INTRODUCTION ix THE WOMAN WHO TRIED TO BE GOOD 1 THE GAY OLD DOG 11 THAT'S MARRIAGE 29 FARMER IN THE DELL 49 UN MORSO DOO PANG 68 LONG DISTANCE 89 THE MATERNAL FEMININE 94 .... remainder not included
Before she tried to be a good woman she had been a very bad woman—sobad that she could trail her wonderful apparel up and down Main Street,from the Elm Tree Bakery to the railroad tracks, without once having aman doff his hat to her or a woman bow. You passed her on the streetwith a surreptitious glance, though she was well worth looking at—inher furs and laces and plumes. She had the only full-length mink coatin our town, and Ganz's shoe store sent to Chicago for her shoes. Herswere the miraculously small feet you frequently see in stout women.
Usually she walked alone; but on rare occasions, especially roundChristmastime, she might have been seen accompanied by some silent,dull-eyed, stupid-looking girl, who would follow her dumbly in and outof stores, stopping now and then to admire a cheap comb or a chain setwith flashy imitation stones—or, queerly enough, a doll with yellowhair and blue eyes and very pink cheeks. But, alone or in company, herappearance in the stores of our town was the signal for a sudden jumpin the cost of living. The storekeepers mulcted her; and she knew itand paid in silence, for she was of the class that has no redress. Sheowned the House with the Closed Shutters, near the freight depot—didBlanche Devine.
In a larger town than ours she would have passed unnoticed. She didnot look like a bad woman. Of course she used too much make-up, and asshe passed you caught the oversweet breath of a certain heavy scent.Then, too, her diamond eardrops would have made any woman's featureslook hard; but her plump face, in spite of its heaviness, wore anexpression of good-humored intelligence, and her eyeglasses gave hersomehow a look of respectability. We do not associate vice witheyeglasses. So in a large city she would have passed for awell-dressed, prosperous, comfortable wife and mother who was in dangerof losing her figure from an overabundance of good living; but with usshe was a town character, like Old Man Givins, the drunkard, or theweak-minded Binns girl. When she passed the drug-store corner therewould be a sniggering among the vacant-eyed loafers idling there, andthey would leer at each other and jest in undertones.
So, knowing Blanche Devine as we did, there was something resembling ariot in one of our most respectable neighborhoods when it was learnedthat she had given up her interest in the house near the freight depotand was going to settle down in the white cottage on the corner and begood. All the husbands in the block, urged on by righteously indignantwives, dropped in on Alderman Mooney