High Wages

This is one of Dorothy Whipples best novels, set in the North, like most of her works. Her heroine, Jane is the daughter of a journalist, who died young and left no money. He had remarried to a widow with children and Jane found her stepmother unfriendly and wanted to get away from her. She had been working in a shop when she sees an advertisment for a shop assistant in a big store which caters to ladies, and where many of the town's richer women buy dresses and such items. She gets the job, and finds that it is very hard work and she has to live in. Her employer's wife provides miserable small meals and the owner frequently cheats the girls out of their commissions. However Jane loves the job and works hard, but her boss is reluctant to listen to her new ideas about providing ready made clothes which she hopes would make better business sense. Jane has a dispute with her fellow assistant, at the beginning of World War One. Maggie, her friend has been going out with a young man Wilfred who works in the local library. Maggie is not a reader and is rather jealous when Wilfred starts to lend Jane books and enjoys talking with her. Wilfred kisses Jane and Maggie becomes furious and refuses to speak to her former friend. Jane has become friendly with Mrs Briggs, who is a simple woman whose husband has made a fortune in the cotton industry. Mr Briggs came from a humble background but worked his way up and found himself very well off, but his wife dislikes having to try and be ladylike, and fit into the upper ranks of the local society. She likes Jane, and offers her some money to start up her own business. She has always been a saving woman and has saved a lot from her housekeeping, and Jane takes up the offer.