§ 3
Quietly she told the news to her mother and sister that evening. At once there was a hubbub; they were lavish with kisses, hugs and congratulations. Alice, clapping palms, exclaimed:
“That will give you seventy-five—ninety dollars more to spend on your trousseau! ... Oh, what will you do with it, Janny?”
“It’s more than Roy gets,” Mrs. Sturgis commented proudly with an elegant gesture of her hand.
“No, he was raised just before Christmas.”
“Well, it’s as much anyway. Think of it: twenty-five dollars a week! ... For a girl! ... Why, your father never earned much more!”
Roy was delighted, too.
“By golly!” he exclaimed enthusiastically. “I told you, didn’t I? I guess I can tell a good stenographer when I see one. You were worrying—remember?—when you first went down there whether you were going to make good or not.... Well,—say,—isn’t that great! ... I guess I’ve got a pretty smart girl picked out for a wife; hey, old darling? You’re just a wonder, Janny! You can do anything. I wish I was good enough for you, that’s all.... Poor old C. B.! He’ll be disappointed as the deuce when you quit!”
Nevertheless, within the next few days Roy wondered if he altogether liked the change in Jeannette’s status. Her manner towards him became different. She no longer would gossip about office matters, and during business hours she treated him with cold formality. There had always been a pleased light in her eyes at a chance encounter with him and sometimes he would find a little note on his desk she had left there. But now she held him at a distance rather pompously, he thought. She answered “I don’t know,” or “Mr. Corey didn’t say,” when he asked some casual question about business. She had become close-mouthed, and gave herself an air as she went about her work.
“I can’t act differently towards you than I do towards anybody else,” she said in her defence when he complained. “Don’t you see, Roy, I’ve got to be a kind of machine now. I’ve got to treat everybody alike. Mr. Corey wouldn’t like it if he thought I was intimate with you.”