2. The Hungarian Lightbulb
3. Christmas Concert

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GRETCHEN IN THE LIBRARY

In winter the interior of the university library was hardly warmer than
the outside, and it was terribly drafty. The sole difference between
the interior and exterior, Gretchen often remarked to herself, was that
the latter received an occasional snow. The library at least was dry.
On most days in the unfrequented areas--the closed stacks on the second
and third floors--one could see one's breath in the middle of the
afternoon. Gretchen thought it hardly the sort of climate she would
have chosen for her own books. But the cost of heating such an
enormous building--well, she decided she could hardly imagine so
extravagant a sum. On the coldest days, she often wore two petticoats.
She found the best method of staying warm, though, was to bustle as
quickly as she could. Primarily, she worked in the stacks, extracting
books for the library's patrons and reshelving books that had
returned--and keeping the shelves in good order.

Gretchen's twenty-ninth birthday had arrived--quite too quickly--the
day before, and she bustled with an excess of alacrity to relieve her
mind from the brooding that had occupied her for several days. She had
spent the evening alone, though she knew it did her no good to seek
solitude. To accept being past her prime of life would be simpler
perhaps, and productive of less anguish, than fretting over what could
not be changed. She was nearly thirty, though--and she knew what lay
in store for her a few years hence. She had only to look at the
assistant reference librarian, Miss Sadie, to see how she herself would
be in but a few more years. The thought nearly made her shudder, and
if she allowed herself to think too deeply upon the matter, might have
brought her to tears. Thankfully, Gretchen told herself, she could
grow old among the books, where at least she had the company of great
minds--or their legacy--rather than spend a life straining in a
factory--or under the yoke of an old-fashioned man.

She had been estranged from her family for six years and rarely given
them serious thought since fleeing Connecticut. A simple enough row it
had been to start--what should she do now that she had finished
university? Of course her father recommended marriage and settling
into the dom