Nogales international., 1931-04-04
Twelfth InstaIllrlent

Maggie Johnson, daughter of letter-car-
xier, as stock girl in The Mack, San
francisco ive-and-Ten, falls in love with
"Ioe Grant" who also works there. His
real name is Joseph Grant Mackenzie Mer-
rill, son OF the owner OF the store. lie
wants to learn the business from the bot
TOM Because he fears that Maggie will
be frightened by his wealth and social
position, he does not reveal his true iden-
city, even when he proposes to her.
Joe finally tells his father about Maggie.
She is invited to dinner at fashionable
restaurant, where she discovers that Joe is
not a poor young man at all. She thinks
chat she has been deliberately tricked. She
starts to leave in modification when she
sees her poorly dressed father and dowdy
mother coming toward the dinner party.
They explain that Maggie's sister, Liz,
is at night court with her friend, who has
been arrested for speeding.
NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY
you'll say nothing and you'll do
nothing" she said, in voice that 81
fenced all FIVE of her hearers. you've
done enough, Joe Grant. We aren't
your sort We don't belong-hcre, in
room like this. And we do belong
together. Pm not fnuch-you've been
laughing at me all this time, and
guess anyone who understood what
was going on would laugh at me !
nut I wouldn't be anything, l wouldn't
have right even to try to be ideal
if I wouldn't stick to my own folks
don't care" Her eyes were blaz-
ing, her level, pitiless voice bored
through iinl-''I don't care" said
Maggie, trembling, what you think
of us My father and mother belong
to me, and my sister does, and I'm as
glad, Joe" she ended passionately,
tears spilling from her eyes now, but
fler mouth steady, 'I'm as glad to be
done with you as you are with me !"
She turned to Mr.. Merrill, who had
sat with fan of big bills open in his
fingers, watching her with sort of
breathlesS concentration. 1t was al
most as if he were afraid that she
would not dare say what she was so
rapidly and furiously saying, and as
if he liked to hear her.
She took three of the bills, folded
them, shut them into her flat worn
purse.
That's thirty" she said to him
with a nod. 81 owe YOU thirty. Thank
you. 1t won't be more than that.
Don't" and, with glance of utter
contempt toward Joe, she dropped her
voice to confidence confidence that
George Merrill, under the circum-
stances, found infinitely touching, be-
tween his hllmblest little employee and
himself "Don't let Joe follow us,
Mr.. Merrill" said Maggie. Il mean
it. Pm never going to see him again.
I'm doNe%
Blindly, swiftly, hugging her father
tightly to her on one side, holding her
mothers hand tight on the other, Mag
gle went with them from the room.
She reclaimed her shabby coat and
they three went through the foyer of
the big hotel and out into the cool eve
ming darkness together. Maggie sig
nailed taxicab, and they all got in.
"Now, it's all right, Ma she said,
in a breattless, light voice. We'll get
Liz out, and she'll stop running with
Chess after this nights work, you'll
see, and may pick up someone who's
worth something"
"Oh, dearie, 1 feel so awful that
Ma and me follered you! But I'm
afraid you'll feel bad, Maggie" her
father faltered.
The nightmare went on and on.
They were in a horrible smelly wide
place of benches and spittoons and
harsh lights, and her mother was cry
Ing noisily, and Pop, pale and dishev-
eiled and very quiet, was asking her.,
for Gods sake, to stop. Maggie was
pleading with clerk, asking him to
hurry a certain case, and good
naturedly enough, he did hurry it, and
almost Immediately a little door at the
right opened, and 'Lizabeth and Chess
Rivers and another girl and man came
out.
The instant she saw her daring,
pretty, independent sister frightened
and fearful and white-faced, Maggie's
heart seemed to turn liquid, and she
ran across the courtroom and held out
her arms, and 'Lizabeth caught her,
and they cried together. And when
lhe Judge looked down over his desk,
disappearing of this confusion, Mag
gle, with her face wet and her lips
trembling and her little arm linked
sight in 'Lizabeth's, was looking I'm
p1oringly up. A policeman, ranging
She prisoners, told Maggie to go back
and sit down, but Maggie only burst
out the more imploringly:
ooh, please-bIeaSe let my sister
come home She's never run with this
kind of man before-she isn't like you
think-my father and mother'l1 die if
my sister has to go to jail"
Somebody raped, and Maggie was
silent, and the murmuring and glanc-
ing at papers went on between the
Judge and the clerk. And then, quite
suddenly, His Honour looked down
again at Maggie, unsmilingly but very
kindly, and Chess had to pay one hun
dred dollars bail, and nobody else had
TO pay anything at all, and the charge
against Elizabeth Johnson was dis
missed.
Dismissed!
They were laundering toward the
hall and the street, betweensthe almost
empty brown wood benches, and the
hinged brown wood gates, and the
spittoons, under the harsh lights, when
suddenly Joe Grant-on1y he wasn't
Joe Grant, any more came hurriedly