human
Fanny was a writer once--
gpt
Oh, really!
human
Yes. She ran a department on one of the papers. It had been the dress pattern page, but Amy did not mention that. Instead she yawned complacently.
gpt
Oh, she dropped it quick enough--she thought it rather tiresome. She's one of the cleverest women I know. She'd have got a long way up in the world, if it weren't for her second husband--
human
Her second?
gpt
Yes. The first one didn't do very well. She told me once, 'If you want to get on, change your name at least once in every three years.' Her second, as it happened, was no better than the first. But she was clever enough by then to get an able lawyer; and when it came to the divorce, Fanny succeeded in keeping the house, the one out on Long Island.
human
Oh,
gpt
I don't care especially for Fanny's ideas about husbands, she said.
human
But at least she has a love of a home. And Amy went on to explain to her sister the value and importance of being able to give
gpt
It's money, my dear, it's money. They are the same women in Newport exactly--just like all the rest of us--only they are richer. That's all--but it is everything. Put me in a big house out there, and my friends wouldn't know me in a few years.
human
But that's just the trouble. A few years more and I'll be too late. You've got to get there while you're young. And there's so little time. You lose your looks. It's all very well for some women to talk about ideas and things--and travel and--and children. I did, too, I talked a lot--oh, how I wanted everything! But one has to narrow down. Thank heaven, Ethel, you've years ahead. I've only got a few more left--I'm already thirty-one. And my type ages fast in this town, if you do the things you're expected to do. But you--oh, Ethel, I want you to marry well! Not a millionaire--that's rather hard, and besides he'd probably be too fat--but the kind who will be a millionaire, who has it written all over his face and makes you feel it in his voice! Don't sell yourself too cheap, my dear! Don't go running about with men who'll keep you poor for the rest of your days. They talk so well--some of them do; and it sounds so fine--ideas and books and pictures and--I knew one who was an architect. And it's all very well for later on, but what you've got to do right at the start--while you have the looks and youth--is to find the man who can give you a house where all those other people will be tumbling to get in--because you'll have the money--you'll be able to entertain--and give them what they really want--in spite of all their talking.