In order to make my appearance at the Countess von Happel’s Kaffeeklatsch, an attention to her I felt imperative since it was my first invitation in Boston, I had been obliged to negotiate with Mrs. Hinkel so that I could be excused from the last class, Business English. (The Countess kept European hours, serving her afternoon refreshments at four instead of five, a custom Miss Pride regarded as so novel that she almost never went there to tea.) Mrs. Hinkel was furious at the presumption of her “laziest would-be professional woman” and said, “I suppose you think you know all about correct usage! I have not been headmistress of this college for fifteen years without observing, Miss Marburg, that the graduates of public schools, with the exception of those from the Latin schools, know next to nothing in regard to grammar. You may think now that dangling participles and ‘due to’ and prepositional phrases are the least of your worries, but the time will come when you will ask me for a recommendation and I will have to say, ‘The candidate under consideration left much to be desired in her work in Business English.’ However, as the useless expenditure of my time and your money doesn’t bother you, run, amuse yourself, go to the movies, go to the beauty parlor! Respecting your language, don’t worry! Don’t let business interfere with pleasure!” She dispatched me to my debauchery with a military salute and returned, secretly delighted with the rhetoric of her diatribe, to the book she had been reading called Hints to Commercial School Teachers and Administrators.