Olive Higgins Prouty

“ He was taken up by a certain set of women in Milhampton like some new exotic food.
In spite of the report that he belonged to an aristocratic Southern family of reduced financial circumstances, most of the women who paid him attention were aware of his lack of breeding. They were simply amusing themselves. But Stella couldn't see why Alfred Munn wasn't a gentleman, she told Stephen. Other women like Edith and Rosamond (it was Edith and Rosamond then, instead of Myrtle and Phyllis) didn't seem to find anything so horribly objectionable about him. ”

“ He was busy every day from six in the morning till six at night, instructing women and children mostly. Certain women of the younger married set began paying Alfred Munn ridiculous attention. It was discovered that it was not only on the back of a horse that he was skillful, and the epitome of grace and rhythm; he could also excel on the ballroom floor. One of the younger married women, bolder than her sisters, invited him to a River Club dance. ”

“ Beneath the horse's head on the inside of the back cover (which Mr. Munn had to pry open with his thick thumb-nail) was a picture of another horse. It was a pure white horse with a lady in short skirts standing on tiptoes on his back! ”

“ All the young married set talk babies—at least the women; and, after all, it is sort of fun to dress the cunning little things up, and send them out rolling, with a nurse-girl. Myrtle has got a baby. She dresses her in darling things, and Phyllis" (Phyllis was often quoted to Stephen, too) "told me something is going to happen to her next summer. I'm really quite in the swim."
Stephen turned away, no longer dismayed. Only a little more disillusioned.
2
Laurel was born in June. Stephen named her Laurel—at least it was the name he applied to her the first time he saw her. ”