GLH: A Girl to Come Home To.
Let's talk about you, gentle reader.
It's come to our attention, because we are ladies, that some of your deportment... welll... we say this in love, dear heart, but you must know that your dress and demeanor both have an effect on men, yes? And such an important effect. You could cause them to sin, and-
Oh, stop that. It was a woman that brought about the Fall of Man, after all-
My, I mean our, point is that maybe you haven't thought about your actions. Maybe there is a right way and a wrong way of doing things, and if you're not to be talked about, you have to put a mind to your reputation. Your impact, especially, on men. We have a story for you to show you the right and wrong way. Please, let us teach you the simple, simple rules.
The stars were all out in full force the night that Rodney and Jeremy Graeme came home from the war. Even the faraway ones were peeping eagerly throuh the distance, trying to impress the world with their existence, showing that they felt it an occasion when their presence should be recognised.
Whoops, sorry, narrowly avoided getting bogged down in sentimental anthropomorphizing there. This is a rule of feminine behavior: make it clear you're about to do something excessively girly, like write a romance novel, so the menfolk hit the protective layer of gauze and recoil. Well and good. Let's skip down to the dialogue and see what the menfolk are talking about.
"It almost seems," said Jeremy, "as if all the stars we have ever seen since we were born have come out to greet us now that we've come home. They've all come together. The stars that twinkled when we said our prayers at night when we were little kids,"
Oh. Well, men coming home from great strain can get tender over sentiment. They've earned it. What have you done to earn the right to freely talk treacle about stars? Have you fought for our freedom? What? You'd do something as unladylike as fight? For shame! Back to the fine example of the men! Skip down!
The stars that smiled more gently when we drifted down in the old canoe and sang silly love songs
Clearly I am reading a second edition book where the typist accidentally inserted a bit of idle gossip. Skip!
The stars that blessed us with a bit of withdrawing when we walked home from church, or a party at night with our best girls. Right, Jerry? There must have been girls somewhere in your life after I left."
Well, ha ha! Boys will be boys! They talk about all kinds of manly things, like how much they've changed, how to set an example for other men, and finally:
"Of course you don't feel that way because you have Jessica. You'll get married, I suppose, if it really turns out that we get that job they talked about overseas. You planning for a wedding soon, Rod?"
There was a definite silence after that question...
Something is rotten in the States. That thing, of course, is A Woman.
"Yes, I bought her a ring," said the older brother with a forlorn little sound like a sigh.
Only like a sigh. Sighing is for women.
"She sent it back to me a year ago today. I guess by now she's married to the other guy. I don't know, and I don't want to know anything more about it. She just wasn't worth worrying about, I suppose."
Some people would take this as bitter break-up talk, but actually: his is a clear-eyed, honest assessment. She is not worth worrying about. His brother thinks of the important part!
"But the ring!" he faltered, thinking back to the bright token that had meant to him the sin of everlasting fidelity, the lovely peerless jewel that they had all been so proud their Rodney had been able to purchase with his own well-earned money and place on the lovely finger of the beautiful girl who was his promised bride. "What will you do with the ring?"
Ring > girl.
"I sold it!" he said gruffly. The brothers' eyes met and raked each other's consciousness for full understanding.
In fact, it's quite possible he should have married the ring.
"At first I wanted to throw it into the sea. But then somehow that didn't seem right. It wasn't the ring's fault."
It's a certainty he should have married the ring. The ring will never let him down. Girls will let him down.
"Even supposing I should ever find another girl I could trust, which I'm sure I never will, I wouldn't want to give her a ring that had been dishonored, would I?"
Literature's first hoopophile goes on a little about his second lost love, but does his mother know about the breach between him and the first?
"Not unless Jessica has told her, and I doubt if she has. She wouldn't have the nerve!"
This is our first clear sign of Jessica's disreputable ways. She broke the engagement. That's such a shameful thing that she can't even tell the lady that is the man's mother. So: do not give rings back. Do not break engagements.
"I worked at it part-time between missions. It helped to make me madder at the enemy, and less careful for myself. What was the use when the things I had counted on were gone?"
Things. Plural. The ring. The girl. Know your place, dear.
"And what was the ring that I had worked so hard to buy but a costly trinket that nobody wanted? So I found a diamond merchant who gave me a good price for the stone, more than I paid for it, and I was glad to get rid of it."
Or you will sour the love in a good boy's heart for his ring.
"That's the story, Jerry. It had to be told, and there it is."
