. At five o'clock when he left to go home, he approached her corner, where, full of foreboding anxiety, Ada sat working and waiting. ”

“ She longed for him to tweak her ear, to rub his rough chin against her cheek; she might even endure one of his harmless probes at women, if only she could feel his friendliness again.
They never accompanied each other to and from the office. Ada left at least half an hour earlier in the morning, and always returned an hour, and sometimes two hours, later at night. There was often work left on her desk for her to do late in the afternoon, by the elder member of the firm of Belden & Roper, and sometimes she didn't get home until nine o'clock in the evening. ”