Jenny chewed over the conversation in her mind.
That man named Frank said there was still a vacancy for a clerk. Those words stuck in Jenny's ears like a nail.
Today, John had already threatened her with her job in the printing department.
Jenny clenched her hands, immediately turned around, and, with a smile, asked the mail clerk at the counter.
"What's going on with them?"
The mail clerks, eager for gossip, lowered their voices and whispered to Jenny.
"You're new, right? A month ago, the magazine department's Century Weekly had an incident. The former executive editor, Capson Tangni, was caught embezzling company funds and taking bribes. He got sued and went to prison. Heard he embezzled a full sixty thousand dollars over the years!"
"The one begging Frank just now was an assistant editor from the old Century Weekly editorial office. He'd been there seven or eight years, but because he was promoted by Tangni, he got caught in the fallout and was fired. With that on his record, where else would hire him? It's pitiful."
Under normal circumstances, an assistant editor leaving Dawling would have small companies queuing up to snatch him.
Another mail clerk clicked his tongue.
"It's not just him. Century Weekly suspended for two weeks, and all levels of the editorial department got a shake-up. Now the editor-in-chief and the page managers are all from the telegraph department, brought in to salvage the situation.
See, Frank is the secretary of one of those page managers. He's in charge of arranging interviews for new editors and recruiting typists and clerks. He's swamped."
"With an incident like that, even if the guy is innocent, Frank wouldn't dare speak up for him..."
Before he finished, a stern-looking female supervisor came out from behind. The mail clerks immediately shut their mouths and returned to their seats.
Jenny felt a bit intimidated, her steps light as she quickly left.
Leaving Dawling Building, the heavy snow had just stopped. The sky was pitch black. Lower Manhattan was bustling with traffic.
She didn't plan to wait for her cousin to finish work. She merged into the crowd, boarded a public carriage, which drove onto the nearby Brooklyn Bridge, slowly crossing the East River toward Brooklyn Heights.
When she approached her uncle's house, the church bells chimed again.
Jenny walked with her head down, deep in thought. Her feet went numb from the cold snow before she reached her uncle's door.
She knocked. Little George opened the door.
Jenny took off her scarf and entered. The kitchen light was on; her aunt and sister-in-law were setting the table. Her uncle had just arrived, putting down his tool bag and lighting a cheap, harsh cigarette.
"Jenny? Back?"
"Mm."
Jenny walked toward the table. She could see her aunt turning her back, cutting bread with some force, clattering, clearly resentful about something.
Her uncle gestured for Jenny to sit.
"Did John come to see you today? Did he propose?"
Jenny had worried all the way, but now faced with it, she felt strangely calm. She wouldn't beat around the bush.
"Yes, but I didn't accept. And I won't in the future."
Seeing her uncle about to speak, she continued:
"I've thought it through. No matter how much you persuade me, I won't consider him. We don't suit each other."
She pressed her lips together.
"Also, I've been troubling you staying here these days. I plan to move out."
Her uncle's previously calm expression changed abruptly. He frowned and slammed the table.
"You shouldn't be so stubborn. I wasn't going to blame you. Cough... New York is huge. How can a young girl make it alone? John was just too impatient. You can keep getting along..."
"Then if I keep seeing him for another year or half a year, can I settle down here comfortably?"
Interrupted, her uncle was obviously taken aback. He hadn't expected Jenny to cut him off or say that.
Of course, he didn't want Jenny to live there forever, causing his wife to complain about him. But how could he say that?
He had been an apprentice since childhood, earning no salary, relying on Jenny's parents for room and board. If he didn't take care of Jenny, what would people say?
Jenny understood exactly what her uncle was thinking and what held him back.
Since she moved in, if she hadn't paid rent and food money, her aunt probably wouldn't have even let her in the door.
Her aunt was a devout believer who always disliked girls with too much opinion. Finding out that Jenny had come to New York alone without consulting her family, she thought Jenny was unstable and improper, and she often muttered behind her back.
Jenny suddenly stood up, a trace of mockery on her face.
"I'll move out tonight. Don't trouble yourself. Since you shouldn't meddle in my affairs, let's not make it ugly. Besides, I'm not without a place to go."
She said this and walked upstairs. Behind her came the sound of her aunt throwing down the spoon.
She scolded her daughter-in-law, who was about to stop Jenny.
"Let her go! I'd like to see who dares to stop her! She doesn't appreciate kindness. People will know. Let her go back where she came from..."
Mr. Barton stood still, not really believing Jenny could survive alone in New York. Once she tasted hardship and had nowhere else to go, she'd come back and compromise.
Jenny quickly went up to the attic and closed the door on the yelling behind her.
She first went to the bedside, took out her wallet, and counted the greenbacks she had hidden: forty-five dollars and a few cents.
Since deciding two years ago to come to New York, her parents hadn't supported her, not even with travel money.
Jenny had worked part-time at the town post office for two years, saving up a few dozen dollars. That bought her a ten-dollar steamer ticket from the lake district to New York.
After she left home, her mother sent a letter to her uncle, asking him to meet her at the port, arrange a job, and even find her a marriage partner. They had long been impatient.
If she left, no one would really stop her.
But with the little money she had, aside from a return ticket home, renting and feeding herself alone would only last a month in New York. If she couldn't get a steady job, she might really have to go back where she came from.
Fortunately, she had only moved in half a month ago, so she had few belongings. She quickly packed two lightweight wicker suitcases.
As she came downstairs, the whole house was eerily silent, as if they were sure she wouldn't actually leave, waiting for her to come to her senses.
Jenny paused at the door, took a deep breath, and finally pushed it open and walked out.
Outside, the wind was biting cold. Alone, carrying heavy luggage, she stepped unevenly through the snow toward the carriage station. She felt a sense of relief, like being unbound, and felt free.
Looking back, she saw only her sister-in-law standing hesitantly at the front door.
But Jenny didn't have time to say anything. The carriage approached slowly, and she quickly boarded, heading across the Brooklyn Bridge toward Manhattan.
...