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By Root 1340 0

All around her people, including her lover, especially her lover, were afflicted with the aches of pining for the past, but she remained oriented to the future. Undoubtedly she would have looked all the more beautiful with sheep’s eyes (I have seen a daguerreotype of her), but she did not get them. We do not know her; not even her name; of all the many persons in our story she will remain the most mysterious; but we know this much about her, that she alone was afflicted with longing for the future, and that she had come to the point where she could not conceive of a future without Jacob, and yet she knew that when his term expired he would leave Little Rock. He could, if he wished, run for another term, but he was stricken deeply with nostalgia, and the people, also stricken, were longing for the governors of the past, men like Izard and Conway and Yell, all aristocrats compared to Jacob Ingledew (and the man they would elect to replace him, Powell Clayton, would be the most aristocratic of them all). So if Jacob’s lady-friend wanted to hang onto him, she would have to scheme.

So she schemed. She told Jacob that she wanted to become Sarah’s social secretary. Jacob pointed out that, government labor being cheap, Sarah already had eight social secretaries. Whom We Cannot Name responded to that by pointing out that that would make it all the easier to “slip her in” among the others. Jacob wondered why she needed the salary, which wasn’t much, one dollar a day. She said she did not need the money, of course; she only wanted to be “closer” to Jacob. Jacob pointed out that as far as being “close” was concerned, it wouldn’t do them any good to be “close” in the governor’s mansion, because every room was so full of people, servants and secretaries and such, that they would never have a moment’s privacy. But Jacob’s ladyfriend persisted, and he hired her as Sarah’s ninth social secretary. The other secretaries, she soon discovered, were not, like herself, products of Little Rock’s finer society, and she quickly learned to dominate them.

Sarah had very little to do with her social secretaries; she went where they told her to when they told her to, but Sarah did not give them orders, nor spend any time in idle conversation with them, nor seek their advice. Nor did they curry her favor. But her new ninth social secretary, Sarah discovered, was somehow different from the others. A very friendly person. A refined lady, too, and yet the woman did not look down upon Sarah nor make her feel uncomfortable. And on top of that, the woman was a very attractive person, who made a handsome decoration for the governor’s mansion. Soon Sarah found that she and her ninth social secretary had become good friends. When Sarah was invited to give a speech to the Little Rock Beaux Arts Club, the woman offered to write it for her. Sarah was so close to the woman by this time that she was able to confide in her the well-kept secret that she could not read. The woman did not look down upon her for it. Instead the woman offered to help her rehearse the speech over a period of several days, and the woman also spoke many words of encouragement, so that when Sarah finally delivered the speech to the Beaux Arts Club, the Arkansas Advocate commented, “For a lady of somewhat limited elocution and enunciation, the governor’s wife acquitted herself handily.”

One day Sarah remarked to her ninth social secretary, “Honey, I just don’t know what I’d do without you.” Sarah bragged to Jacob about what a great fine beautiful person her ninth social secretary was, but Jacob pretended lack of interest. Sarah tried to persuade Jacob to meet her, but Jacob said he was too busy. But Sarah kept after him about it, dogging his heels, until finally she caught him in the hallway of the mansion and presented her ninth social secretary to him. “This is her, Jake,” Sarah said. “That I’ve been tellin ye about. This is the lady that keeps the world together fer me.” Jacob said, “Howdy do, ma’am,” and offered his hand. The woman took it, and, smiling, said, “It is a pleasure to make