Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-24
CHAPTER XXX.-Continued.

II tell you. Frank, you're not the sort of
woman that can go half fed and half
dressed driftin' round dowdy and hungry
and homeless. most of the time, You're
too fine for all that kind O. thing A wom-
an like you has got to have money, and be
looked after. and showed around. and let
take things easy-or what's the use O.
ben' a beauty. anyway. You know all
that. 5 well as doT
Yes. know all that" she said vacantly.
YEARLY. for her racing thoughts were far
away. She was inwardly confessing to her
self that they who live by the sword must
die by the sword.
Then what's the use o. crucfyin your
self" cried MacNutt. seeming to catch
hope from her change of tone. you know
well l do that l can hound this Dur
kin Off the face O. the globe. I can make it
hot for him here in New York that he
darent stick his nose within a foot O. the
Hudson. And I'm goin to do it. too. I'm
goin' to do it, unless you want to come and
stop me from dom it!'
Why" she asked emptily.
Didn't You save my life once Frank.
right in this room? - it all. you must
have thought a little about me, to do a thing
like that
And what did you do for it, she de-
manded, with sudden change of front.
Once again she was all animal, artful and
sneak-thief. You skunk back here and stole
his money. No. no; there's good your
denying it-you came and stole his honestly
earned money!"
Honestly earned?" he scofYed
NO. not honestly earned perhaps, but
made as clean as II could be made In this
low and mean and underhand business you
taught us and dragged us into And you
came and stole it, when il meant SO much to
me, and to him.
Yes. | said I'd knock him. and 7 did
knock him. But good heavens. what's his
money to a high-roller like me, II that's all
you re swlngin' your clapper about, you
mas as well get wise. If it's the money
you're achin' after, you can have it-pro-
vidin YOU take ii the way I'm willin' to
give il TO you.'
II can't believe you-you know thatr
You think I'm talkin' big? Well look
here Here's my wad, Yes. look at it good
and hard-there's enough there to smother
you In diamonds. and let you lord 1t round
this town for the rest OF your lifei''
You're drunk" she cried once more con-
sumed by sudden fear of him.
No. I'm not; but I'm crazy. If you want
To put II that way. and you're tae cause OF
it. I'm tired o plottin and schemin' and
gettin mixed up in all kinds O. dirty work.
and | want TO take II easy now, and enjoy
life little,''
Size gasped at his words Were his asplra
tons then, quite az high as hers? Were al
the vague ideals she mouthed to Durkin and
herself only the thoughts of any notified
souled evil-doer?
Then she watched him Slowly c'ose the
great polished pig-skin wallet. replace 1t IN
his inside breast pocket. and secure II there
with its safety-button.
Frances gazed at him blankly. with de-
taehed and impersonal attention. He stood
~ her there the embodiment of what all
har old life had been. In him she saw in
carnate all its hdeousness. all its degrading
coarsepess all its hopeless vileness and
wickedness. And this was what she had
dreamed that at moments notice she
could thrust behind her! She had thought
that IL could be slipped of at a turn OF the
hand. like soiled skirt. when the insidious
poison of 1t had crept into her very bones
when 1T had corroded and withered and
killed that holier something which should
have remained untouched and unsullied in
counterpart. her mate this gross man with
the many-wrinkled, square-set jaw. with
the stolid bull-neck with his bloated, yul.
pine face and his subdolous green eyes
This was what she had fallen to- inch by
inch, and day by day. And here he wa:
talking to her, wisely. as to one of his kind
bargaining for her bruised and weary body
as though love and honor and womanly de-
votion We're Chattels to be bought and sold
In the open market.
The ultimate, memorable hopelessness. the
roredoomed tragedy of her dwarfed and per
v,rted life came crushingly home to her. al
she looked at him, still confronting hei
there In his challenging comradeship Of
crime and his kinship of old-time dshonor.
Mack" she said quietly. but her voict