Elfrida Bell feels stifled in her small hometown of Sparta, Illinois. All the townspeople, except her dear mother, expect poor Elfrida to marry and live her life as a housewife. Elfrida, however, has other plans. She's too smart to waste her talent in the home the way her mother did. And so she runs away to Europe hoping to find a career as a journalist. She had read in many magazines and books that France was more intellectual and forward thinking. When she arrives there, she discovers that not everything in literature translates to everyday life. And being an independent career woman is not as easy as she had hoped. . . . Sara Jeannette Duncan was a noted feminist author. Her most famous novel was The Imperialist.