Crimson Roses

Alone in the city, Marion struggles to survive. Desperate to find a small bit of happiness, she impulsively spends some of her hard-earned and terribly meager money on a season ticket to the symphony.

On the night of the second concert, something wonderful happens. There, on Marion's seat in the concert hall, lies a beautiful, dark crimson rose! And every week after that, she finds yet another beautiful rose waiting for her at the concert hall! Marion is torn between joy at receiving the beautiful flowers and worry at not knowing who could be sending them.

Then, suddenly, Marion's mystery flowers lead her into the confusing world of a wealthy man - and make her the target of a society beauty's dangerous envy...

Original Publisher: J.B. Lippincott
Original Year of Publication: 1928 [1992 reprint]
Page Count: 236


As the book opens, Marion Warren is sitting at her father's deathbed. She's spent the last five years nursing first her mother, then her father, through terminal illnesses. She has always been especially close to her father, so this is particularly hard on her. They had great plans for her life, including college and possibly a teaching career, which was all sidelined when her parents took ill.

While she's at her father's side, her sister-in-law is downstairs in the study, hiding a copy of the father's will. Jennie (said SIL) just knows Mr Warren is going to leave the family home to Marion, instead of leaving it to her husband, Tom, the eldest child and heir of the family. Jennie is very headstrong and wants to move back to the country with her husband and children, and would just love to have single, spinster Marion along as the maid of all work, governess, and companion. Jennie figures that what no one knows can't hurt them, or sideline her own plans.

Mr Warren dies, Tom feels obliged to care for his sister, but Marion wants to re-start her own life. She's 23 and determined to return to her education. Tom pressures her into giving up her share of the money from the sale of the family home, but Marion is determined to stay in the city, so she goes out one day and finds a small room and leans on a friend of her father's for a recommendation for a job. She does all of this very covertly, and thus Tom and Jennie are stunned when she tells them that she's not going with them. Jennie is furious, but Tom just figures that he has to let Marion have her head, and that she'll be begging to come to them soon enough, once she learns how hard it will be to be alone.

Marion starts her working life at the ribbon counter at a department store. She goes back to the family church and tries to make the acquaintance of her old school chums (including Isabel Cresson), but they shun her. The five years she's spent shut up in her family home caring for her ailing parents, Isabel and the other girls spent going to college and moving in society. They sneer at Marion's drab, unfashionable clothes and then proceed to ignore her. Marion is so intimidated that she retreats to the church kitchen to wash dishes!

She feels even more out of place at the department store, where the other working girls are fashionable flappers, with their bobbed hair, cheap jewelry, loads of makeup, and "indecent" clothes. Marion eschews makeup, drinks milk, and studies the fashions in the French department, because of course she's especially skilled in needlework and can rework her own clothes at least into modest fashion. She learns from a customer about tickets to the winter symphony season and decides to save her pennies so that she can attend. She's slowly starting to take up courses as well, and feels that being able to attend professional concerts each week will enhance her education, as well as bring her pleasure.

Marion buys a season ticket for a cheap seat in the balcony, and is surprised when a crimson rose is left in her seat at the second concert. She's certain that it's not meant for her, and feels guilty for keeping such a lovely object, even after no one comes to claim it. She even tries to turn it in to an usher at the end of the concert! Roses continue to appear in her seat each week, and she is confused but secretly pleased. She has no idea of where they are coming from, but they are a welcome little gift and she enjoys them - and the music - thoroughly.

At the next church social, Marion is introduced to Jefferson Lyman, a local boy made good whose grandparents helped found the church. Lyman takes special interest in Marion, even abandoning the fashionable crowd to speak to her, which rouses Isabel's jealousy. Lyman is the most eligible bachelor in town, and she has her eye on him as a potential husband. They are of the same social set, after all, whereas Marion is a little working girl. Isabel is so outraged at Lyman's indifference towards her that she actually shows up at the department store the next day and gives Marion an earful about how everyone is talking about her, being so shameless as to throw herself at Lyman and demand his attention, etc. Isabel makes a scene in front of customers, basically making a complete ass of herself, but Marion is mortified. What if Isabel is right? How dare she speak to someone who is so obviously her social better?

