Red River prospector. (Red River, Taos County, N.M.) 1900-190?, 1906-12-13

hoaAbh anu dHuulllOhi ne BOL u CITY lou
on the strength of money he did not
have, and then got the money on the
strength of owning the lot. After this
he built a monument to his own sue
cess in the form of an apartment
house in which he set up his own
home, and on the granite front of
which he blazoned his triumph in
carved letters reading "Moriarty Mai
~sonette."
By a mere chance, no one except
Florence, the elevator boy, was at
hand when Miss Cordelia Byrne called
to inspect the fifth hoor back, which
vas advertised for rent. She took it
and her furniture came the next morn
ing, when Mr.. Moriarty was again alb
sent.
Miss Byrne was about 20 years OF
age, slender, of middle stature and
dressed habitually in black or dark
blue. How anyone who looked at her
melting blue eyes, her sensitive pout-
ing mouth, and her pale complexion,
enriched by her auburn hair, could
have found reason to doubt her good
ness, few men would be able to say.
Among her belongings was an up
right piano, and she and it combined
altered the temper of the people in
the Moriarty Maisonette with a sud
denness. and to a degree. which was
astonishing. This was because she
and it either knew but one tune, or,
at any rate, played but one. This
was a dainty, ripping trihe by Pader-
ewski. On the first afternoon and
evening Miss Byrne played the Pader-
ewski peasant dance over some dozen
times. Now when the exquisite, roll
licking. merry, melodic current flowed
through the wall to the fifth floor
front, through the floor to the fourth
story suites and through the ceiling
to the sixth story's tiny homes, the
"star" tenant sat entranced, his silken-
robed better half leaned forward,
plucking her youngest from the floor
to bid it listen to "the poorly moo
ticks" Upstairs and downstairs the
delighted tenants blessed the day that
Moriarty's builders scamped their
work, leaving the house so like a col
Ander that Cordelia Byrne could plaS
them all into the seventh heaven -
delight with Paderewski's peasant
dance-so suited to the joyous tenn
permanent of the Irish audience and to
their pretty taste in music.
Miss Byrne was taken into the
warmest corners of the hearts in the
Maisonette on that night. She could
almost have demanded instant mem
bership in the Bloomingdale Bowling
club, to which nearly all the tenants
belonged.
That was, as we recollect it, on a
Friday night. The following Wednes-
day found everything unchanged ex-
cept the temper of Moriarty's tenants.
That night the Pinochle club, COM
posed of six of the male tenants Of
the Maisonette, met in Mr.. Mahoney's
apartments. Five of the members
were on hand promptly and waited
for Mr.. Moriarty, the sixth, to arrive.
Miss Cordelia Byrne, in the rear suite
on the same floor with the Mahoneys,
regaled the club members with that
choice moroccan Of Paderewski's to
which we have referred, and with
which ali the men and women in the
Maisonette had for some time been
familiar.
The plot was afoot. The innocent
proprietor of what he once boosted as
being the happiest bunch of homes on
the island" was to be trapped when he
came for a nights enjoyment, by a
rebellious band of tenants who had
sworn that either they, Miss Byrne or
her piano must leave the house on the
first of the incoming month.
Meanwhile Miss Byrne finished the
n hundred and sixty-eighth rendi-
ton of the dainty peasant dance, and,
closing the piano, moved across the
neat and cozy parlor, family perfumed
with a delicate odor of lilac, to the lit
tie writing table and penned a note
to her sister. We may read over her
shoulders as she writes;
There is nothing to write. only ]
know you are wondering. 1t is win
all or lose all with me. may go back
to the counter of a department store
but It won't be until / have to.
I've taken the little money mother
left me and furnished the apartment
and dressed myself with the quietest
taste, so as to look ladylike on the
smallest outlay. I've thrown myself
headlong into everything that's doing
in a swell church, and l am so quiet
and demure that l don't think you'd
recognize your merry romp of a sister
If you saw me. Butter wouldn't melt
IN my mouth and l never lift my eyes
above the sidewalk. l should have
thought by this time some man would
break his neck. almost to get acQuaint,
ed with me, just to see If he couldn't
make me raise my eyes.
The trouble is hat l only see won.
en- at the church. and / made a bad
choice Of an apartment house because
the men here are nearly all married
and are such oysters that not one has
yet made my acquaintance. The and
lord Is single, though. and rich.
mot that / want to fool anybody
Lou. dear. Only. I'm as good as any
girl that's got a home INT a husband
and love. I'm too good to stand and
veil cash! here, CASH. behind a conn.