Hold on, though. GLH heroines have broken engagements before, with gusto. They are ladies to a one. There is not a hiked skirt or a loose waist among them. So just because there is an air of disapproval around Jessica for getting engaged out of high school, seeing her man off, waiting two years, realizing after two years' absence that she didn't love him enough to marry him, and sending back the engagement ring... why, that's almost a chain of events a non-floozy might dabble in! What has she done wrong? Why, her writing in the letter!
"She was about to marry an older, more mature man, who was far better off financially than I could ever hope to be, and she wished I wouldn't feel too bad about her defection. She closed by saying that she hoped this wouldn't be the end, that she and I would always be friends as long as the world lasted."
Wow. Uh. That is quite a letter. "Dear Rod: I don't love you enough to marry you. I love someone who's less a baby, and draws about five thousand times your pay, so I'm going over to the enemy and hope you're not too crushed. Let's just be friends."
But oh, you delicate flower, this is too much for you, isn't it? Let's just look at the impact on the men who are your noble protectors:
"The little rotten rat!" blurted Jeremy. "I'd like to wring her pretty little false neck for her!"
Violent talk is okay in this case, uhm, because it's just a moment of passion from a strong and true man.
"Yes, I felt that way for some time, but then I reflected that I didn't want to even give her that much satisfaction. She isn't worth so much consideration."
Dangerous work, being a floozy. Your life is only worth the fact that murdering you would just be giving you attention. Personally betraying a man by breaking your engagement after two years to marry someone you met in the meanwhile is like defection.
"Perhaps not," said Jeremy, "but all the same I'd like to class her with our enemies and let her take her chances with them."
Jessica: Literally Hitler.
"Thanks, Pard! Well enough said. It's good to know you'll stand by if an occasion arises."
An occasion to... do what? Murder her? That fold in the conversation is never quite made clear, because we drift on to talk of family and home. And whether or not the man that gold-digging, two-timing brat went and, ugh, married is a black-market boss, which of course he is because he attracted a woman of her class. Our hero, who won't murder women because it would just validate them, was also attracted to her. But that was a boyish fancy. Let's move on from that to his brother's thoughts on the Rodney-Jessica split:
Was this thing going to change Rod? How hard that he not only had the memory of war and his terrible experiences at sea, but he had to have this great disappointment, too, this feeling of almost shame... that his girl had one back on him.
If your man is a bad man, you must give back his ring. If he is a good man, you're as good as married. Because, as everyone knows, he desperately loves you.
He had always been so proud of Jessica! Proud of her unusual beauty, proud of her wonderful gold hair, her blue eyes, her long lashes, her grace and charm!
Proud of the ring he got her! Its golden band! Its bright gem! It does seem to compare with his love of her. Uh. Maybe we're just reading it this way because you're here. Your aura taints the book. We will have to skip a bit to get away from it.
Jeremy grinned. "No girl!"
"No kidding?" said the older brother, turning his keen eyes a bit anxiously toward the younger man, with a pleasant recognition of the goodly countenance he wore, his fine physique, his strong, dependable face. There was nothing of which to be ashamed in that brother.
Maybe Rodney actually is a complete jerk who judges by appearance. There is a bit about how their mother warned Jeremy not to get engaged too soon, as if it were Rodney's fault he got engaged to that hussy.
"I'm hungering for a sight of the old house and Mom and Dad and Kathy and even old Hetty. Won't it be good to eat some of her cooking again? I'm hungry enough to eat a bear."
Who is Hetty? Even old Hetty? Oh, she's an aged servant who's been with the family since the boys were very small. GLH books usually have an old religious Scottish servant, touchingly faithful to the family and loved as a family member, so it took me half the book to realize from Hetty's dialogue that she is black.
So they decamp from the train and sneak home in the evening gloom. They are spotted by many, but waylaid by none.
As they sat there talking, just looking at one another - even old Hetty having a part of the moment -
Well, it's good even old Hetty gets to be part of the festive mood when both sons have survived the war and come home. Maybe it's just her name. Maybe she's Even Old Hetty. Even O. Hetty: It has a ring to it.
Then, softly, old Hetty slipped out into the kitchen. She knew what to do, even if Mrs. Graeme had not given that warning look...
Hetty hurried to the freezing plant and got out her chickens. All the children home now, all the family together at last. And Hetty was as happy over the fact as any one of the family, for they were her family, the only family she had left anymore.
We never learn what happened to E. O. Hetty's family. We don't get to see E. O. Hetty get supper,
Even if it was hastily gotten together.
But we know that her pitiful thrown-together offering is: fried chicken, E. O. Hetty's rich brown gravy, onions, turnips, little lima beans, and celery and pickles. E. O. Hetty also has a lemon meringue pie sitting in the pantry. And she makes everyone coffee.
And Mother Graeme could smile and know that all was going on as she had planned.
