



Produced by Charles Keller.  HTML version by Al Haines.









EMMA McCHESNEY & CO.


by

Edna Ferber




CONTENTS

CHAPTER

   I.  BROADWAY TO BUENOS AIRES
  II.  THANKS TO MISS MORRISSEY
 III.  A CLOSER CORPORATION
  IV.  BLUE SERGE
   V.  "HOOPS, MY DEAR!"
  VI.  SISTERS UNDER THEIR SKIN
 VII.  AN ETUDE FOR EMMA





EMMA McCHESNEY & CO.




I

BROADWAY TO BUENOS AIRES

The door marked "MRS. MCCHESNEY" was closed.  T. A. Buck, president of
the Buck Featherloom Petticoat Company, coming gaily down the hall,
stopped before it, dismayed, as one who, with a spicy bit of news at
his tongue's end, is met with rebuff before the first syllable is
voiced.  That closed door meant:  "Busy. Keep out."

"She'll be reading a letter," T. A. Buck told himself grimly. Then he
turned the knob and entered his partner's office.

Mrs. Emma McChesney was reading a letter.  More than that, she was
poring over it so that, at the interruption, she glanced up in a
maddeningly half-cocked manner which conveyed the impression that,
while her physical eye beheld the intruder, her mental eye was still on
the letter.

"I knew it," said T. A. Buck morosely.

Emma McChesney put down the letter and smiled.

"Sit down--now that you're in.  And if you expect me to say, 'Knew
what?' you're doomed to disappointment."

T. A. Buck remained standing, both gloved