Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise

He was a youngish man, had the stoutness of indulgence in a fondness for eating and drinking-but the stoutness was still well within the bou

ink, too," said he. "How about

. She saw good-nature, audacity without impudence-at least not the common sort of impudence. She smiled merrily, glad of the chance to sho

? Thank

" said he. "That, and those nice slim feet of yours o

iversity

ointed his slender ca

t have b

he girl. "I'v

in little old New York." And he looked round with laughing eyes as

rself. She was almost delirious with delight. She was agitated almost to tears by the freshness, the sparkle in the glow of the red-shaded candles, in the colors and odors of the flowers decorating every table. While she had been down there all this had been up here-waiting for her!

neither. Evidently he had lived every minute of every year of his perhaps forty years. He was wearing a quiet suit of blue and his necktie was of a darker shade of the same color. His clothes were draped upon his good figure with a certain fascinating distinction. He was smoking an unusually long and thick cigarette. The slender strong white hand he raised and lowered was the hand of an artist. He might be a bad man, a very bad man-his face had an expression of freedom, of experience, that made such an idea as conventionality in connection with him ridiculous. But ho

t table-the woman's Mary Rigsdall, the actress, and the man's Brent, the fel

?" asked Susan, still

oing to di

o engag

l go get a table and order dinner

sons to advantage-by getting the favor of some man of ability. Therefore, she, a woman, must adopt that same policy if she was to have a chance at the things worth while in life. She must make the best bargain-or series of bargains-she could. And as her necessities were pressing she must lose no time. She understood now the instinct that had forced her to fly from South Fifth Avenue, that had overruled her hesitation and had compelled her to accept the good-natured, prosperous man's invitation. . . . There was no other way open to her. She must not evade that fact; she must accept it. Other ways there might be-for other women. But not for her, the outcast without friends or family, the woman alone, with no one to lean upon or to give her anything except in exchange for what she had to offer that was marketable. She must make the bargain she could, not waste time in the folly of awaiting a bargain to her liking. Since she was living in the world and wished to continu

th her. Then he looked away. It chagrined her that his eyes did not again turn in her direction; she felt that he had catalogued her as not worth while. She listened to the conversation of the two. The woman did the talking, and her subject was herself-her ability as an actress, her conception of some part

he jerked his head in self-approval. "It'll be a good one," said he. "Saturday night dinner-and after-means a lot to me. I work hard all week. Saturday nights I cut

us

s. Mine's Howland. Billy Howland. I came from Maryland . . . and I'm mighty glad I did. I wouldn

st," sa

oor lot to have let you leave. I spotted you for mine the minute I saw

ank

to d

do more of i

g low for a

re sparkling now; the cocktail had

th your

't any.

he st

king of g

meanw

e-whateve

ne of those drummer's wives that take in washing to add to the family income while hu

good-nature that Susan laughed.

Until five years ago there was nothing doing for Billy-hall bedroom-Wheeling stogies-one shirt and two pairs of cuffs a week-not enough to b

e I

speed laws, and round the corners on two

eaten for s

ome. Ah!-There's the man

uspected it might be the cocktail-that there was a question in his look-a question about her which he had been unable to answe

ow Mr.

n business dub. He wouldn't bother

tage, if I can," was Su

I've ordered champagne, but i

at I want. I hop

up. I think you and I've got a lot of tastes in common. I like eating-so do you. I like drinking-so do you. I like a g

d myself by tellin

on of her eyes, without knowing her history and without having lived as she had lived, would have been to think her a glutton. Her spirits giddied toward the ecstatic. She began to talk-commenting on the people about her-the one subject she could venture with her companion. As she talked and drank, he ate and drank, stuffing and gorging himself, but with a frankness of gluttony that delighted her. She found she could not eat much, but she liked to see eating; she who had so long been seeing only poverty, bolting wretched food and drinking the vile

vely ball up at Terr

t to

be fine!"