Isabel goes further, tricking Marion into accepting a ride to what she believes is a Christian Endeavor Society dinner, when in actuality it's a bunch of Isabel's coarse friends who kidnap Marion and take her to a roadhouse/speakeasy and basically assault her. Jefferson Lyman rides to her rescue (quite literally), which both infuriates and chastens Isabel.

Marion is torn about spending more time with Lyman, as she is acutely aware of their differences, but he is such a kind, attentive gentleman - plus, he's also a season ticket holder for the symphony! They spend a lot of time discussing the music, the orchestra, etc and she is in heaven with the lively, intelligent discussion. Between this, her roses, and her promotion at work to making silk flowers, all is going well!

The symphony season ends, and Marion feels this will be the end of both the roses and her acquaintance with Lyman, but he surprises her by inviting her to a special concert given by renowned pianist Jan Paderewski. She hesitantly accepts, vowing to starve herself so she can afford the alterations on a new dress so that she is elegant enough to attend in Lyman's presence. She is shocked when two dozen crimson roses are delivered to her at work on the day of the concert, but is so pleased that she shares her good fortune with her co-workers. She vows to enjoy this last concert with Lyman and then tell him who she *really* is, and how she's completely unworthy of his time or attention.

The two attend the concert, and then have a lavish dinner at the most elegant restaurant in the city. Marion stumbles and bumbles her way through her "explanation" of who she is, and Lyman basically laughs and tells her that he's known all along; he's heard stories of her generous father, and of course they attend the same church. He already knows she's a working girl, and confesses not only to visiting her counter (she didn't recognize him), but also that he's been the one sending her the crimson roses. He was standing behind her in line to buy the season tickets to the symphony and fell in love with her at first sight, and has been trying to woo her from afar because he wants to marry her. Marion is absolutely shell-shocked by these revelations, but agrees to marry him. The final chapters of the book detail their wedding plans and the start of their married life, including an excellent comeuppance scene with her brother and sister-in-law, who are absolutely stunned by Marion's sudden elevation in the world. She's a rich man's wife, but she's still the same Marion.

I enjoyed this story a great deal; I love anything that involves music, and have a soft spot for secret admirers. Unfortunately, Marion is frustratingly stupid for about 2/3s of this. She is built up as an independent, if timid, woman at the start, and she makes pretty darn strong strides to assert that independence after the death of her father. She goes into her working life with open eyes, determined to make the best of things, and actually finds her father's will after Tom and Jennie move out of the family house. She is heartsick, but also determined not to hold a grudge. Her brother didn't know about the will, so she can't blame him for doing what he believed was best at the time. She actually burns the will without ever showing it to him!

But after the initial setup, Marion proves to be a weak character. She is acutely distressed by her 'lower' social class, and spends a lot of time angsting about this - not only when comparing herself to the glamorous, wealthy Isabel and Lyman, but also with her flapper colleagues at the department store. She is also completely unaware of the origin of the crimson roses, even after Lyman shows up at her counter and asks her to make silk roses that are the same color! She doesn't believe him when he tells her that he was the admirer who was sending them the entire time. It's like - girl please, you cannot be that obtuse. It makes you look like a moron. I had little patience for all her angsting about how she wasn't good enough for Lyman, so I'm glad that the marriage proposal and wedding weren't especially drawn out for this reason.

The final chapters of the book are excellent, as Marion surprises her brother and sister-in-law by visiting them with her new husband after the wedding. They have such low opinions of her that they are sure she married a loser who wants to mooch off of them, so what a surprise they are in for when they meet the glamorous Lyman! He doesn't rub their noses in it, but Jennie has a complete comeapart, to the point of breaking down and confessing about hiding Mr Warren's will way back at the beginning of the story. Marion forgives her, of course, and Jennie is so grateful that she starts treating her like a human being.

Between this, and Isabel Cresson's wedding gift to the couple of "a paperweight in green jade in the form of an exquisitely carved little idol with the countenance of a Chinese devil," the novel ends on a high note.

⭐⭐⭐ 1/2