Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-06-28
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Chapter I

corner Of the street on which
she lived. She hated the SNUG.
a. unfriendly aspect of the row of
brownstone houses that seemed to
mock her as she hurried past. But
most of all she hated to enter the
small apartment hotel where she and
her father had hidden themselves
away from all their friends. She
fancied that the elevator boys were
smiling behind her back, and that
the frizzly haired, blonde telephone
girl smirked when she passed by.
She knew that her father owed two
months rent on the apartment. She
knew also that the elevator boys and
the blonde telephone girl had not
been tipped in weeks. One cannot ex-
pect good service in New York with
out paying for it literally, and it
made little or no difference to- Mamie
Myers that in Jean Northrup's veins
ran the blue blood of aristocracy. In
New York money talked, and people
the thing in Mamie's own vernacular,
she didn't care much for them stuck
up, white-faced types anyhow. Wasn't
this a free country and wasn't she,
Mamie, as good as the best?
"Take that Miss Effelstein who
lives on the second floor and wears
such cwell clothes,'' Mamie would
say TO Mike, VINO nau the dIISruOoIL
shift. Mamie, with the telephone re-
ceiver tilted at raKisn angle over
her blonde puffs, was an adept at an
swering calls, chewing gum and pei
ishing her finger nails at one and the
same time.
She's what I call swell. Boy, she
can dress, I'll say So"
And Mike, who in spite of himself,
was rather attracted by Jean North
I'D hi NH
would always agree with Mamie.
After all, Jean was a far-away sort
of fairy princess and Mamie was a
swell locker to take out on a Sunday,
after working hours. She was worth
keeping in with, but even Mike
dreamed dreams.
Jean hated to owe money. She
hated having to Slip down to the
cheap grocery stores for food which
she prepared on an electric grill in
the sitting room of their tiny place.
She hated everything sordid. every
thing cheap. Money meant nothing
to her because she had never needed
for anything; never until the past
few months, when, after her father
failure, they had taken two rooms
on a downtown side street where no
one knew them.
At first her father had been full OF
1T won't be for long, DEAR" he had
said tenderly, Just till I can get on
my feet again. Then We'll go back
and you shall have everything"
But of late her father had been all
ing and they had little or no money.
She was boarding the little bit she
had for their present needs. The
rent and the other things must wait.
This afternoon she had spent forty
five cents for essentials. There was
some lettuce, which she, would fresh
en- up in cold water, a can of soup, a
bottle of milk and small loaf OF
bread. She carried these parcels fur
lively, for one was not supposed to
cook in the rooms. There was a
gloomy table d'hote dining room on
the first floor where fairly good
meal could be had for a dollar: Jean
would not have eaten there If she
had had the dollar to spend. She
hated the class of people who pat
ronized it. snowy and middle-class
types, overdressed women and men
with bold eyes, who stared. There
was a selectness about even poverty
as far as Jean was concerned, and
she intended to make her own and
her fathers as least Objectionable as
possible.
Mike was lounging in the door of
the elevator as Jean entered the lob
by and Mamie was for once very
busy with a long distance call sc
that Jean was whizzed out Of sight
before Mamie could see her.
Upstairs she opened the door of the
apartment, and with a little sigh
went in.
Father" she called gaily. 81
brought our dinner. I'll have things
ready in just a moment
There was no reply and an ominous
silence seemed to brood over the
place, silence that frightened Jean
more than any noise.
ITO Be ContinuedO