{"product_id":"2940013683006","title":"The Separate Room","description":"It was clear that Bergsma was pleased, and Marion Cameron held her\u003cbr\u003ebreath in thrilled alarm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You've done it--why! you've done it rippingly,\" said Bergsma, in his\u003cbr\u003eintermittent foreign accent, which now made a w and y precede the r in\u003cbr\u003e\"rippingly.\" He did not look up, but read on eagerly from the sheet\u003cbr\u003ethat Marion had typed for him, this morning, before he came into the\u003cbr\u003estudy. She had felt tired, on waking, after the late evening with its\u003cbr\u003edifficult job, and then the exciting sense of having done it not so\u003cbr\u003ebadly; she had hardly slept a wink, but she was at Bergsma's house\u003cbr\u003emuch earlier than usual, so that all should be in best array when\u003cbr\u003eBergsma came, and she herself in something that might figure as\u003cbr\u003ecomposure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"So it was interesting,\" Bergsma said, still reading. \"Miss Grey was\u003cbr\u003ein good voice, and Woolley not too--woolly?\" He grinned at his mild\u003cbr\u003ejoke, but still did not look up.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Miss Grey was splendid,\" Marion said, in her clear solemn tones; \"and\u003cbr\u003eMr. Woolley was. . .\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe stopped. She wanted to acknowledge the joke, to say that Mr.\u003cbr\u003eWoolley had been something textile, but the word would not present\u003cbr\u003eitself, and Marion gave it up. \"Mr. Woolley was quite good.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Loose?\" asked Bergsma, with another grin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Loose--Mr. Woolley?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe glanced at her. \"The part--it's quelque peu! I thought he might\u003cbr\u003ehave 'given' a bit for once, pulled his voice out...ah, peste, no more\u003cbr\u003eof it!\" He frowned.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMarion blushed. She knew she had been slow, and knew that Bergsma\u003cbr\u003ehated slowness.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe laid the sheet aside. \"It's all right. Send it off.\" Now he looked\u003cbr\u003eup, and at her. \"You enjoyed it--the job, I mean?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Indeed I did,\" she answered with the full force of her earnestness.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe turned his thick blue eyes away.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Like to do it again?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"If you think I'm worthy...\" Marion said, a shade more solemnly still.\u003cbr\u003eAll at once a different mood seized Bergsma. \"Oh, any intelligent\u003cbr\u003eperson can turn out a notice like that. It wasn't an important\u003cbr\u003eproduction... You've done it very nicely.\" He took the morning paper;\u003cbr\u003eMarion knew she was dismissed to her own table in the corner.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis kind of thing had happened before--the disconcerting change of\u003cbr\u003etone, when she had thought that he was really pleased beyond the\u003cbr\u003eordinary limits of a secretary's \"giving-of-satisfaction.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMarion did not resent, but she would have liked to understand it. Was\u003cbr\u003eit something in him, or in herself, that brought the quick reaction?\u003cbr\u003eFor she knew, as she had known before, that this was not the mere\u003cbr\u003ereturn to business-manner when the moment for expansion is over. No;\u003cbr\u003ehe was cross, and about something that was definite, to him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe put up her article for post--the first words she had ever written\u003cbr\u003efor print, and they were to appear, in the foremost musical weekly,\u003cbr\u003enot as hers but his. She was Bergsma's \"ghost!\" Marion, when first she\u003cbr\u003ehad realized that this was what she was to be, had smiled to herself\u003cbr\u003ewith the humour of which, for all her lack of wit, she was capable.\u003cbr\u003eBergsma's ghost--a ludicrously dissimilar one! He was short and squat,\u003cbr\u003ewith a flat, smooth, white face, and thick, prominent, most heavy-\u003cbr\u003elidded eyes that deadened into boredom frankly and alarmingly: \"the\u003cbr\u003eeyes of genius,\" somebody had said of them to Marion. Certainly, if\u003cbr\u003ethat power of extinguishing his eyes were proof of genius, Bergsma had\u003cbr\u003eit; and if the other power of lighting so excitedly that they lit up\u003cbr\u003ehis whole face were further proof, the eyes doubly marked him. That\u003cbr\u003ewas what made it comic that she should be his ghost. Marion's eyes\u003cbr\u003ewere large, but that was the most they were. They always looked the\u003cbr\u003esame; their brightness was constant--not a luminous brightness, but a\u003cbr\u003emere surface glitter, just enough to rescue them from dulness. They\u003cbr\u003ebored her; she despised them heartily. Other things about herself she\u003cbr\u003edid not so much mind. She was glad to have her strong white teeth, to\u003cbr\u003ebe so very tall and not an atom weedy; she could not help thinking,\u003cbr\u003etoo, that she looked more like \"a lady\" than most working-girls.\u003cbr\u003e(Marion liked to call herself a working-girl, but it annoyed her\u003cbr\u003emother.) She carried herself gallantly, and had adopted the right\u003cbr\u003emanner of dress for an impoverished but undeniable gentlewoman, glad\u003cbr\u003eand proud to be the hard-working secretary to a leading critic of\u003cbr\u003emusic--the musical drama, especially. She wore dark, well-cut coats\u003cbr\u003eand skirts, and broad, low stiff white collars, and sober hats that\u003cbr\u003ehad not \"too much surface,\" as her friend, Mrs. Wynne, was fond of\u003cbr\u003esaying. Marion didn't know what her friend meant, yet she always\u003cbr\u003econtrived to get the kind of hat.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47145770385648,"sku":"2940013683006","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013683006_p0.jpg?v=1763584326","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013683006","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}