Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-07-20
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changed. Maggie Us heavy and-and
"Nance-what in h--Es-"
II think Tm-frightened. Tom
'Oh. the ladyfied airs OF her! Amt you
going to faint Miss Oiden?'
aN 20 ap' Sit down. Tom. Tell me about
It, How-how did you get here?"
He went to the door, opened 1t bit
and looked out cautiously Mag-Mag-t
you're sure nobody'H come in?' he ask
ed.
/ turned the key In the lock. forgetting
that it didn't really lock.
Why, You have got slow. Just because
didn't say goodbye to- them fellows up at
the Pen and
oh, You've escaped!
That's what. First jail-break in fifteen
years. What dye think of your Tommy.
old girl. Ell? Amt he the earnest? Amt
you proud of him.
My God, Mag. Proud of him. He didn't
know-he couldn't see-himself He. shut
I'm like wild beast. couldn't see what this
year has done for him. Oh. the change
the change In him. My boy Tommy. with
the gay. gallus manner, and the pretty.
his brown mistache. And this man-his
face is old Mag old-oh!-and hard-and-
and tough. cheap and tough. There's some
thing in his eyes now M and about his shaven
Look here. Nance" He caught me by
the shoulders. knocking up my chin so that
he could look down squarely at me.
"Whats your graft? What's 1t to be be-
tween US? Whatve ye been doing all this
time? Out with It. 1 want to know"
shook myself free and faced him.
i've benton DOrgan. Eve been to
hear the greatest actors and actresses in
the world say and do the finest things in
the world. I've watched princesses and
kings-even If they're only stage ones. I've
read new book every night-a great pic
ture book. In which the pictures move and
speak-thats the stage. Tom Dorgan. Much
of 1t wasn't true, but a girl who's been
brought up by the Cruelty doesn't have to
he told what's true and what's false I've
met these people and lived with them-as
one does who thinks the same thoughts and
feels what others feel 1 know the world
now, Tom Dorgan. the real world of men
and women-nOt the little world OF crooks,
nor yet the hitler one Of fairy stories. I've
got a glimpse, too. Of that other world
where all the scheming and lying and
cheating is changed as II by magic into
something that deceives all right. but
doesn't hurt. It's the world Of art and ar
lists. Tom Dorgan. where people paint their
lies. or write them. or act them; where they
lift money all right from mems pockets. but
lift their souls and their lives too. away
from the things that trouble and bore and
and degrade.
You needn't sneer: IT'S made different
Nance out of me. Tom Dorgan. And. oh.
but I'm sorry for the pert little beggar We
both knew. that lied and stole and hid and
ran and skulked! She was like poor little
ignorant traveller in great country where
she'd sized up the world from the few fool
crooks she was thrown in with She
"Aw-cut it,
"Tom-does-doesnt 1t mean anything to
you? Can't it mean lots to both Of us. now
that
"Cut 1t. 1 tell you, Think I killed one
guard and beat. the other till I'd broke
hnn in, hi hfRIt TO
listen to such CUFF? You've been having q
high old time. eh. and you never give
thought to me up there. L might "a rotted
in that black hole for all you'd care.
you"
Don't. 1 did. Tom: I did" / was shiv-
ering at the name. but | couldn't bear his
thinking that way of me- Il went up once.
but they wouldn't let me see you. L wrote
you, but they sent back the letters. Mag
went up, too. but had to come back And
that time I brought you"
My voice traiied ofr.o In that minute
sa W myself on the way UP to Sing Sing, with
the basket and all my hopes and all my
schemes for amusing him,
And this Is what I'd have seen If they'd
let me in-this big, gruff. numbering beast.
Oh. yes-yes-beast is what he is, and 1t
didn't make him look it less that he be-
lieved me and-and began to think OF me in
a different way.
Il thought you wouldn't go back a fell
Ter, Nance. That's why / come straight to
you 1t was my game to have you hide me
for a day or two, till you could make
strike somewhere, and we'd light out to-
Gether. How're ye fixed? Pretty smart.
Ell? You look it. my girl. you look My
eye, Nance. you look good enough to eat,
and I'm hungry for you"
Maggie. if I'd had to die for it I.couldn't
have moved then. You'd think a man would
know when the woman he's holding in his
arms is fainting-sick at the touch of him.
A woman would 1t wasn't my Tom that
I'd known, that I'd worked with and played
with and 1t was great brute.
whose mouth-who had no eyIs. no ears,
no senses but-ah,
He laughed when | broke away from him