Didactic fiction; Political fiction; Social problems -- Fiction
And having cleared up this problem, her mind was freer to face the case
of Harry Klein. It was not an easy thing for her to fold away all the
emotions and dreams to which he had given life. She was still
unenlightened in such matters. She did not see clearly the details of
the horrors from which she had escaped. All she knew was that he had
lied to her. He had with his honeyed words been plotting to make her
"bad." Some of Longman's words at the Skirt-Finishers' ball came back to
her and seemed to apply. She had foolishly dreamed that some one could
give her freedom. That had been an idle hope; if she was to escape from
her dungeon of monotony she must do it herself.
Harry Klein did not go to sleep until his plans were laid. He had had a
satisfactory talk with the keeper of a Raines Law hotel on the route
which Yetta followed on her way home after she left Mrs. Weinstein. The
rooms upstairs would be empty on the morrow, and the ladies' parlor
clear of witnesses. He had ordered a dozen of his followers to be in a
saloon across the street. At a signal from him they were to rush out
and fire their revolvers in the air in imitation of a gang fight. All
the homeward hurrying crowd would shriek and run. In the excitement he
would jerk Yetta into the dark doorway.
He did not like to use such "strong-arm" methods. It was always safer
and generally easy to fool the girl into coming willingly. But this
occasion demanded decisive action. He went over the plan carefully, and
could find no flaw in it. "It's a cinch," he repeated as he went to
sleep.
Jake Goldfogle did not get to sleep at all. He tossed about on the bed
in his stuffy tenement room--which he had hoped to leave so soon for a
Harlem flat--and tried to think a way out of his difficulties. He had
spent his last resources in meeting the unexpectedly called loan. If
trouble broke out in his shop, there was very little hope of pulling
through. It was his nature to cross all bridges as soon as he heard of
them. But this one which seemed so close he could not traverse. Should
he appeal to Yetta at once? Or should he trust to luck, to the chance of
the storm blowing over? All night long he swung from one decision to the
other. His final conclusion was to redouble his spying, and at the first
hint of trouble to call Yetta into his office. He had no doubt that an
offer of marriage would change her into an ally.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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