Willa Sibert Cather

“ He believed that in this vehement world young O'Mally would make himself heard and that Miss Devine's training in an editorial office would be of use to him.
When O'Mally first sat down at a desk to be an editor, all the cards that were brought in looked pretty much alike to him. Ardessa was at his elbow. She had long been steeped in literary distinctions and in the social distinctions which used to count for much more than they do now. She knew all the great men, all the nephews and clients of great men. ”

“ Ardessa interrupted. Her face grew hard.
"Miss Kalski," she said coldly, "works for the business department. You are employed in the editorial offices. There is a great difference. You see, Becky, I might have to call you in here at any time when a scientist or a great writer or the president of a university is here talking over editorial matters, and such clothes as you have on to-day would make a bad impression. Nearly all our connections are with important people of that kind, and we ought to be well, but quietly, dressed."
"Yes, Miss Devine. Thank you," Becky gasped and disappeared. ”

“ Ardessa told an appealing story to O'Mally, and brought Becky into the office, at a salary of six dollars a week, to help with the copying and to learn business routine. When Becky first came she was as ignorant as a young savage. She was rapid at her shorthand and typing, but a Kafir girl would have known as much about the English language. Nobody ever wanted to learn more than Becky. She fairly wore the dictionary out. She dug up her old school grammar and worked over it at night. She faithfully mastered Miss Devine's fussy system of punctuation. ”

“ Naturally the other young women employed in "The Outcry" offices disliked Miss Devine. They were all competent girls, trained in the exacting methods of modern business, and they had to make good every day in the week, had to get through with a great deal of work or lose their position. O'Mally's private secretary was a mystery to them. Her exemptions and privileges, her patronizing remarks, formed an exhaustless subject of conversation at the lunch-hour. Ardessa had, indeed, as they knew she must have, a kind of "purchase" on her employer. ”

“ The coquettish angle at which she carried her head was a mannerism surviving from a time when it was more becoming. She shuddered at the cold candor of the new businesswoman, and was insinuatingly feminine. ”

“ You don't want to go wandering off to some new office where personality does n't count for anything." He sat down confidentially on the edge of her desk. "Do you, now, Miss Devine?"
Ardessa simpered tearfully as she replied.
"Mr. O'Mally," she brought out, "you 'll soon find that Becky is not the sort of girl to meet people for you when you are away. I don't see how you can think of letting her."
"That 's one thing I want to change, Miss Devine. You 're too soft-handed with the has-beens and the never-was-ers. You 're too much of a lady for this rough game. ”

“ I will have it ready for you to-morrow morning, Mr. O'Mally, if you have not too many letters for me this afternoon," Ardessa replied pointedly.
"Holy Mike!" muttered O'Mally, "we need a traffic policeman for the staff, too. Gerrard's modified that thing half a dozen times already. Why don't they get accurate information in the first place?"
He began to dictate his morning mail, walking briskly up and down the floor by way of giving his stenographer an energetic example. Her indolence and her ladylike deportment weighed on him. He wanted to take her by the elbows and run her around the block. ”

“ She continued to advise them in the reception-room and "personally" received their manuscripts long after O'Mally had declared that he would never read another line they wrote, She let them outline their plans for stories and articles to her, promising to bring these suggestions to the editor's attention, She denied herself to nobody, was gracious even to the Shakspere-Bacon man, the perpetual-motion man, the travel-article man, the ghosts which haunt every magazine office. The writers who had had their happy hour of O'Mally's favor kept feeling that Ardessa might reinstate them. ”

“ Nearly everybody who comes in here wants to sell us a gold-brick, and you treat them as if they were bringing in wedding presents. Becky is as rough as sandpaper, and she 'll clear out a lot of dead wood." O'Mally rose, and tapped Ardessa's shrinking shoulder. "Now, be a sport and go through with it, Miss Devine. I 'll see that you don't lose. Henderson thinks you 'll refuse to do his work, so I want you to get moved in there before he comes back from lunch. I 've had a desk put in his office for you. Miss Kalski is in the bookkeeper's room half the time now." ”

“ Henderson glanced toward the desk where Miss Kalski's lightning eye was skimming over the printing-house bills that he was supposed to verify himself.
"Well, if I can't, I know who can," he replied, with a chuckle.
"Exactly," O'Mally agreed. "I 'm counting on the force of Miss Kalski's example. Miss Devine 's all right, Miss Kalski, but she needs regular exercise. She owes it to her complexion. I can't discipline people."
Miss Kalski's only reply was a low, indulgent laugh.
O'Mally braced himself on the morning of Ardessa's return. ”

“ While she was bitterly deliberating, O'Mally himself wandered in, rattling his keys nervously in his pocket. He shut the door behind him.
"Now, you 're going to come through with this all right, are n't you, Miss Devine? I want Henderson to get over the notion that my people over here are stuck up and think the business department are old shoes. That 's where we get our money from, as he often reminds me. You 'll be the best-paid girl over there ”

“ I 'll drop in on Devine this afternoon."
When Miss Kalski went back to her desk in the business manager's private office, she turned to him familiarly, but not impertinently.
"Mr. Henderson, I want to send a kid over in the editorial stenographers' to the Palace Thursday afternoon. She 's a nice kid, only she 's scared out of her skin all the time. Miss Devine 's her boss, and she 'll be just mean enough not to let the young one off. ”

“ He knew his correspondence was not enough to keep her busy, so when he was in town he made her type his own breezy editorials and various articles by members of his staff.
Transcribing editorial copy is always laborious, and the only way to make it easy is to farm it out. This Ardessa was usually clever enough to do. When she returned to her own room after O'Mally had gone out to lunch, Ardessa rang for an office boy and said languidly, "James, call Becky, please." ”

“ The business department is short of help. Henderson is going to put Miss Kalski on the books for a while to figure out some economies for him, and he is going to take you over. Meantime I 'll get Becky broken in so that she could take your work if you were sick or anything."
Ardessa drew herself up.
"I 've not been accustomed to commercial work, Mr. O'Mally. I 've no interest in it, and I don't care to brush up in it."
"Brushing up is just what we need, Miss Devine." O'Mally began tramping about his room expansively. "I 'm going to brush everybody up. I 'm going to brush a few people out ”

“ It would be just as well for O'Mally to work with a coarse instrument for a time; he would be more appreciative, perhaps, of certain qualities to which he had seemed insensible of late. Ardessa was to leave for East Hampton on Sunday, and she spent Saturday morning instructing her substitute as to the state of the correspondence. At noon O'Mally burst into her room. All the morning he had been closeted with a new writer of mystery-stories just over from England.
"Can you stay and take my letters this afternoon, Miss Devine? You 're not leaving until to-morrow." ”

“ She found Ardessa typing O'Mally's letters and wearing a pained expression.
"Good afternoon, Miss Devine," she said carelessly. "Can we borrow Becky over there for Thursday afternoon? We're short."
Miss Devine looked piqued and tilted her head.
"I don't think it 's customary, Miss Kalski, for the business department to use our people. We never have girls enough here to do the work. ”