“The Villager” is a short story by Shirley Jackson that appeared in her 1949 collection The Lottery and Other Stories. Here’s a summary of “The Villager”.
“The Villager” Summary
It’s two-fifteen, earlier than Miss Clarence thought, so she goes into Whelan’s and has a milkshake and a smoke. She’s thirty-five and has lived in Greenwich village for twelve years. She came to be a dancer but got a job as a stenographer and works at the same company now as a private secretary.
Miss Clarence finishes and heads up Sixth Avenue, confident she looks good in her gray tweed suit. Just west of Sixth Avenue she stops outside a house and checks the address against the ad from her magazine, Villager. She enters the dingy hallway of the old house and finds the name she’s looking for—Roberts.
She walks up to the fourth floor and finds a note on the door explaining that Nancy Roberts had to go out but will be back by three-thirty. Miss Clarence can go in and look until she gets back. The furniture is marked with the price.
She goes inside. The room is disordered with half-packed suitcases and boxes. The window doesn’t have a good view. She looks in the kitchen and bathroom. They’re dirty and there isn’t much in the fridge. Miss Clarence makes room to sit down in the main room.
She can’t use any of the furniture. The end-table bookcase is nice but has a long scratch and stains. She answers the phone. It’s Artie Roberts, Nancy’s husband, who asks that Nancy call him when she gets back. He talks up the furniture and says they’re in a rush to leave. He has an opportunity in Paris and Nancy is going back to her family in Chicago.
It’s three-ten and Miss Clarence plans to wait until three-thirty. She looks through a book of dance photographs. She remembers herself at twenty practicing the dancer’s pose. She stands up and tries it; it’s harder now and she feels it in her shoulders.
There’s a knock at the door and a young man comes in. He assumes Miss Clarence is Mrs. Roberts and she doesn’t correct him. His name is Harris. He’s just moved to the city and needs some furniture. He plans to work a regular job during the day and write at night. He sees quickly that there’s nothing he needs here.
They talk a little about dancing (Miss Clarence claims to be a dancer), eating out and cooking. They wish each other well and he leaves.
It’s three-twenty-three now. Suddenly in a hurry, Miss Clarence writes her own note on the back of Nancy’s. She waited until three-thirty and none of the furniture is suitable. Her husband wants her to call him.
She collects her things and tacks the note up on the door. Her shoulders ache as she starts for home.
I hope this summary of “The Villager” by Shirley Jackson was helpful.