 | IV. In The Bishop's Carriage |  |
4. IV.
No — no — no! No more whining from Nance Olden. Listen to what I've got to tell you, Mag, listen!
You know where I was coming from yesterday when I passed Troyon's window and grinned up at you, sitting there, framed in bottles of hair tonic, with all that red wig of yours streaming about you?
Yep, from that little, rat-eyed lawyer's office. I was glum as mud. I felt as though Tom and myself were both flies caught by the leg — he by the law and I by the lawyer — in a sticky mess; and the more we flapped our wings and struggled and pulled, the more we hurt and tore ourselves, and the sooner we'd have to give it up.
Oh, that wizen-faced little lawyer that lives on the Tom Dorgans and the Nance Oldens, who don't know which way to turn to get the money! He looks at me out of his red little eyes and measures in dollars what I'd do for Tom. And then he sets his price a notch higher than that.
When I passed the big department store, next to Troyon's, I was thinking of this, and I turned in there, just aching for some of the boodle that flaunts itself in a poor girl's face when she's desperate, from every silk and satin rag, from every lace and jewel in the place.
The funny part of it is that I didn't want it for myself, but for Tom. 'Pon my soul, Mag, though I would have filled my arms with everything I saw, I wouldn't have put on one thing of all the duds; just hiked off to soak 'em and pay the lawyer. I might have been as old and ugly and rich as the yellow-skinned woman opposite me, who was turning over laces on the middle counter, for all these things meant to me — with Tom in jail.
I was thinking this as I looked at her, when all at once I saw —
You know it takes a pretty quick touch, sharp eyes and good nerve to get away with the goods in a big shop like that. Or it takes something altogether different. It was the different way she did it. She took up the piece of lace — it was a big collar, fine like a cobweb picture in threads, — you can guess what it must have been worth if that old sinner, Mother Douty, gave me fifteen dollars for it.
At least, she'd got beyond the inner doors when I tapped her on the shoulder.
“I beg pardon, madam.” My best style, Mag.
She pulled herself up haughtily and blinked at me. She was a little, thin mummy of a woman, just wrapped away in silks and velvets, but on the inside of that nervous, little old body of hers there must have been some spring of good material that wasn't all unwound yet.
She stood blinking at me without a word.
“That lace. You haven't paid for it,” I said.
Her short-sighted eyes fell from my face to the collar she held in her hand. Her yellow face grew ghastly.
“Oh, mercy! You — you don't — ”
“I am a detective for the store, and — ”
“But — ”
“Sh! We don't like any noise made about these things, and you yourself wouldn't enjoy — ”
“Do you know who I am, young woman?” She fumbled in her satchel and passed a card to me.
Glory be! Guess, Mag. Oh, you'd never guess,
you dear old Mag! Besides, you haven't got the
acquaintance in high society that Nance Olden can
boast.
[Description: Typographical representation of a woman's card.]
Oh — Mag! Shame on you not to know the name even of the Bishop of the great state of — yes, the lean, short little Bishop with a little white beard, and the softest eye and the softest heart and — my very own Bishop, Nancy Olden's Bishop. And this was his wife.
Tut — tut, Mag! Of course not. A bishop's wife may be a kleptomaniac; it's only Cruelty girls that really steal from stores.
“I've met the Bishop, Mrs. Van Wagenen.” I didn't say how — she wouldn't appreciate that story.
“And he was once very kind to me. But he would be the first to tell me to do my duty now. I'll do it as quietly as I can for his sake. But you must come with me or I must arrest — ”
She put up a shaking hand. Dear little old guy!
“Don't — don't say it! It's all a mistake, which can be rectified in a moment. I've been trying to match this piece of lace for years. I got it at Malta when — when Mills and I — on our honeymoon. When I saw it there on the counter I was so delighted — I never thought — I intended taking it to the light to be sure the pattern was the same, my eyesight is so wretched — and when you spoke to me it was the first inkling I had that I had really taken it without paying! You certainly understand,” she pleaded in agitation. “I have no need to steal — you must know that — oh, that I wouldn't — that — I couldn't — If you will just let me pay you — ”
Here now, Mag Monahan, don't you get to sneering. She was straight — right on the level, all right. You couldn't listen to that cracked little voice of hers a minute without being sure of it.
