The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jennie Gerhardt, by Theodore Dreiser

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Title: Jennie Gerhardt
A Novel

Author: Theodore Dreiser

Release Date: May 29, 2009 [EBook #28988]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JENNIE GERHARDT ***

Produced by James Adcock. Special thanks to The Internet
Archive: American Libraries, and Project Gutenberg Australia

JENNIE GERHARDT

A NOVEL

BY

THEODORE DREISER

AUTHOR OF

"SISTER CARRIE"

BONI and LIVERIGHT

PUBLISHERS :: :: NEW YORK

Copyright, 1911, by
Harper & Brothers

Copyright, 1911, by
Boni & Liveright, Inc.

Printed in the United States of America

JENNIE GERHARDT

CHAPTER I

One morning, in the fall of 1880, a middle-aged woman, accompanied
by a young girl of eighteen, presented herself at the clerk's desk of
the principal hotel in Columbus, Ohio, and made inquiry as to whether
there was anything about the place that she could do. She was of a
helpless, fleshy build, with a frank, open countenance and an
innocent, diffident manner. Her eyes were large and patient, and in
them dwelt such a shadow of distress as only those who have looked
sympathetically into the countenances of the distraught and helpless
poor know anything about. Any one could see where the daughter behind
her got the timidity and shamefacedness which now caused her to stand
back and look indifferently away. She was a product of the fancy, the
feeling, the innate affection of the untutored but poetic mind of her
mother combined with the gravity and poise which were characteristic
of her father. Poverty was driving them. Together they presented so
appealing a picture of honest necessity that even the clerk was
affected.

"What is it you would like to do?" he said.

"Maybe you have some cleaning or scrubbing," she replied, timidly.
"I could wash the floors."

The daughter, hearing the statement, turned uneasily, not because
it irritated her to work, but because she hated people to guess at the
poverty that made it necessary. The clerk, manlike, was affected by
the evidence of beauty in distress. The innocent helplessness