The Cable by Marion Ames Taggart

Cicely had been three weeks in the service of Mr. Wilmer Lucas, four / weeks a resident of Beaconhite. Although it lacked three days of / being a calendar month the time seemed to her to stretch indefinitely / backward into such length, that she had to stop to reckon up how long / it actually had been. New experiences were crowding upon her, filling / each day with interests so absorbing that the hours sped by, yet left / a residue of the effect of more than twice their duration. Cicely was / conscious of changes wrought upon herself by these swiftly passing / days, changes so far undefined, yet not the less perceptible.

For one thing, her new friendship was proving interesting as none other / had ever before interested her. Cicely had had many friends among the / boys, and, later, among the young men of her acquaintance, but though / they had been "jolly good fun," as she put it, they were not especially / interesting. She was easily the dominant one in every case; the chief / interest afforded her by these youths was when they temporarily spoiled / her theory of perfect comradeship between the sexes, which was devoid / of sentiment, by falling in love with her, but this, although it / interested her, displeased her. She invariably swung back into her / faith in the possibility of a chum of the opposite sex, but it was / annoying to find it so often a theory that failed only in its workings.