At this question he stared at her
too.
The older man whipped around on his son. "Clear out, Jim," he said
sharply. And then to Rose: "You haven't answered my question."
"I was a member of that company," she said. "But ..."
"We have no vacancy at present," he said sharply. "Good day."
She flinched a little but stood her ground. "I said I wasn't experienced
as a saleswoman," she said, "but there are some things I know a good
deal about--clothes and hats...."
He hadn't stayed to listen; had walked straight to the door and opened
it. Reluctantly she followed him.
"There's no place," he said, "in this store, or I trust in the town
either, for young women of your sort. Good day!"
Rose made five more applications for work on Main Street, all with the
same result. Some of those who refused her were panicky about it; one
threatened to have her put in jail. One looked knowing and after he had
expressed in jocular though emphatic terms, his sense of her
impossibility as a publicly acknowledged employee, intimated a desire to
prosecute a personal acquaintance with her further.
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