things! "I've played the fool once. I've learned my lesson. Surely I'll never do it again." As she drank, her eyes chanced upon the clock. Half-past ten. Mrs. Tucker had probably just fallen asleep. And Mrs. Reardon was going out to scrub-going out limping and groaning with rheumatism. No, Mrs. Reardo

drink-right aw

wland. "I need

h an intoxicated man's enthusiasm. "You certainly are sweet," said he. "The wine on yo

like standing up and s

of hysterical laughter. When it subsided he said, "I sized you up as a live wire the minute

lied she. "You'd have to go and live where I

nve

orse than

who on inspection proved to be older than eighteen or twenty were acting younger than the youngest. Everyone had been drinking freely, and continued to drink. The orchestra played continuously. The air was giddy with laughter and song. Couples hugged and kissed in corners, and finally openly on the dancing floor

reported, "he was driving away in a cab with a large la

had lost her head-and her opportunity. A bad start-a foolishly bad start. But out winked

: "Let's you and I have a little supper. I'd call i

ained from a skirt dance on the table up and down among the dishes and bottles. I

ur address

ours," replied

n lived there alone also, none quite so well installed as Susan, who had the only private bath and was paying twelve dollars a week. The landlady, frizzled and peroxide, explained-without adding anything to what she already knew-that she could have

g lady who lived at the other end of the hall smiled at her, when both happened to glance from their open doors at the same time.

owing a double row of charming white t

o spread that its thinness was hidden well enough to deceive masculine eyes. Nor would a man have observed that one of her white round

an hesitated-"L

er to remember," laughed Miss Driscoll. "The rest'

othbrush, a comb, a washrag and a cake

t-eh?" said

n. "I'm beginning a

wn. I'm too short for my

t's good for a headache?

in

es

turned with a bottle of bromo seltzer and in the bathroom fixed Susan a dose. "You'l

d her shoulde

avely. "You ought to

Just now-I mus

cker. I got tired of working for five per, with ten or fifteen as the top notch. So I quit, kissed my folks up in Harlem good-by and came down

king of t

ney and less worry in straight sporting-if you keep respec

ided on anything.

can get one at the drug store two blocks up Sixth

n't anythin

d Ida. "You're thin and tallish. I'm short a

ds good,"

w to-to th

way-

arly so noticeable. Seems to me the men's tastes even for what they want at home are getting louder and louder all the time. They hate anything that looks slow. And in our business it's harder and har

the things necessary to a full understanding of Ida's technical phrases and references. The liveliness that

. I always cook myself something when I ain't asked out by some one of my gentleman friends. I can

big bathtub with water as hot as she could stand it. Into this she gently lowered herself until she was able to relax and recline without discomfort. Then she stood up and with the soap and washrag gave herself the most thorough scrubbing of her life. Time after time she soaped and rubbed and scrubbed, and dipped herself in the hot water. When she

vain. Susan slowly opened her eyes, gazed at Ida with a soft dreamy smile. "You don't kno

turb you," said Ida.

ss first. I'll br

se of warmth, she rubbed her glowing skin with a rough towel until she was rose-red from head to foot. Then she put on stockings, shoes and the pink kimono I

g for the first time in-i

xcept your lips. Have they

N

touch 'em up. You look too serious and innocent, anyhow. They make a

critically in the glass

, the hot biscuit, and the peas, with an enthusiasm that inspired Ida to imitation. "You know how to cook a chop," she said to Ida. "And anybod

I go to fortune tellers nearly every day. But then all the girls do. You get your money's worth in excitement and hope, whether there's anything in it or not. Well, the fortune teller she said I was to meet a dark, slender

nal life. And Susan was still in the first flush of the joy of escape from the noisome prison whose poisons had been corroding her, soul and body. No, poison is not a just comparison; what poison in civilization parallels, or even approaches, in squalor, in vileness of food and air, in wretchedness of shelter and clothing, the tenement life that is really th

w to make a lot. Sometimes I clear as high as a hundred a week, and I don't often fall below seventy-fiv

to, or there could not but be failure and disaster. And yet-Susan's flesh quivered and shrank away. She struggled against it, but she could not conquer it. Experience had apparently been in vain; her character had remained unchanged. . . . She must compel he

a had been talking on-the same subject.