Mother Graeme should be ashamed of herself.
It's come to our attention, because we are ladies, that some of your deportment... welll... we say this in love, dear heart, but you must know that your dress and demeanor both have an effect on men, yes? And such an important effect. You could cause them to sin, and-
Oh, stop that. It was a woman that brought about the Fall of Man, after all-
My, I mean our, point is that maybe you haven't thought about your actions. Maybe there is a right way and a wrong way of doing things, and if you're not to be talked about, you have to put a mind to your reputation. Your impact, especially, on men. We have a story for you to show you the right and wrong way. Please, let us teach you the simple, simple rules.
The stars were all out in full force the night that Rodney and Jeremy Graeme came home from the war. Even the faraway ones were peeping eagerly throuh the distance, trying to impress the world with their existence, showing that they felt it an occasion when their presence should be recognised.
Whoops, sorry, narrowly avoided getting bogged down in sentimental anthropomorphizing there. This is a rule of feminine behavior: make it clear you're about to do something excessively girly, like write a romance novel, so the menfolk hit the protective layer of gauze and recoil. Well and good. Let's skip down to the dialogue and see what the menfolk are talking about.
"It almost seems," said Jeremy, "as if all the stars we have ever seen since we were born have come out to greet us now that we've come home. They've all come together. The stars that twinkled when we said our prayers at night when we were little kids,"
Oh. Well, men coming home from great strain can get tender over sentiment. They've earned it. What have you done to earn the right to freely talk treacle about stars? Have you fought for our freedom? What? You'd do something as unladylike as fight? For shame! Back to the fine example of the men! Skip down!
The stars that smiled more gently when we drifted down in the old canoe and sang silly love songs
Clearly I am reading a second edition book where the typist accidentally inserted a bit of idle gossip. Skip!
The stars that blessed us with a bit of withdrawing when we walked home from church, or a party at night with our best girls. Right, Jerry? There must have been girls somewhere in your life after I left."
Well, ha ha! Boys will be boys! They talk about all kinds of manly things, like how much they've changed, how to set an example for other men, and finally:
"Of course you don't feel that way because you have Jessica. You'll get married, I suppose, if it really turns out that we get that job they talked about overseas. You planning for a wedding soon, Rod?"
There was a definite silence after that question...
Something is rotten in the States. That thing, of course, is A Woman.
"Yes, I bought her a ring," said the older brother with a forlorn little sound like a sigh.
Only like a sigh. Sighing is for women.
"She sent it back to me a year ago today. I guess by now she's married to the other guy. I don't know, and I don't want to know anything more about it. She just wasn't worth worrying about, I suppose."
Some people would take this as bitter break-up talk, but actually: his is a clear-eyed, honest assessment. She is not worth worrying about. His brother thinks of the important part!
"But the ring!" he faltered, thinking back to the bright token that had meant to him the sin of everlasting fidelity, the lovely peerless jewel that they had all been so proud their Rodney had been able to purchase with his own well-earned money and place on the lovely finger of the beautiful girl who was his promised bride. "What will you do with the ring?"
Ring > girl.
"I sold it!" he said gruffly. The brothers' eyes met and raked each other's consciousness for full understanding.
In fact, it's quite possible he should have married the ring.
"At first I wanted to throw it into the sea. But then somehow that didn't seem right. It wasn't the ring's fault."
It's a certainty he should have married the ring. The ring will never let him down. Girls will let him down.
"Even supposing I should ever find another girl I could trust, which I'm sure I never will, I wouldn't want to give her a ring that had been dishonored, would I?"
Literature's first hoopophile goes on a little about his second lost love, but does his mother know about the breach between him and the first?
"Not unless Jessica has told her, and I doubt if she has. She wouldn't have the nerve!"
This is our first clear sign of Jessica's disreputable ways. She broke the engagement. That's such a shameful thing that she can't even tell the lady that is the man's mother. So: do not give rings back. Do not break engagements.
"I worked at it part-time between missions. It helped to make me madder at the enemy, and less careful for myself. What was the use when the things I had counted on were gone?"
Things. Plural. The ring. The girl. Know your place, dear.
"And what was the ring that I had worked so hard to buy but a costly trinket that nobody wanted? So I found a diamond merchant who gave me a good price for the stone, more than I paid for it, and I was glad to get rid of it."
Or you will sour the love in a good boy's heart for his ring.
"That's the story, Jerry. It had to be told, and there it is."
Hold on, though. GLH heroines have broken engagements before, with gusto. They are ladies to a one. There is not a hiked skirt or a loose waist among them. So just because there is an air of disapproval around Jessica for getting engaged out of high school, seeing her man off, waiting two years, realizing after two years' absence that she didn't love him enough to marry him, and sending back the engagement ring... why, that's almost a chain of events a non-floozy might dabble in! What has she done wrong? Why, her writing in the letter!
