Vignettes of Manhattan; Outlines in Local ColorMatthews, Brander
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Vignettes of Manhattan; Outlines in Local Color
Matthews, Brander
Manhattan (New York, N.Y.) -- Fiction; Short stories, American
It had not taken Jim long that night to persuade Maggie to go away with
him; and she had not seen her step-mother since. A week later, but not
before he and Maggie had quarrelled, Jim was arrested for robbing the
drunken man; he was sent up to the Island. Since the picnic Maggie had
not been back to the factory. Jim had taken her with him one night to a
dance-hall, and there she went without him when she was left alone in
the world. There she had met Terry a month later. When she first saw
Terry the thing plainest before her was the Morgue; she was on the way
there, and she was going fast, and she knew it. Although winter had not
yet come, she had already a cough that racked her day and night.
And as she lay there in her comfortable bed, and thought of the chill of
the Morgue from which Terry had saved her, she closed her eyes to keep
out the dreadful picture, and she clinched her fists across her
forehead. Then she smiled as she remembered the way Terry had thrashed
Jim, who had got off the Island somehow before his time was up. Jim said
he had a pull with the police, and he came to her for money, and he
threatened to have her taken up. It was then Terry had the scrap with
him, and did him up. Terry had had a day off, for his boss kept closed
on Sundays; at that time Terry was keeping bar at a high-toned cafe near
Gramercy Park.
When he thrashed Jim that was not the first time Terry had been good to
her. Nor was it the last. A fortnight later he took her away from the
dance-hall, and as soon as he could get a day off he married her. They
went down to the Tombs, and the judge married them. The judge knew
Terry, and when he had kissed the bride he congratulated Terry, and said
that the new-made husband was a lucky man, and that he had got a good
wife.
A good wife Maggie knew she had been, and she was sure she brought Terry
luck. When the man who had been running the house which now bore the
name of Terence O'Donnell over its door got into trouble and had to skip
the country, the boss had put Terry in charge, and had let Maggie go to
house-keeping in the little rooms over the saloon; and when the boss
died suddenly, his widow knew Terry was honest, and sold out the place
to him, cheap, on the instalment plan. That was a year and a half ago,
and all the instalments had been paid except the last, which was not
due for a week yet, though the money for it lay all ready in the safe
down-stairs. And Terry was doing well; he was popular; his friends would
come two blocks out of the way to get a drink at his place; and he had
just had a chance to go into a picnic speculation. He was sure to make
money; and perhaps in two or three years they might be able to pay off
the mortgage on the fixtures. Then they would be rich; and perhaps Terry
would get into politics.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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