I was just about to permit her graciously to pay me the money, — for my friend? the dear Bishop's
“If you'll come with me, Mrs. Van Wagenen, to a dressing-room, I'll arrange your collar for you,” I said very loud. And then, in a whisper: “Of course, I understand, but the thing may look different to other people. And that big floor-walker there gets a commission from the newspapers every time he tells them — ”
She gave a squawk for all the world like a dried-up little hen scuttling out of a yellow dog's way, and we took the elevator to the second floor.
The minute I closed the door of the little fitting-room she held out the lace to me.
“I have changed my mind,” she said, “and shall give you the lace back. I will not keep it. I can not — I can not bear the sight of it. It terrifies me and shocks me. I can take no pleasure in it. Besides — besides, it will be discipline for me to do without it now that I have found it after all these years. Every day I shall look at the place in my collection which it would have occupied, and I shall say to myself: `Maria Van Wagenen, take warning. See to what terrible straits a worldly passion
“What good will that do?” I asked, puzzled, while I folded the collar up into a very small package.
“You mean that I ought to submit to the exposure — that I deserve the lesson and the punishment — not for stealing, but for being absorbed in worldly things. Perhaps you are right. It certainly shows that you have at some time been under Mills' spiritual care, my dear. I wonder if he would insist — whether I ought — yes, I suppose he would. Oh!”
A saleswoman's head was thrust in the door. “Excuse me,” she said, “I thought the room was empty.”
“We've just finished trying on,” I said sweetly.
“Don't go!” The Bishop's wife turned to her, her little fluttering hands held out appealingly. “And do not misunderstand me. The thing may seem wrong in your eyes, as this young woman says, but if you will listen patiently to my explanations I am sure you will see that it was a mere eager oversight —
The tender conscience of the dear, blameless little soul! She was actually giving herself away. Worse — she was giving me away, too. But I couldn't stand that. I saw the saleswoman's puzzled face — she was a tall woman with a big bust, big hips and the big head all right, and she wore her long-train black rig for all the world like a Cruelty girl who had stolen the matron's skirt to “play lady” in. I got behind little Mrs. Bishop, and looking out over her head, I tapped my forehead significantly.
The saleswoman tumbled. That was all right. But so did the Bishop's wife; for she turned and caught me at it.
“You shall not save me from myself and what I deserve,” she cried. “I am perfectly sane and you know it, and you are doing me no favor in trying to create the contrary impression. I demand an — ”
“An interview with the manager,” I interrupted. “I'm sure Mrs. Van Wagenen can see the manager. Just go with the lady, Mrs. Van Wagenen, and I'll follow with the goods.”
She did it meek as a lamb, talking all the time, but never beginning at the beginning — luckily for me. So that I had time to slip from one dressing-room to the next, with the lace up my sleeve, out to the elevator, and down into the street.
D'ye know what heaven must be, Mag? A place where you always get away with the swag, and where it's always just the minute after you've made a killing.
Cocky? Well, I should say I was. I was drunk enough with success to take big chances. And just while I was wishing for something really big to tackle, it came along in the shape of that big floor-walker!
He was without a hat, and his eyes looked fifty ways at once. But you've got to look fifty-one if you want to catch Nance Olden. I ran up the stairs of the first flat-house and rang the bell. And as I sailed up in the elevator I saw the big floor-walker hurry past; he'd lost the scent.
The boy let me off at the top floor, and after the elevator had gone down I walked up to the roof. It was fine 'way up there, so still and high, with the lights coming out down in the town. And I took
It would do for a mirror all right, for the dark green shade was down. But at sight of the shade blowing in the wind I forgot all about the collar.
It's this way, Mag, when they press you too far; and that little rat of a lawyer had got me most to the wall. I looked at the window, measuring the little climb it would be for me to get to it, — the house next door was just one story higher than the one where I was, so its top story was on a level with the roof nearly where I stood. And I made up my — mind to get what would let Tom off easy, or break into jail myself.
