INFO:

• TITLE: GIRL ABOUT TOWN
• AUTHOR: KATHERINE PENT
• YEAR PUBLISHED: 1937
• PUBLISHER: HILLMAN CURL, INC. (A STREAMLINED ROMANCE)

Girl About Town

CHAPTER I:

 Two women are having a conversation; but it is no ordinary conversation, for they are worried! Or, rather, the one named Anne Hartley is worried. Felicity Winton is more concerned with the state of her manicure.

Several useless dialogue tags later, Anne is still melodramatically wringing her hands over the lateness of her boyfriend, Robin Gunter. How very English. I’m pretty sure she is the Girl About Town of the title, and that the town in question is London.

At this point, I’m starting to think that poor Robin and his scarlet-and-black racing car are mangled somewhere in a ditch. How will Anne and Felicity make it to the party for which they are preparing, if Robin and his fancy wheels don’t escort them? The answer is, surprisingly, a bus.

Someone, it seems, is dating above her station. Cripes!

Nope, scratch that. A paragraph down we are informed that, although Robin is of the moneyed class and Anne is but a lingerie model (the horror!), they are social equals. How is this possible, you ask? It involves a boring story about dead parents, a wealthy aunt, and our plucky heroine’s very modern determination to make it on her own in the city rather than being stuck living in the country on the sufferance of her relations.

I’m pretty confident that this “social equals” bullshit is going to come in handy later.

Oh, and Robin is not dead! His sexy automobile is also, presumably, fine.

“Why, Felicity!” She turned round sharply as Felicity came into the room and closed the door behind her. “What is it?”

“Darling. It’s not Robin.”

“What!”

“It’s his mother. She wants to see you. I’ve shown her into the sitting-room.”

Uh-oh. Here’s our plot!

Mama Bear Gunter, it seems, does not want her handsome and dashing cub to marry a poor, tacky-ass model.

“There was going to be trouble and no mistake!”

Mrs. Gunter has sent her son to Cannes, far from the fleshy temptations of “A girl of your class! A girl whose figure is displayed in every newspaper. It’s common! Cheap! Vulgar!” What’s more: Robin has no idea that his dear mother is visiting Anne.

Things just got really real, y’all. (I’ve never written or spoken the word “y’all” before, but it undeniably fits here.)

Then, much to my surprise, our girl Anne stands up for herself!

“How dare you speak to me like that? she cried hotly. “What right have you to come uninvited into my flat and behave like this?”

She continues yelling at her newly-minted nemesis for an entire page. Mama Bear knows that Anne speaks the truth, but, instead of having an adult conversation with her, leaves in a haughty, upper-crust huff.

Anne knows that Robin is out of her life forever!

Sob.

CHAPTER II:

It’s an entire year later. Never fear, though, because Anne is realistic and level-headed. Pink geraniums are blooming in the window-boxes! Everything is fantastic! She’s totally moved on with her life. Haha!

“I told you you’d get over it in time,” said Felicity.

“And you were right,” agreed Anne, but in her heart she knew that Felicity was not right. She had not yet got over her love for Robin.

What are the odds that Robin is really an insufferable ass? There is just no way that this guy is all that Anne makes him out to be. And even if he is, has she already forgotten about his mother? Run, girl, run.

Hey, what’s this? Oh, just a timely letter from Anne’s wealthy Aunt Alicia inviting the former to a house-party in the country. Anne’s cousin Muriel is coming of age. This is highly important and must be celebrated with other rich people. Continue reading →