Ada Washburn

Ada Washburn is Joe Washburn’s sister, a student at Columbia University working toward a Ph.D. in education, and an important support in Anne Elizabeth’s move from Texas to New York City. She gives Anne Elizabeth a place to live and access to a life of study and city experiences, then stands by her through loneliness, a disappointing courtship, and an arrest after a labor protest. Ada’s care is practical rather than uncritical: she helps, cautions, and sometimes scolds, even as Anne Elizabeth follows a path that Ada cannot control.

Identity and Place in Anne Elizabeth’s Life

The novel introduces Ada as bright, educated, and established enough in New York City to offer Anne Elizabeth an alternative to the finishing-school future her father had planned. After returning home for Christmas, Anne Elizabeth tells her father she will not go back to be finished; instead, she wants to study in New York City with Ada and take courses that will teach her something. Ada’s own work toward a doctorate in education gives this choice a concrete model: education, in Ada’s life, is an ongoing pursuit rather than a social accomplishment bestowed by a finishing school.

Anne Elizabeth’s move requires an argument with her father, who had set his heart on the finishing-school plan. When she finally persuades him, Ada becomes the person at the other end of that decision. The arrangement makes Ada more than a relative who happens to be in the city. Her home and presence help turn Anne Elizabeth’s wish to study into a workable plan, while also placing her in a new household and social world far from Texas.

A Home and Education in New York City

Ada meets Anne Elizabeth at the station with Esther Wilson, another young woman from Texas who is studying art. The arrival is a sharp change from the familiar landscape Anne Elizabeth has left behind: after a long winter train journey, she is met in the rain and taken by taxi through crowded, slushy streets. Ada’s presence answers the immediate uncertainty of whether anyone will be there to meet her. She and Esther share a large apartment in University Heights, where they have turned the dining room into a bedroom for Anne Elizabeth.

The home is welcoming in practical terms, but it does not make the city instantly comfortable. Anne Elizabeth finds New York grimy and strange, and feels younger than the people she meets at lectures. She registers as a special student and attends courses in economics, English literature, and art. Ada thus supplies a base from which Anne Elizabeth can pursue the education she chose, though the evidence does not suggest that the transition is effortless or that Ada can remove her friend’s sense of isolation.

Ada also brings Anne Elizabeth into ordinary cultural and social life. The two sometimes go to matinées; on Sunday afternoons, Anne Elizabeth rides on top of a bus with Esther to visit the art museum. Ada holds Sunday-evening gatherings, although Anne Elizabeth usually avoids them because the guests seem overly formal and their serious conversation does not appeal to her. The apartment’s visitors nevertheless become consequential: it is at one of Ada’s parties that Anne Elizabeth meets Edwin Vinal, whose conversation draws her into a new relationship and makes her begin to like New York. Ada’s home is therefore both refuge and social threshold, even when Anne Elizabeth does not embrace every part of its company.

Practical Care and Personal Counsel

Ada’s care is most apparent when Anne Elizabeth’s expectations of companionship fail. Before meeting Edwin, Anne Elizabeth is excited when Paul English invites her to a matinée, but the outing disappoints her. Ada has to entertain Paul while Anne Elizabeth takes a long time getting ready; after the date, Anne Elizabeth returns upset and withdraws to her room, refusing supper. Ada finds her lying on the floor in an awkward, childish pose, responds with kisses and an embrace, and reassures her that the episode is over before asking whether there is food in the icebox. The small domestic question does not erase Anne Elizabeth’s disappointment; it gives the comfort a familiar, practical shape.

Ada also serves as a confidante when Anne Elizabeth is trying to understand her growing attachment to Edwin. After a late evening with him, Anne Elizabeth asks what Ada thinks. Ada calls him a splendid young man, while adding that he seems restless and may settle down. Her answer is approving but measured, and Anne Elizabeth offers no explanation for asking before going to bed. The exchange shows Ada as someone whose judgment Anne Elizabeth seeks, even when she is not ready to make her own feelings explicit.

This support does not mean that Ada simply endorses Anne Elizabeth’s decisions. She scolds her for being late, and later objects to what she sees as Anne Elizabeth’s loss of judgment. Their closeness allows admonition as well as affection: Ada is protective enough to voice concern, but Anne Elizabeth continues to make choices for herself. The relationship is consequently not a simple pattern of guidance followed by obedience. Ada offers shelter and advice; Anne Elizabeth accepts the help without surrendering her independence.

Arrest, Publicity, and the Limits of Protection

Ada’s role changes when Anne Elizabeth joins the striking workers and is arrested after a confrontation with police. At the county jail, Ada appears with Webb Cruthers and a lawyer, and points Anne Elizabeth to the newspaper coverage. Its headline presents her as a Texas woman who assaulted a police officer, turning a local act into a public story that can travel home. Anne Elizabeth is released on one thousand dollars’ bail. Ada’s presence at the police sergeant’s desk and among those arranging the legal response shows her moving from host and companion into a practical advocate.

The arrest also exposes a difference in their responses to the protest. After they are safely on the train back to New York, Ada tells Anne Elizabeth that she thinks she has lost her mind. Anne Elizabeth answers that Ada would have acted the same way had she seen what Anne Elizabeth saw, and says her father and brothers will be outraged when they hear about it. She then bursts into tears. The exchange holds together conviction and distress: Anne Elizabeth defends her intervention, but the consequences and the prospect of her family’s reaction overwhelm her. Ada’s disapproval does not end her care; it marks the distance between her caution and Anne Elizabeth’s sense of what she had to do.

That distance becomes more consequential when Ada’s apartment receives a telegram from Anne Elizabeth’s father announcing that he is coming and instructing her to make no statement until he arrives. A later telegram reports that he is seriously ill and asks that Ada retain the best lawyer available. Ada is thus drawn into the family’s response to Anne Elizabeth’s public arrest, although Anne Elizabeth leaves for Texas the next morning. The available events do not establish what Ada does after that departure, so her role at this point is best understood through what is shown: she has helped Anne Elizabeth live and study independently, stood with her at jail, and become the person her father asks to help secure counsel.

Narrative Significance

Ada links Anne Elizabeth’s private independence to institutions and public consequences. Her apartment makes study in New York City possible; her parties bring Anne Elizabeth into contact with Edwin; her everyday attentiveness helps her through a personal disappointment; and her practical involvement continues when a labor protest brings arrest, bail, and newspaper publicity. Each stage enlarges the meaning of Ada’s hospitality, from a bedroom prepared in a shared apartment to a lawyer present at the jail.

The relationship also gives Anne Elizabeth’s choices a nearby measure of care and caution. Ada is not presented as the cause of the protest or as an authority who can prevent its consequences. Instead, she is the educated older companion who receives Anne Elizabeth into a new life and remains involved when that life becomes difficult. Her mixture of affection, judgment, and practical assistance makes the move to New York more than an escape from a prescribed education: it becomes a sustained, imperfect negotiation between independence and the people who help make it possible.