The Separate Room

The Separate Room is a novella by Ethel Colburn Mayne. Mayne was an Irish novelist, short-story writer, biographer and literary critic. Excerpt: «During the later Bergsma period there had been a certain obscuration–Marion had been so prominent with her „inside“ knowledge of musical events, her acquaintance with the virtuosi, her own remarkable development in capacity and self-reliance. But now people saw again that Minnie was the heroine, with her bravery and cheer, her patience with the lazy daughter. She loved to take the lazy daughter out to tea, to come into a room thus followed, and display her pluck and tact. But as the months drew out and she felt firmer on the pedestal, an insidious change began. At some houses there would sound again a note of interest in Marion rather than in Minnie.»