Phoebe

After Phoebe Wilton’s days as a student at the Calloway Girls’ Academy in New Ponca, Oklahoma Territory, ended, she knew she would not be welcomed home to live with her parents. In recent years, they kept their social and travel calendar busy to the point that they only managed to bring her home one month of the year. Undecided about whether or not she wishes to attend a co-educational college or a normal school to train as a teacher, she accepts the position of teaching assistant at the academy. At least for the present, she continues to live and work with people who appreciate her contributions and with whom she has developed deep friendships.

Increasingly, Phoebe wonders about her future. One thing she refuses to allow is for her parents to foist her off on a son of one of families in their social set in order advance her father’s business interests and her mother’s social standing. Is she destined to live out her life as a spinster schoolteacher? Or, can she someday hope for love and marriage with a man of her choosing?