Rosalie’s Diary - 6 March 1907
Rosalie’s Diary
Charles Burnett wants me to call him Charlie. He has been to the club every night since that first time, refuses to leave
when all his friends move on to other clubs. He says so many sweet things. He promises to buy me an apartment, he wants me
to be his mistress. He laughed when I told him that I’d rather have voice lessons with a good teacher than an apartment. Then
he apologized for laughing and told me to find the best voice teacher in Shanghai. He would pay for the lessons.
I accused him of mocking me but he said he was perfectly serious and would do anything to win my love. So far I’ve refused
to have dinner with him and I’ve only danced with him at the club, nowhere else, as one of my duties. I’m not one of those
girls.
His friends get louder and louder the more they drink. They talk as though I don’t speak English. They teased him about a
girl he was supposed to marry, Miss Vera Drummond. What would Vera think of Charles if she knew he spent all his spare evenings
chasing a nightclub singer?