Daddy's family came from the Franche-Comté. That's in France. But it wasn't always. The Romans marched through awhile back. And the Germans. And more Germans. Some Spanish. And Germans again. But daddy says it's French now and that's what counts. Mais oui. His people are in banking and stocks back east. So are mummy's people. Which is how they met.

Mummy's family came over on the Mayflower. She's from the Philadelphia Mainline, which when you think about it is really a funny name for such an exclusive expanse of real estate. But I guess people from the mainline don't know about mainlining, so it's all right with them.

Daddy moved to Chicago to take over his family's commodities brokerage. Wheat and corn and pork bellies. He loves Chicago. Mummy thinks it's too dreary for words. She's always going home to her mummy for long visits and wanting me to come with her. Which is nice enough when you can summer in Swampscott, but not so interesting the rest of the year. She wanted me to go back east to school and make my come out in Philadelphia. But I told daddy I'd rather stay with him.

So I attended Miss Marston's Seminary for Young Ladies, one of those ghastly Civil War holdovers where you have to learn how to serve tea and spell properly. And it isn't so much in Chicago as in Lake Forest. Which is where mummy and daddy really live. Except daddy has what he calls a pied-à-terre in the city. Anybody else would admit it’s a penthouse! It's sad really. He seems to have a terrible time keeping staff. Every time I visit him he's got a pretty new maid.

Mummy wants me to attend college now that I've left the seminary. And of course she wants me to go to her alma mater, Bryn Mawr. Even the name gives me the heebie jeebies! So I told daddy that I can find a nice suitable husband right here in Chicago, so going to college would just be a waste of my time and his money. He agreed. He's such a lamb.

I'm not really looking for a husband right now. Maybe later, when I'm old. Like when I'm twenty-eight or something. Right now I want a career. And I know just what kind. Like ZaSu Pitts in The Lady Reporter. Or Dorothy Phillips in She Went to New York. Only I don't want to go to New York. I want to stay right here and be a reporter at the Trib!