Prudence (in the Time of Prohibition)

II

While Edith and Edgar Mattingly were enjoying their moment of victory, Prudence kept her thoughts to herself. Although raised to abstain from drinking liquor, she had secretly tried a glass of beer in a corner barroom around the corner from her secretarial school. A few of the young women who were in her class invited her to join them during the lunchtime hour away from their typewriters; she had not been reluctant to accept the invitation. The foamy topped beverage was a delight on her unaccustomed tongue; she longed to have another one but Prohibition had sent in so there were no more chances of sneaking off to sample what was now forbidden not only by her parents but by the laws of the land.


With secretarial school behind her, Prudence Mattingly landed a job in the Mayor's office. In her long brown tweed skirt, her plain cream-colored shirtwaist and trim jacket to match her skirt, she quickly came to the attention of the Mayor's wife. Ever a jealous woman, Mathilda Everett often complained of the frilly young ladies her husband insisted on having as his secretaries. Storming into the main office with Pru in tow, she insisted she had found the perfect person to fill the recently vacated spot. The head man was reluctant at first but, with a lot of persuasion, finally agreed to accept his wife's proposition.


Pru was a more than efficient secretary to the Mayor. She kept everything in good order and was prompt to respond when Oliver Everett called her into his office to take notes. Sitting before his desk with her knees tightly together beneath her tweed skirt, she was as proper and as prim as her name suggested. Intent on her job, her boss's interest in her never entered her mind. Why would he ever be interested in her lackluster appearance anyway? Up to this time, no one else had ever shown her any manly attention. It took her by surprise to find him sitting on the desktop in front of her one early March afternoon.


"You could be a beautiful woman, Prudence," Mayor Oliver Everett suggested as he took her chin in his hand and lifted her face until she could stare wide-eyed into his smiling face. "If you had your face made up and changed your wardrobe, you could be a delight to an appreciative eye."

"Please don't tease, Mayor Everett," Pru responded, drawing back in order to release herself from his gaze. "I know I will never be beautiful."

"On the contrary, my dear Miss Mattingly," the Mayor responded in a serious tone. "We'll fix you up and make you as lovely as any other woman. As a matter of fact, take the afternoon off. Go to the beauty salon and out shopping. On my tab, of course. Money is no object."