Olive Higgins Prouty

Name: Stella Dallas — Chapter 21
Author: Olive Higgins Prouty

Stella Dallas — Chapter 21 (1923)

Summary

“Stella Dallas — Chapter 21”, published in 1923, is a work by Olive Higgins Prouty. It explores elements such as Laurel, New York and Lollie.

Quotes from Stella Dallas — Chapter 21 (Olive Higgins Prouty)

Olive Higgins Prouty, Stella Dallas — Chapter 21 (1923)

“ Laurel interrupted. "Oh, look here, mother," impatiently she broke off. "Listen to me. I'm never going to leave you as long as you live. Do get that through your head. Do try; and don't talk about it any more." Then, suddenly gentle, "Why, mother," she caressed, "don't you remember you said to me once, way back, when I was a mite of a child, 'I'll never leave you, and you'll never leave me, will you, Lollie?' I've never forgotten that."
"Oh," groaned Stella, "what a fool I was to have talked that way to a little kid!"
"No," Laurel retorted. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Olive Higgins Prouty, Stella Dallas — Chapter 21 (1923)

“ Twice Stella had risen and lit the light to see what time it was, had stopped a moment by the side of the bed, and gazed down upon Laurel.
"Like a lovely Sleeping Beauty, she is. Oh, my God, she can't be a stenographer!" It would be like planting an orchid between the cobblestones at the corner of Washington and Winter Streets to stick Laurel in front of a typewriter, inside of one of the big grimy office-buildings downtown. She'd get all dust and dirt and trampled and spoiled in no time. She mustn't be sacrificed like that! Why, New York would go simply crazy about Lollie. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Olive Higgins Prouty, Stella Dallas — Chapter 21 (1923)

“ Experience had taught Stella that a big buzzing fly is as ineffective in breaking through a plate-glass barrier.
"Well," gloomily, "what are you going to do with yourself, then? You can't hang around a five-roomed apartment all your life, can you, reading two library books a week, and practicing on a piano two hours a day?" (Laurel had not taken any "Courses" this winter.) "What are you going to do to amuse yourself, I'd like to know?"
"I've got a plan," nodded Laurel, smiling.
"Humph."
"I must have something to do, of course. Busy people are always the happiest. I'm going to be very busy. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Olive Higgins Prouty, Stella Dallas — Chapter 21 (1923)

“ It will be all for nothing, if you won't go and live with him for a while."
"Mother, I've told you, and told you, I'm glad you've given father the divorce. It was exactly the right thing to do. Father and Mrs. Morrison cared about each other before you and I ever saw either of them. You've fixed something right that was wrong."
"Yes," sneered Stella, "especially you. I've fixed you fine and right! Oh," she sighed, her eyes resting mournfully on Laurel's back as she stood before the sink, "it just almost kills me to see you doing work like that, Lollie." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Olive Higgins Prouty, Stella Dallas — Chapter 21 (1923)

“ Rather, what a fool you were to have worked and slaved for that little kid for seventeen years, and skimped and saved for her all that time, and given her everything under the sun you thought would make her happy—oh, that was an awfully foolish way to treat a child you hoped would trot off and leave you the first chance she got. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Olive Higgins Prouty, Stella Dallas — Chapter 21 (1923)

“ She grasped hold of Laurel's hand. "Lollie, for my sake! It would kill me, Lollie!"
Laurel drew her hand away. "Oh, come, mother. Don't be silly. Don't be a goose."
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A stenographer! Laurel, her beautiful Laurel, shut up all day long in an office, reeking with tobacco smoke? Laurel the servant of a lot of men, taking dictation, taking orders? Laurel wearing paper cuffs and elastic bands and pencils in her hair; eating lunch out of a box with a lot of other girls, also wearing paper cuffs and elastic bands and pencils in their hair? No. No. It mustn't be. It simply mustn't be. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Olive Higgins Prouty, Stella Dallas — Chapter 21 (1923)

“ I got along all right alone, too. Nobody to wash dishes with, nobody to talk with, nor to eat with, nor to sleep with, nor to do anything with. I know what it is like. No, mother, you can't live like that. It isn't decent."
"Decent! What do you mean?"
"Why, look at the way the apartment looks, for one thing. Not only the kitchen, but all the other rooms, too. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Olive Higgins Prouty, Stella Dallas — Chapter 21 (1923)

“ You'd be going to dinners, and dances, and balls. You'd be having lovely clothes. You'd be having lovely friends—young ladies in limousines calling mornings for you to go shopping with them; young men in limousines calling evenings for you to go—"
"Mother! Please stop. You've told me all that before."
"I haven't told you one thing. I haven't said one word about one special thing. Laurel, listen, if you go to New York for a season you'll be almost sure to run across Richard Grosvenor! He knew Mrs. ”

Olive Higgins Prouty

Summary

Quotes from Stella Dallas — Chapter 21 (Olive Higgins Prouty)

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