The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1933-01-07
Chapter "a
ENCOUNTER NO. TWO

~RN~~ -
ENCOUNTER NO. TWO
Ut was not on that evening but the
= next that Mark Lodely sat in the
Novelty theater and watched Patsy
Raoul.
He sat at the back of the box, bis
eyes keen with excitement. Down
below on the stage, bare except for
a table and chair and a screen,
Patsy Raoul. thin, plain, draped in
greenish black, was being a whole
dispensary full of women; all OF
them were under-nourished. some
handled infants, one confessed Ia
being nearly as drunk as ! was
last Christmas"
Patsy Raoul was also the dis
penser, the nurse and the policeman
who came in once to restore order
and once to fetch the drunken wo-
man home because her child had
just been burned to death. =.
Doctor, yew'll ave ter gimme a
drop o. somefing fer me nerves
naow. woncher?"
Then there was the crash of
hand-clapping and the wondering
murmur that HITS a success to a
sensation. Mark did not clap but
he leaned forward, trying to will her
10 look up.
She had eyes for no one yet. She
nodded. CURLY enough, to the
packed house and then moved the
screen. revealing a piano. She sat
down to 1t and began to talk, to
muse aloud to the lisping comment
Of the music. People began to
smile; suddenly she was singing In
French and smiles broadened, those
who could not understand her show
ing a rather more open appreciation
than those who could.
Then she sang, surprisingly true
and sweet, 2 little country love-
plant. Mark peered at his pro.
gram and discovered that this was
a composition OF her own. He had
somehow thought 1t might be.
When she had finished and taken
her last call. he had to sit back. She
had not looked up. He waited for
the interval, then summoned an at
tendant.
II want to see Miss Raoul before
she leaves the theater."
Il could take your card, sir, but"
THAT will be all right. She will
see me-"
He waited, smiling to himself,
tapping a parcel with his long
fingers. The next turn" was over
before the attendant returned with
the message that Miss Raoul would
see him. Even then he did not
hurry. He adjusted his crutch, his
parcel and himself with care. 1t was
fully ten minutes later, after an un-
hurried journey up and down stairs
and along passages in the wake OF
q sympathetic dresser, that he en-.
tered Miss Raoul's room.
II held a good many people, none
OF whom paid him particular atten-
ton. He did not resent this--he
sank down on couch and undid
his parcel From the welter of con.
yersation he gathered that amongst
those present were q woman writer,
a man-dressmaker and an individual
in q bowler-hat who had come about
a little matter that was to have
been settled last Monday. On an
opposite couch a man younger than
Mark craned forward to see Miss
Raoul and then huddled back again
and drew frenziedly what he had
seen.
Mark watched him without rancor.
he was quite sure his work was
very bad.
After reasonable time, as the
criss-cross OF talk showed no pros
pect of abatlng, Mark dragged him
self along the couch, and, bending
q little. swung his parcel neatly
on to Miss Raoul's table. It dis
placed some Jars and bottles and
the man-dressmaker turned TO stare;
but Miss Raoul. still arguing with
the bowler-hatted one, picked II mp
and mechanically began to undo II
Her screech of excitement when
Marks Sketches Of her lay open to
her gaze. stamped her forever an
artist For these were not carlea.
lures. they did not display her art
but only herself, her ugliness, her
unwomanliness. And yet they did
not mako her Just any ugly scare
crow OF woman. She was magniGi.
cently-someone.
She pushed the admiring circle
aside.