Evening star., 1926-04-18

III the-heel La Sale street
O struggles over the river into
narrow coulee of twilight.
Southwark beyond the unspanned
waters of the slow, overladen stream
runs the Jekyll of it's personality, the
canyon famed from Shanghai to
Stockholm, from Vancouver to Val
paraiso, that passage where the turbu-
lence of trade seethes over crowded
pavements. where huge hotels. vast
buildings, and massive banks rise
above Pit and Exchange, where men
grow rich and men grow poor in one
of the We rld'S great games. There the
roadway is the path of opportunity,
the battle-ground of power. the Street;
but to the north, diSinherited by time
and circumstance, a very Hyde of
thoroughfares, it drifts past hospitals
and asylums, Bible institutes and
churches, to sink into letharSy
Which hangs like fog over rows of
nouses. once mansions. now warrens
OF hdbitation, placarded all alike as
FURNISHED Rooms" Back of the
lines of life. SCARED by the passing
of Il time that made it, gloried in II,
and flung 1t aside. the neighborhood
SITS like a crone in pale light filtered
through the city's smoke, shrouding
in its own drear sadness all who enter
it, hostile even to the derelicts it
1IdNeHS. DuIl, u6SpdiElui, II CASTS IT'S
pail on all days, but on that Septem-
her afternoon when the city around it
swan in the golden tide of sunset the
street seemed to Peggy Loomis, as
she turned into it from the eastward,
more than ever by its somber contrast
u menacing, inesea pable slope of
Avernus.
She had held her head so high that
the coque feathers in her gay little
4 .
4 brave private of Bersa glieri: but
with the goal of home just ahead and
the gloom of the street mocking the
glow of the sky. she let her bravado
slip from her, and with the dropping
shuttle of the loser of a last race,
climbed in weary listlessness the dirty
steps of Sally Gates rooming house.
Past the wide door of weather beaten
carvings, she paused moment in the
dim hall heavy with stale odors of gas,
of drugs. of strong and varied cookery.
Before her rose the flight of worn
carpeted stairs to her own room. where
blossom would be waiting for her. but
al the sound of a canary's song, flung
out in blithe defiance of the depres-
sions of the atmosphere, she walked
back to the end of the lower hall and
knocked at dingy door,
Come in a high voice shrilled at
JitG, dLu SIlS puoLlSu IIlhdTu 10 Htl0
Sally Gates, her chair tilted back
against the wall, her bef1owered cot
ton kimono trailed over the floor.
scanning a red-headlined newspaper.
She caught the query in Sallys
eyes. but she sank down into Sally's
safest chair without direct answer.
"Cheep. cheep." the canary twittered.
then trilled in joyous abandon.
Keep still. Galli-Curci,' Mrs. Gates
iv,
terrupting Peggy"
II wasn't saying anything" Peggy
told her.
Sallys glance ran like quicksilver
over the surface of her guests lstless-
ness. We'll. don't let me keep you
from your thoughts" she said, and
resumed her reading.
* z 4 K
OVER the rim of the newspaper her
~ golden glinted hair shone like
straw heap. With the rapt stare of
inattention Peggy watched it until it
suddenly seemed to flow. as in a mo-
tion picture. into the soft aureole of
sunshine which had framed Sally
Gates face when she had first known
her. Memory of the past they had
shared. in the days when Joe Gates
had held the middleweight champion
ship and Kennedy Loomis had played
in and out of luck from Jamaica to
.juareZ, came with thought of the ties
OF their friendship through these
darker years, and it was to the Sally
Gates of the clubhouses, of the high
carts, Of the awberries-in-Ja nuary
time that Peggy Loomis spoke.
isn't it all a mess, dearie?"
Sally put down the paper. and
Peggy's picture of her gay beauty died
before the reality of her tense, hard
ened face.
What's happened now?' she de-
manded. did you ruin that blue
dress when you tried to clean it? Or
lave they expelled Blossom from the
SCHOOL,"
"Oh, no. Peggy sprang to ward
off the thought. Blossom has new
teacher this year. She's real nice,
Sally. and I think the child will get
on with her. Blossoms smart. you
know she is. Why, if she had had a
teacher who'd understood how to han
die her. she'd have been the head of
her class last year. l don't know
where she gets her mind. Ken could
figure out the ponies, but he never
got things the way Bloss does. Hon.
estly, Sally, when think of that child
Ilere without any advantages, and no.
body but me between her and the asy-
lun1, get sick. She ought to have a
nice home, and pretty clothes, and
hooks, and"
"If it isn't Blossom, what is the
matter?''
I'm broke" She flung out the con-
Session with the defiance Of despair
Il have just exactly II cents to my
name"
She dug into her handbag and,
bringing up dime and penny, iung
them on the table
Well. for the love O. Mike" Sally
threw at Peggy. "Is that all? l
thought somebody was dead, the way
you look
".An? Isn't it enough?"
But you're broke every month,
Peg. You know you're always fiat
g. couple of days before your alimony
comes"
This is different"
Maybe it's just delayed in the
snail. Ken never was an accountant,
YOU know, and / don't see how he
Keeps the dates straight at all. It'll
come"
"It won't. went down to see the
lawyer this afternoon. lie says he
had a. telegram from Ken asking him
10 fix up a conference. You know
what that means He's going to
WEIGH. that's what he is. What else
would he want to see me for?'
Maybe he just happened to go
short Of money this month, Peggy.
lie hasn't a mint. you know. even If
le is luckier than most o the boys"
He's had it every month before.
IF he tries to come any game on me,
Til"
well, what can you do if he does?
Sue him, of course, but it's a long
game
He's got to pay it. tell you. Isn't
lie Blossoms father? Hasn't he the
right to take care of her?'
But you wouldn't let him keep