And so I didn't care much what I might fall into through that window. And perhaps because I didn't care, I slipped into a dark hall, and not a thing stirred; not a footstep creaked. I felt like the Princess — Princess Nancy Olden — come to wake the Sleeping Beauty; some dude it'd be that would have curly hair like Tom Dorgan's, and would wear clothes like my friend Latimer's, over in Brooklyn.
Can you see me there, standing on one leg like a stork, ready to lie or to fly at the first sound?
Well, the first sound didn't come. Neither did the second. In fact, none of 'em came unless I made 'em myself.
Softly as Molly goes when the baby's just dropped off to sleep, I walked toward an open door. It was a parlor, smelly with tobacco, and with lots of papers and books around. And nary a he-beauty — nor any other kind.
I tried the door of a room next to it. A bedroom. But no Beauty.
Silly! Don't you tumble yet? It was a bachelor's apartment, and the Bachelor Beauty was out, and Princess Nancy had the place all to herself.
I suppose I really ought to have left my card — or he wouldn't know who had waked him — but I hadn't intended to go calling when I left home. So I thought I'd look for one of his as a souvenir — and anything else of his I could make use of.
There were shirts I'd liked for Tom, dandy colored ones, and suits with checks in 'em and without. But I wanted something easy and small and flat, made of crackly printed yellow or green paper, with numbers on it.
How did I know he had anything like that? Why, Mag, Mag Monahan, one would think you belonged to the Bishop's set, you're so simple!
I had to turn on the electric light after a bit — it got so dark. And I don't like light in other people's houses when they're not at home, and neither am I. But there was nothing in the bedroom except some pearl studs. I got those and then went back to the parlor.
The desk caught my eye. Oh, Mag, it had the loveliest pictures on it — pictures of swell actresses and dancers. It was mahogany, with lots of little drawers and two curvy side boxes. I pulled open all the drawers. They were full of papers all right, but they were printed, cut from newspapers, and all about theaters.
“You can't feed things like this, Nance, to that shark of a lawyer,” I said to myself, pushing the box on the side impatiently.
And then I giggled outright.
Why?
Just 'cause — I had pushed that side box till it swung aside on hinges I didn't know about, and there, in a little secret nest, was a pile of those same crisp, crinkly paper things I'd been looking for.
Three hundred and ten dollars, Mag Monahan. Three hundred and ten, and Nance Olden!
“Glory be!” I whispered.
“Glory be damned!” I heard behind me.
I turned. The bills just leaked out of my hand on to the floor.
The Bachelor Beauty had come home, Mag, and nabbed the poor Princess, instead of her catching him napping.
He wasn't a beauty either — a big, stout fellow with a black mustache. His hand on my shoulder held me tight, but the look in his eyes behind his glasses held me tighter. I threw out my arms over the desk and hid my face.
Caught! Nancy Olden, with her hands dripping, and not a lie in her smart mouth!
He picked up the bills I had dropped, counted them and put them in his pocket. Then he unhooked a telephone and lifted the stand from his desk.
“Hello! Spring 3100 — please. Hello! Chief's office? This is Obermuller, Standard Theater. I want an officer to take charge of a thief I've
He put down the 'phone. I pulled the pearl studs out of my pocket.
“You might as well take these, too,” I said.
“So thoughtful of you, seeing that you'd be searched! But I'll take 'em, anyway. You intended them for — Him? You didn't get anything else?”
I shook my head as I lay there.
“Hum!” It was half a laugh, and half a sneer. I hated him for it, as he sat leaning back on the back legs of his chair, his thumbs in his arm-holes. I felt his eyes — those smart, keen eyes, burning into my miserable head. I thought of the lawyer and the deal he'd give poor Tom, and all at once —
You'd have sniffled yourself, Mag Monahan. There I was — caught. The cop'd be after me in five minutes. With Tom jugged, and me in stripes — it wasn't very jolly, and I lost my nerve.
“Ashamed — huh?” he said lightly.
I nodded. I was ashamed.
“Pity you didn't get ashamed before you broke in here.”
“What the devil was there to be ashamed of?”
The sting in his voice had cured me. I never was a weeper. I sat up, my face blazing, and stared at him. He'd got me to hand over to the cop, but he hadn't got me to sneer at.
