The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Emma McChesney & Co. by Edna Ferber: activity. The machinery of her day, ordinarily as noiseless and
well ordered as a thing on ball bearings, now rasped, creaked,
jerked, stood still, jolted on again. A bustling clerk or
stenographer, entering with paper or memorandum, would find her
bent over her desk, pencil in hand, absorbed in a rough drawing
that seemed to bear no relation to the skirt of the day. The
margin of her morning paper was filled with queer little scrawls
by the time she reached the office. She drew weird lines with
her fork on the table-cloth at lunch. These hieroglyphics she
covered with a quick hand, like a bashful schoolgirl, when any
one peeped.
 Emma McChesney & Co. |