Love stories; Unmarried mothers -- Fiction; Women household employees -- Fiction
“Ah!” he replied, his sympathies touched and awakened. Here was this
boy arrested and fined for what fate was practically driving him to do.
Here was this girl pleading with him at night, in his room, for what to
her was a great necessity—ten dollars; to him, a mere nothing. “I will
arrange about your brother,” he said quickly. “Don’t worry. I can get
him out in half an hour. You sit here now and be comfortable until I
return.”
He waved her to his easy-chair beside a large lamp, and hurried out of
the room.
Brander knew the sheriff who had personal supervision of the county
jail. He knew the judge who had administered the fine. It was but a
five minutes’ task to write a note to the judge asking him to revoke
the fine, for the sake of the boy’s character, and send it by a
messenger to his home. Another ten minutes’ task to go personally to
the jail and ask his friend, the sheriff, to release the boy then and
there.
“Here is the money,” he said. “If the fine is revoked you can return it
to me. Let him go now.”
The sheriff was only too glad to comply. He hastened below to
personally supervise the task, and Bass, a very much astonished boy,
was set free. No explanations were vouchsafed him.
“That’s all right now,” said the turnkey. “You’re at liberty. Run along
home and don’t let them catch you at anything like that again.”
Bass went his way wondering, and the ex-Senator returned to his hotel
trying to decide just how this delicate situation should be handled.
Obviously Jennie had not told her father of her mission. She had come
as a last resource. She was now waiting for him in his room.
There are crises in all men’s lives when they waver between the strict
fulfilment of justice and duty and the great possibilities for personal
happiness which another line of conduct seems to assure. And the
dividing line is not always marked and clear. He knew that the issue of
taking her, even as his wife, was made difficult by the senseless
opposition of her father. The opinion of the world brought up still
another complication. Supposing he should take her openly, what would
the world say? She was a significant type emotionally, that he knew.
There was something there—artistically, temperamentally, which was far
and beyond the keenest suspicion of the herd. He did not know himself
quite what it was, but he felt a largeness of feeling not altogether
squared with intellect, or perhaps better yet, experience, which was
worthy of any man’s desire. “This remarkable girl,” he thought, seeing
her clearly in his mind’s eye.
Meditating as to what he should do, he returned to his hotel, and the
room. As he entered he was struck anew with her beauty, and with the
irresistible appeal of her personality. In the glow of the shaded lamp
she seemed a figure of marvelous potentiality.
“Well,” he said, endeavoring to appear calm, “I have looked after your
brother. He is out.”
She rose.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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