Boston Adventure by Jean Stafford

Author:Jean Stafford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Library of America
Published: 2019-10-07T19:08:32+00:00

Chapter Two

* * *

IN ORDER to make my appearance at the Countess von Happel’s Kaffeeklatsch, an attention to her I felt imperative since it was my first invitation in Boston, I had been obliged to negotiate with Mrs. Hinkel so that I could be excused from the last class, Business English. (The Countess kept European hours, serving her afternoon refreshments at four instead of five, a custom Miss Pride regarded as so novel that she almost never went there to tea.) Mrs. Hinkel was furious at the presumption of her “laziest would-be professional woman” and said, “I suppose you think you know all about correct usage! I have not been headmistress of this college for fifteen years without observing, Miss Marburg, that the graduates of public schools, with the exception of those from the Latin schools, know next to nothing in regard to grammar. You may think now that dangling participles and ‘due to’ and prepositional phrases are the least of your worries, but the time will come when you will ask me for a recommendation and I will have to say, ‘The candidate under consideration left much to be desired in her work in Business English.’ However, as the useless expenditure of my time and your money doesn’t bother you, run, amuse yourself, go to the movies, go to the beauty parlor! Respecting your language, don’t worry! Don’t let business interfere with pleasure!” She dispatched me to my debauchery with a military salute and returned, secretly delighted with the rhetoric of her diatribe, to the book she had been reading called Hints to Commercial School Teachers and Administrators.

I would have liked to explain to her that the prospect of a musical afternoon afforded me no pleasure, that I could far better endure the boredom of the class in Business English (in which, as she perfectly well knew, I was the only literate pupil) than the snares I was bound to fall into at the Countess’. But I knew that I would only enrage her further, and I held my tongue. My hand was on the door knob when she burst forth again. “I may as well tell you, Miss, that I am so displeased with your work here, and feel so strongly that this expenditure of my time and your money is useless that unless I am informed of marked improvement in your attitude, I shall have to ask you to leave. My time is simply too valuable to be wasted.” The threat was purest nonsense, for she would not have dreamed of parting with my money which came in regularly each week, but she was a great believer in intimidation as an academic principle, and having very soon discovered that I received her recriminations with just the degree of terror she needed to nourish her sense of power, she never let a day pass without summoning me to her office or cornering me in the corridor to remind me, exultantly, that my ignorance and lassitude were eating up her time.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.