The Cable

The Cable by Marion Ames Taggart

The Cable follows Cicely "Cis" Adair, a boisterous, red-haired telephone operator whose daily habit is buying treats for a gang of newsboys and bantering with fellow operators like Amelia Day and her devoted friend Nan Dowling. Overhearing a call, Cis recognizes the voice of Herbert Dale, betrothed to Jeanette Lucas, placing a call to another woman, and—breaking company rules against "listening in"—she connects Jeanette's line to Dale's so Jeanette can hear the truth herself. The eavesdropping is discovered (through a coworker, Mimi, who tells Amelia), and Cis is dismissed by the sympathetic manager, Mr. Singer, though she never regrets her choice. Jeanette, having broken her engagement, summons Cis to thank her; her father, Robert Lucas, gives Cis a letter of introduction to his brother, Wilmer Lucas, a bank president and lawyer in the city of Beaconhite. After tearful farewells to Nan and the Dowling family, Cis travels to Beaconhite, settles into the Beacon Head hotel, and is hired as Wilmer Lucas' confidential secretary, learning an office cipher used for sensitive correspondence, including matters concerning a valuable pending business franchise. She boards with Mrs. Wallace on the recommendation of the stern but kind Miss Hannah Gallatin, a Catholic convert who befriends and worries over her. Lonely at first, Cis strikes up a friendship with George "Rodney" Moore, a charming, worldly man about ten years her senior, met at the hotel's bootblack stand. Their comradeship quickly deepens into love. Rodney, once a Catholic who has abandoned his faith, pressures Cis—who is herself a lax, "indifferent" Catholic—to skip Mass and eventually to give up religious practice altogether, arguing it will come between them; she reluctantly agrees to miss Mass once for an outing with him. On that excursion they encounter Father Morley, a perceptive Jesuit priest who recognizes Cis from his church, engages Rodney about his lapsed faith, and gently warns Cis to come to him if she is ever in need. Miss Gallatin separately cautions Cis that Rodney was previously courting a wealthy woman, Gertrude Davenport, and voices unease about a man disloyal to his own faith, but Cis dismisses the warning. Rodney and Cis become engaged, and he gives her a ruby ring shaped like holly leaves, nicknaming her "Holly." He urgently presses for a Christmas Eve wedding, describing a difficult past he promises to explain once they are married, and Cis—overwhelmed by love—begins to relent and agree to marry him at Christmas, her own birthday. The text breaks off mid-scene as she is on the verge of consenting.

By Marion Ames Taggart · First published 1923 · Genre: Literary Fiction, Coming of Age, Women's Fiction · 25 chapters · 147,775 words

First lines

A group of small boys stood on the corner, looking anxiously down the / shaded street. They ranged from eight to twelve years in age; from / grimy hands to universal griminess in uncleanliness; from comfortable / meagreness to ragged poverty in clothing, while in race they were / polyglot, but they were identical in the impatience with which they / scanned the sidewalk, vision-length, and found it empty though there / were frequent passers-by.

"Gee! What's the matter wid her?"

What this Textopian page supports

The Cable is listed on Textopian as a novel by Marion Ames Taggart, dated 1923 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

Good citation fit

Similar titles

Genres

Tags

female protagonist · telephone operator · independence · self-reliance · moral integrity · religious faith · coming-of-age · 1920s setting · urban America · American fiction · social realism · romantic elements

Contents

More by Marion Ames Taggart