The Shop Girl

by C.N. Williamson

Excerpt from The Shop Girl
It was a horrible day at sea, horrible even on board the new and splendid Monarchic. All the prettiest people had disappeared from the huge dining-saloon. They had turned green, and then faded away, one by one or in hurried groups; and now the very thought of music at meals made them sick, in ragtime.
Peter Rolls was never sick in any time or in any weather, which was his one disagreeable, superior-to-others trick. Most of his qualities were likable, and he was likable, though a queer fellow in some ways, said his best friends - the ones who called him "Petro." When the ship played that she was a hobby-horse or a crab (if that is the creature which shares with elderly Germans a specialty for walking from side to side), also a kangaroo, and occasionally a boomerang, Peter Rolls did not mind.
He was sorry for the men and girls he knew, including his sister, who lay in deck chairs pretending to be rugs, or who went to bed and wished themselves in their peaceful graves. But for himself, the wild turmoil of the waves filled him with sympathetic restlessness.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1914

About the author

Charles Norris Williamson, 1859–1920, British writer and journalist

Reviews

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely sweet old fashioned romance story. It is a little rags to riches in theme and very easy to read, with fleshed out characters and a bit of humor.

[Meredith Galman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Plucky saintly impoverished English clergyman's daughter meets noble generous millionaire's son on boat to New York. Nasty social-climbing sister intervenes. Despite the fact that she is educated, manifestly a lady, and able to type, the best job plucky heroine can get is as a clerk in millionaire's department store. Social criticism of the type done better by O. Henry, misunderstandings, and star-crossings ensue. Story gets points for revealing that millionaire sneaks past disapproving daughter every day to work in the store, but loses them for wanting to absolve him of responsibility for its rotten working conditions.

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[Alisha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Peter meets Winnie on board a ship bound for New York. She's working as a temporary model for a famous dressmaker but knows she'll need to get some other job once they disembark. Peter is smitten with her, but his snobby sister gets in the way and implies that Peter is a philanderer, so Winnie rejects his offer of help. Her trials and travails of finding a job and making ends meet as one of thousands of shop-girls form the rest of the book, as well as Peter's efforts to find her.