"She was about to marry an older, more mature man, who was far better off financially than I could ever hope to be, and she wished I wouldn't feel too bad about her defection. She closed by saying that she hoped this wouldn't be the end, that she and I would always be friends as long as the world lasted."
Wow. Uh. That is quite a letter. "Dear Rod: I don't love you enough to marry you. I love someone who's less a baby, and draws about five thousand times your pay, so I'm going over to the enemy and hope you're not too crushed. Let's just be friends."
But oh, you delicate flower, this is too much for you, isn't it? Let's just look at the impact on the men who are your noble protectors:
"The little rotten rat!" blurted Jeremy. "I'd like to wring her pretty little false neck for her!"
Violent talk is okay in this case, uhm, because it's just a moment of passion from a strong and true man.
"Yes, I felt that way for some time, but then I reflected that I didn't want to even give her that much satisfaction. She isn't worth so much consideration."
Dangerous work, being a floozy. Your life is only worth the fact that murdering you would just be giving you attention. Personally betraying a man by breaking your engagement after two years to marry someone you met in the meanwhile is like defection.
"Perhaps not," said Jeremy, "but all the same I'd like to class her with our enemies and let her take her chances with them."
Jessica: Literally Hitler.
"Thanks, Pard! Well enough said. It's good to know you'll stand by if an occasion arises."
An occasion to... do what? Murder her? That fold in the conversation is never quite made clear, because we drift on to talk of family and home. And whether or not the man that gold-digging, two-timing brat went and, ugh, married is a black-market boss, which of course he is because he attracted a woman of her class. Our hero, who won't murder women because it would just validate them, was also attracted to her. But that was a boyish fancy. Let's move on from that to his brother's thoughts on the Rodney-Jessica split:
Was this thing going to change Rod? How hard that he not only had the memory of war and his terrible experiences at sea, but he had to have this great disappointment, too, this feeling of almost shame... that his girl had one back on him.
If your man is a bad man, you must give back his ring. If he is a good man, you're as good as married. Because, as everyone knows, he desperately loves you.
He had always been so proud of Jessica! Proud of her unusual beauty, proud of her wonderful gold hair, her blue eyes, her long lashes, her grace and charm!
Proud of the ring he got her! Its golden band! Its bright gem! It does seem to compare with his love of her. Uh. Maybe we're just reading it this way because you're here. Your aura taints the book. We will have to skip a bit to get away from it.
Jeremy grinned. "No girl!"
"No kidding?" said the older brother, turning his keen eyes a bit anxiously toward the younger man, with a pleasant recognition of the goodly countenance he wore, his fine physique, his strong, dependable face. There was nothing of which to be ashamed in that brother.
Maybe Rodney actually is a complete jerk who judges by appearance. There is a bit about how their mother warned Jeremy not to get engaged too soon, as if it were Rodney's fault he got engaged to that hussy.
"I'm hungering for a sight of the old house and Mom and Dad and Kathy and even old Hetty. Won't it be good to eat some of her cooking again? I'm hungry enough to eat a bear."
Who is Hetty? Even old Hetty? Oh, she's an aged servant who's been with the family since the boys were very small. GLH books usually have an old religious Scottish servant, touchingly faithful to the family and loved as a family member, so it took me half the book to realize from Hetty's dialogue that she is black.
So they decamp from the train and sneak home in the evening gloom. They are spotted by many, but waylaid by none.
As they sat there talking, just looking at one another - even old Hetty having a part of the moment -
Well, it's good even old Hetty gets to be part of the festive mood when both sons have survived the war and come home. Maybe it's just her name. Maybe she's Even Old Hetty. Even O. Hetty: It has a ring to it.
Then, softly, old Hetty slipped out into the kitchen. She knew what to do, even if Mrs. Graeme had not given that warning look...
Hetty hurried to the freezing plant and got out her chickens. All the children home now, all the family together at last. And Hetty was as happy over the fact as any one of the family, for they were her family, the only family she had left anymore.
We never learn what happened to E. O. Hetty's family. We don't get to see E. O. Hetty get supper,
Even if it was hastily gotten together.
But we know that her pitiful thrown-together offering is: fried chicken, E. O. Hetty's rich brown gravy, onions, turnips, little lima beans, and celery and pickles. E. O. Hetty also has a lemon meringue pie sitting in the pantry. And she makes everyone coffee.
And Mother Graeme could smile and know that all was going on as she had planned.
Mother Graeme should be ashamed of herself.