Short Fiction · Chapter
I explained
Rutherford Maxwell, an Englishman working at the New Asiatic Bank in New York, spends his nights writing stories in his cheap hall-bedroom at Alcala.
What happens
Rutherford Maxwell, an Englishman working at the New Asiatic Bank in New York, spends his nights writing stories in his cheap hall-bedroom at Alcala. Despite the heat and loneliness, he persists, dreaming of a holiday. One night, a tipsy girl named Gladys knocks and asks for a cigarette, then is retrieved by a lively girl named Peggy, whom Rutherford had often heard passing by.
Themes in this chapter
Loneliness and Connection
Rutherford feels utterly alone in the heart of the city, but the sounds of footsteps and voices—especially the name 'Peggy'—connect him to the outer world.
Identity and Self-Improvement
Rutherford strives to escape the bank through writing, seeing literature as the uphill road out of his unromantic job.
Characters to notice
- Rutherford Maxwell
An Englishman and younger son, works at the New Asiatic Bank and writes stories at night in his cheap hall-bedroom at Alcala.
- Peggy Norton
A lively, trim girl with grey eyes and a determined chin; she retrieves Gladys from Rutherford's room and is the same Peggy he had heard singing in the hall.
Key passages
“In Alcala, as in most of New York’s apartment houses, the schedule of prices is like a badly rolled cigarette—thick in the middle and thin at both ends.”
In Alcala, like many New York apartment buildings, the rent structure is uneven: expensive in the middle floors, cheaper at the top and bottom.
Describes the pricing layout of the building.
“For years it had been trying to look like a bookcase in the daytime, and now it looked more like a folding-bed than ever.”
The folding-bed had long attempted to disguise itself as a bookcase during the day, but it clearly remained a folding-bed.
Personification of the folding-bed's failed disguise.
“He was by profession one of the numerous employees of the New Asiatic Bank, which has its branches all over the world.”
He worked as one of many employees at the globally branched New Asiatic Bank.
Introduces Rutherford's job.
“He used to build up in his mind identities for the owners of the names. One in particular, Peggy, gave him much food for thought.”
He would imagine who the people behind the names he heard were, especially a girl named Peggy.
Rutherford's imaginative connection to the name Peggy.
“A novelette, an airy trifle, conceived in days when the thermometer was lower and it was possible to think, and worked out almost mechanically, had been accepted by a magazine of a higher standing than those which hitherto had shown him hospitality.”
A light novelette he had written during cooler weather was accepted by a more prestigious magazine than usual.
Rutherford's first success in writing.
“Outside in the passage was standing a girl, tall and sleepy-eyed. She wore a picture-hat and a costume the keynote of which was a certain aggressive attractiveness.”
A tall, drowsy girl in a striking hat and outfit stood in the hallway.
Description of Gladys's appearance.