Willa Sibert Cather

“ He never thought of resenting the fact that he had written away in those books the good red years between twenty-one and twenty-seven. He would have hated to let any one else put so much as a pen-scratch in them. ”

“ I 've always been proud of you, Percy. You 're better style than Charley, but that gets tiresome. You will never burn much red fire in New York, now, will you?"
Percy did not reply. He sat looking at the minute-hand of the eviscerated Mission clock. His wife almost never took the trouble to argue with him.
"You 're old style, Percy," she went on. "Of course everybody marries and wishes they had n't, but nowadays people get over it. Some women go ahead on the quiet, but I'm giving it to you straight. I'm going to work for Greengay. I like his line of business, and I meet people well. ”

“ The trouble was that his expensive courtship had taken every penny of his salary. With competitors like Charley Greengay, you had to spend money or drop out. Certain birds, he reflected ruefully, are supplied with more attractive plumage when they are courting, but nature had n't been so thoughtful for men. When Percy reached the office in the morning he climbed on his tall stool and leaned his arms on his ledger. He was so glad to feel it there that he was faint and weak-kneed.
Oliver Remsen, Junior, had brought new blood into the Remsen Paper Company. ”

“ Remsen sighed.
"Being married is largely unforeseen expenses, Percy. There's only one way to fix this up: I 'II give you seven hundred dollars in cash to-morrow, and you can give me your personal note, with the understanding that I hold ten dollars a week out of your pay-check until it is paid. I think you ought to tell your wife exactly how you are fixed, though. You can't expect her to help you much when she does n't know."
That night Mrs. Bixby was sitting in their flat, waiting for her husband. ”

“ Percy roused himself a little.
"Social life? Well, we 'll have to trim that pretty close for a while. I'm in debt to the company. We 've been living beyond our means ever since we were married."
"We can't live on less than we do," Stella said quietly. "No use in taking that up again."
Percy sat up, clutching the arms of his chair.
"We 'll have to take it up. I'm seven hundred dollars short, and the books are to be audited to-morrow. I told young Remsen and he's going to take my note and hold the money out of my pay-checks. ”

“ Stella buttoned her glove with an air of finishing something, and then looked at Percy without animosity. "Charley and I both have sporty tastes, and we like excitement. You might as well live in Newark if you 're going to sit at home in the evening. You ought n't to have married a business woman; you need somebody domestic. There's nothing in this sort of life for either of us."
"That means, I suppose, that you 're going around with Greengay and his crowd?" ”

“ Percy replied.
Stella shook her head mournfully.
"No, you 're a spender or you 're not. Greengay has been broke three times, fired, down and out, black-listed. But he's always come back, and he always will. You will never be fired, but you 'll always be poor." She turned and looked back again before she went out.
Six months later Bixby came to young Oliver Remsen one afternoon and said he would like to have twenty dollars a week held out of his pay until his debt was cleared off. ”

“ When he threw out this challenge to Mother Brown, Percy was getting thirty-five dollars a week, and he knew well enough that there were several hundred thousand young men in New York who would do his work as well as he did for thirty. ”