Read Tiffany Girl for Free Online

table and fled from the room.
    Flossie rose halfway out of her chair, but her father stopped her with a hand on her arm. “No, moppet, I’ll go to her in a moment. Sit, and let’s finish this.”
    She sank back down. “I didn’t mean it as a criticism.”
    “Of course you didn’t, but your mother, she feels she failed me. I’ve told her a thousand times that you are enough, more thanenough. You are more than any father could ever hope for, but it never occurred to her, I don’t think, that she’d failed you.”
    “But she didn’t fail me.”
    “Then why this sudden need to have siblings?”
    Setting an elbow on the table, she rested a palm against her forehead. It wasn’t a sudden need. It had been a lifelong need, or wish, anyway. “This is such a mess.”
    “We’ll get it sorted out, but you must stop this nonsense about a boardinghouse.”
    “Oh, Papa. Don’t you see? I want to spread my wings. I want to see what it’s like to be on my own, to be part of a big family. If I move into a boardinghouse, I’ll be able to do all of those things.”
    “If you move into a boardinghouse, what you’ll have is a soiled cloth on the dining table, a mattress stuffed with pigs’ hair, and filthy bed clothing which holds an unspeakable odor, not to mention unemptied slop jars and dirty washing basins.”
    She wondered if he realized who washed his bed clothing, who emptied his slop jar, and who cleaned his washing basin.
    “What is Tiffany paying you?” he asked.
    “Five dollars a week.”
    “Then you won’t be able to afford a boardinghouse unless you share a room with someone, which means the second bed would be occupied with a person not of your choosing, but of the landlady’s choosing. What if she is of an unpleasant nature?”
    “What if she isn’t? What if she’s—” like a sister , she finished to herself.
    He studied her. “You’re going to do it, aren’t you? No matter what I say, no matter how much it will injure your mother and me, and no matter all that we’ve done for you.”
    “I’m sorry,” she replied. “I can’t really explain it to you, but my mind is made up. I would very much like your assistance in choosing the boardinghouse, but if you won’t help me, then I’ll have to do it myself. But I will do it, Papa.”
    She didn’t know how she’d do it, though. The other girls atthe School of Applied Design already lived in houses without any vacancies or were going to stay at home, but the more Flossie thought about a boardinghouse, the more excited she became about it. She’d have no one to answer to. No one. Not her father. Not her mother. Not even a husband. She wouldn’t just be a New Woman, she’d be a whole new person.

NEW BOARDER  3

“The new boarder swept by Reeve Wilder’s open door in a whirl of extravagant haberdashery and fur-lined clothing.”

CHAPTER
    5

    T he new boarder swept by Reeve Wilder’s open door in a whirl of extravagant haberdashery and fur-lined clothing. Behind her was their landlord, Mr. Klausmeyer, a giant trunk strapped to his back, his gait slow and plodding. Snow had saturated the lower portion of his dingy brown trousers and clung to his hobnailed boots. Reeve wondered if the man had finally gotten around to shoveling their front landing.
    He hoped the carting of trunks wouldn’t tax Klausmeyer so much that he abandoned the task. The boardinghouse betty was a former lodger who’d settled his back rent by marrying the landlady, making him her third husband and making it the third time the house was given a new name. It was rare, indeed, for Klausmeyer to even make an appearance. He was much more likely to lounge about in the back without ever lifting a finger to help.
    “Hello! Are you Miss Love?” The new boarder’s voice held a lyrical component, flushed with innocence and enthusiasm. Reeve had expected her to continue to the stairwell, for all first-floor rooms were occupied. Instead, she’d stopped at Miss Love’s room.