87. Arnold Bennett, THE OLD WIVES' TALE

Once upon a time there were two sisters in a small town in England. The older sister married the shop assistant, bore one disobedient, lazy son and was quite content. The younger sister ran away with a traveling salesman who left her in Paris, where she established her own boarding house and became an entrepreneur par excellence. The younger sister is to be pitied, however, for wasting her life on business when she could have been popping out babies. In the end, they both still die (although the profligate younger one dies first!) Aren't women silly?

Ellen vs. the Modern Library: 36-64