Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain Read Free Book Online Page A

be put out of the house on July 1st, when the interest would be due on the mortgages Bert had put on the house. She studied the help-wanted advertisements, but there were hardly any. Each day there would be notices for cooks, maids, and chauffeurs, but she skipped quickly by them. The big advertisements, headed ‘Opportunity’, ‘Salesmen Wanted’, and ‘Men, Women, Attention’, – these she passed over entirely. They savoured too much of Bert’s methods in getting rid of Pierce Homes. But occasionally something looked promising. One advertisement called for: ‘Woman, young, pleasing appearance and manners, for special work.’ She answered, and was excited a day or two later when she got a note, signed by a man, asking her to call at an address in the Los Feliz section of Hollywood. She put on the print dress, made her face up nicely, and went over there.
    The man received her in sweat shirt and flannels, and said he was a writer. As to what he wrote, he was quite vague, though he said his researches were extensive, and called him to many different parts of the world, where, of course she would be expected to travel with him. He was equally vague about her duties: it appeared she would help him ‘collect material’, ‘filedocuments’, and ‘verify citations’; also take charge of his house, get some order into it and check his bills, on which he feared he was being cheated. When he sat down near her, and announced he felt sure she was the person he was looking for, she became suspicious. She hadn’t said a word that indicated any qualifications for the job, if indeed a job existed, and she came to the conclusion that what he wanted wasn’t a research assistant, but a sweetie. She left, feeling sullen over her wasted afternoon and wasted bus fare. It was her first experience with the sexological advertiser, though she was to find out he was fairly common. Usually he was some phony calling himself a writer, an agent, or a talent scout, who had found out that for a dollar and a half ’s worth of newspaper space he could have a day-long procession of girls at his door, all desperate for work, all willing to do almost anything to get it.
    She answered more ads, got repeated requests to call, and did call, until her shoes began to show the strain, and she had to take them constantly to the shoemaker’s, for heel-straightening and polishing. She began to feel a bitter resentment against Bert, for taking the car when she needed it so badly. Nothing came of the ad-answering. She would be too late, or not qualified, or disqualified, on account of the children, or unsuitable in one way and another. She made the rounds of the department stores, and became dismally familiar with the crowd of silent people in the hallway outside the personnel offices, and the tense, desperate jockeying for position when the doors opened at ten o’clock. At only one store was she permitted to fill out a card. This was at Corasi Bros, a big place in downtown Los Angeles that specialised in household furnishings. She was first through the door here, and quickly sat down at one of the little glass-topped tables reserved for interviews. But the head of the department, addressed by everybody as Mrs Boole, kept passing her by, and she grew furious at this injustice. Mrs Boole was rather goodlooking, and seemed to know most of the applicants by name. Mildred was so resentful that they should be dealt with ahead of her that she suddenly gathered up her gloves and started to flounce out, without being interviewed at all. But Mrs Boole held up a finger, smiled, and came over. ‘Don’t go. I’m sorry tokeep you waiting, but most of these people are old friends, and it seems a pity not to let them know at once, so they can call at the other stores, and perhaps have a little luck. That’s why I always talk to new applicants last, when I really have a little time.’
    Mildred sat down again, ashamed of her petulant dash for the door. When Mrs