They do set it up a bit in the film, when Marian comes home at night on July 3rd for Amaryllis' lesson and encounters Harold in the street. Her mother says something like, "Late night at the library?" And she says sonething like "As usual."
We tend to think of libraries as public institutions, paid for with taxes and run by city governments. But back in the early century, many were established by philanthropists (like Carnegie or River City's Madison). Some of these ultimately went to municipal backing, but I imagine ones with enough funding continued as private entities. Since "Uncle Maddy" was concerned for the finances of the Paroo family, he left Marian with a good, steady source of income, but she undoubtedly felt she had to work hard to deserve it.
Or else she was staying late for the same nefarious purposes as the Continental Congress in 1776.
Laura |
