human
How do you like the Tempest and Protest, Miss Golden?
gpt
I don't--
human
Why! The Temperance and Protection Home.
gpt
Well, I like Mrs. Fike's shoes. I should think they'd be fine to throw at cats.
human
Good work, Golden. You're admitted!
gpt
Say, Magen, said Mrs. Lawrence,
human
Golden agrees with me about offices--no chance for women--
gpt
Esther, she said, in a voice which must naturally have been rasping, but which she had apparently learned to control like a violin--
human
Esther dear, if you could ever understand what offices have done for me! On the East Side--always it was work and work and watch all the pretty girls in our block get T. B. in garment-factories, or marry fellows that weren't any good and have a baby every year, and get so thin and worn out; and the garment-workers' strikes and picketing on cold nights. And now I am in an office--all the fellows are dandy and polite--not like the floor superintendent where I worked in a department store; he would call down a cash-girl for making change slow--! I have a chance to do anything a man can do. The boss is just crazy to find women that will take an _interest_ in the work, like it was their own you know, he told you so himself--
gpt
Sure, I know the line of guff, said Mrs. Lawrence.
human
And you take an interest, and get eighteen plunks per for doing statistics that they couldn't get a real college male in trousers to do for less than thirty-five.
gpt
Or put it like this, Lawrence, said Jennie Cassavant.
human
Magen admits that the world in general is a muddle, and she thinks offices are heaven because by comparison with sweat-shops they are half-way decent.