But, although the letter on which I had banked 100% had failed in its mission, I was entirely unwilling to recognize that the Cleveland age limit had anything whatever to do with it. I immediately fixed in my mind a descriptive noun which was sufficient to me to explain the whole situation. "Democrat!" I whispered to mother with a curl of my lips as we went down in the elevator. Poor mother! How often has she suffered in silence for her children's whims!
And it was a long time, try as he would, that even Mr. Harding could persuade me that the fact that mother was beyond the age limit of thirty-five years disqualified her immediately for consideration as a beginning teacher in the Cleveland Public Schools.
During the years I was Mr. Harding's sweetheart, I always, even from the first, helped my mother financially. Mr. Harding used to say, "Let's take a taxi to such-and-such a place," but I would say, "Let's walk," and he very often accused me affectionately of wanting to save that money so that I could send it to my mother. Of course it would not have been possible for me to send her anything had it not been for his generosity, and he was glad, more than glad, as he told me repeatedly, to make it possible so long as no comment was made or no wonder excited. When I started to work in the United States Steel Corporation my salary was $16, and my room rent $4 per week, and it was obviously impossible for me to do much on the balance. Mr. Harding was always interested, and very sympathetic toward the position in which my mother had suddenly found herself upon father's death. He has often said to me, "Nan, dearest, you know how much I would like to help you to make it easier for your mother, don't you?" I surely did. Often also he expressed the feeling that Howard, my younger brother, should be bearing the heavy load of responsibility. "He should be the bread-winner, Nan," Mr. Harding would say to me. But "Doc," as we called him, was scarcely more than a child, with far less sense of responsibility toward the family than had Elizabeth and I, both his seniors.
