Joy Street II

On Christmas Eve, Roger is invited to the Forbes house on Louisburg square, and when he arrives Emily lets him in. He tells her that he has finally had a chance to ask her to marry him. He is in his last year at Law school, and has had no job offers but he has been offered a job in a successful but unconventional firm of lawyers. The partners are considered rather odd by most of the Boston elite, but one of them, Harold Swan, has ideas of taking in junior lawyers who are from different groups in Boston society. They have brought in an Irish Catholic from South Boston, Brian Collins and an Italian, also a Catholic. He has even brought in a Jewish lawyer, David Salomont who is very bright but Jews are not liked in upper crust society. Roger asks Emily to marry him and she agrees that once he has his new job and has saved up a bit, they will marry. Her family are horrified. Emily does not fight, she just tells them she is going to marry Roger and she herself is going off to join the Frontier nursing service, where she can do some useful work while waiting for her fiance to be ready to wed. Her grandmother supports her, but her godfather, Homer Lathrop, who is trustee of Emily's money, is not happy. Emily stays away for over a year, and Roger goes to work and get his first raise. Homer gives up and agrees to the marriage, releasing part of the income from her trust fund for her. Roger does worry about where they will live, as he doesn't have a lot of capital to buy a house, and he wishes they could buy one which is for sale on Joy Street. So Emily cajoles her grandmother into buying it as a wedding present for them.