I saw by the look he gave me, that he hadn't really seen me till then.
“Well,” he answered, “what the devil is there to be ashamed of now?”
“Of being caught — that's what.”
“Oh!”
He tilted back again on his chair and laughed softly.
“Then you're not ashamed of your profession?”
“Are you of yours?”
“Well — there's a slight difference.”
“Not much, whatever it may be. It's your graft — it's everybody's — to take all he can get, and keep out of jail. That's mine, too.”
“But you see I keep out of jail.”
“I see you're not there — yet.”
“Oh, I think you needn't worry about that. I'll keep out, thank you; imprisonment for debt don't go nowadays.”
“Debt?”
“I'm a theatrical manager, my girl, and I'm not on the inside: which is another way of saying that a man who can't swim has fallen overboard.”
“And when you do go down — ”
“A little less exultation, my dear, or I might suppose you'd be glad when I do.”
“Well, when you know yourself going down for the last time, do you mean to tell me you won't grasp at a straw like — like this?” I nodded toward the open window, and the desk with all its papers tumbling out.
“Not much.” He shook his head, and bit the end of a cigar with sharp, white teeth. “It's a fool graft. I'm self-respecting. And I don't admire fools.” He lit his cigar and puffed a minute, taking out his watch to look at it, as cold-bloodedly as though we were waiting, he and I, to go to supper together. Oh, how I hated him!
“Honesty isn't the best policy,” he went on; “it's the only one. The vain fool that gets it into his head — or shall I say her head? No? Well, no offense, I assure you — his head then, that he's smarter than a world full of experience, ought to be put in jail — for his own protection; he's too
I sprang from my seat and faced him. I was tingling all through. I didn't care a rap what became of me for just that minute. I forgot
“You're mighty smart, ain't you? You can sit back here and sneer at me, can't you? And feel so big and smart and triumphant! What've you done but catch a girl at her first bungling job! It makes you feel awfully cocky, don't it? `What a big man am I!' Bah!” I blew the smoke up toward the ceiling from my mouth, with just that satisfied gall that he had had; or rather, I pretended to. He let down the front legs of his chair and began to stare at me.
“And you don't know it all, Mr. Manager, not you. Your clown-criminal don't jump into the ring because he's so full of fun he can't stay out. He goes in for the same reason the real clown does — because he gets hungry and thirsty and sleepy and tired like other men, and he's got to fill his stomach and cover his back and get a place to sleep. And it's because your kind gets too much, that my kind gets so little it has to piece it out with this sort of thing. No, you don't know it quite all.
“There's a girl named Nancy Olden that could tell you a lot, smart as you are. She could show
“And the boy with the gouged eye — he would hold his pants up like this. He had just come in, and there was nothing to fit him. And he'd put his other hand over his bad eye and blink up
There was a heavy step out in the hall — it was the policeman! I'd forgot while I was talking. I was back — back in the empty garret, at the top of the Cruelty. I could smell the smell of the poor, the dirty, weak, sick poor. I could taste the porridge in the thick little bowls, like
“You see, you don't know it quite all — yet, Mr. Manager!” I spat it out at him, and then walked to the cop, my hands ready for the bracelets.
“But there's one thing I do know!” He's a big fellow but quick on his feet, and in a minute he was up and between me and the cop. “And there isn't a theatrical man in all America that knows it quicker than Fred Obermuller, that can detect it sooner and develop it better. And you've got it, girl, you've got it! . . . Officer, take this for your trouble. I couldn't hold the fellow, after all. Never mind which way he went; I'll call up the office and explain.”
He shut the door after the cop, and came back to me. I had fallen into a chair. My knees were weak, and I was trembling all over.
“Have you seen the playlet Charity at the Vaudeville?” he roared at me.
I shook my head.
“Well, it's a scene in a foundling asylum. Here's a pass. Go up now and see it. If you hurry you'll get there just in time for that act. Then if you come to me at the office in the morning at ten, I'll give you a chance as one of the Charity girls. Do you want it?”
God, Mag! Do I want it!
| IV. In The Bishop's Carriage | |