rink. Of course sometimes a girl's got to drink. A man watches her too close for her to dodge o

nk when they-come with

to be careful not to make a man feel nervous or shy. A respectable woman's game is to be mod

fessed Susan with an effort, "unless I drank too much

Susan's glance fell and a flush m

old ones are pushing her out of the nest and she's got no place else to go-she feels the

erly. "You are so sensi

felt when I started in; and when I told him, he said, 'That's exactly the way I felt the first time I won a case for a client I knew was a dirty rascal and in the wrong. But now-I take that sort of thing as easy as you do.' He says the thing is to get on, no matter how, and that one way's as good as anothe

ng with every fac

. He says it's necessary in order to keep the people fooled-that if they got wise to the real way to

pression was stron

iness any more than in any other. But if she keeps a cool head, and don't take lovers unless they pa

rly. "Don't have to take t

. Mighty good investment. If you ain't got clothes in New York you can't do any kind of business. I go where a nice class of men hangs out, and I never act bold, but just flirt timidly, as so many respectable girls or semi-respectables do. But when a girl plays that game, she has to be careful not to make a man think he ain't expected to pay. The tow

Sunday evening, the streets were quiet. They sauntered up Fifth Avenue as far as Fifty-ninth Street and back. Ida's calm and sensible dem

We don't want drinks and a gush of loose talk, and I sa

an was free to go to bed. She slept hardly at all. Ever before her mind hovered a nameless, shapeless horror

chief source

sort that is on the official-and also the "revenue"-lists of the police and the anti-vice societies. This lady had a list of girls and married women upon whom she could call. Gentlemen using her house for rendezvous were sometimes disappointed by the ladies with whom they were intriguing. Again a gentleman grew a little weary of his perhaps too respectable or too sincerely loving ladylove and a

pace. They've got to dress-and to kind of keep up their end. So-" Ida laughed, went on: "Besides the city women are getting so they like a little sporty novelty as much as their brothers and husbands and fathers do. Oh, I'm not ashamed of my busi

ondescending sex. In women of the Ida class this pleasure becomes as much a passion as it is in the respectable woman whom her husband tries to enslave. With Susan, another woman and one in need of education, Ida was simple and scrupulously truthful. But it would have been impossible for a man to get truth as to anything from her. She amused herself invent

are rotten beasts when they show themselves as they are. And they haven't any mercy on u

thful through and through. But this only gave her an opportunity for additional pleasure-the pleasure of inventing lies that they would believe in spi

she had grown weary and impatient of the increasing poverty of a family which, like so many of the artisan and small merchant and professional classes in this day of concentrating wealth and spreading tastes for comfort and luxury, was on its way down from comfort toward or through the tenements. She was a type of the recruits that are swelling the prostitute class in ever larger numbers and are driving the prostitutes of the

married men who come to see me regularly give me more than they give their wives for pin money. And in a few years I'l

at high-class schools. "And I'll get there, don't you doubt it!" exclaimed she. "Others have-of course, you don't

recrossing the line to respectability. The only real problem in that matter was how to get together enough to make the crossing w

n the road. Susan put her off from day to day. Ida finally offered to introduce her to one of the regulars: "He's a nice fellow-knows how to treat a lady in a gentlemanly way. Not a bit coarse or familiar." Susan would not perm

een remonstrance and exasperation,

aid with a slow smile, "When I

hing rich men-even a rich husband. You're educated. You speak and act and look refined. Why you could pretend to b

as disgusted w

ng to do a thi

ll myself. But-I

. . . Let me phone Mr. Sterling. I told him about you. He's anxious to meet you. He's fond of

d way. I'm like a child going to school. I've got to learn a certain amount before I'm ready to do whatever it is I'm going

st minute, you'll get left. The time to get the money's when you h

can. And I can't m

ent of a theatrical agency. Advertisements of all kinds read well; those of theatrical agencies read-like the fairy tales that they were. However, she found in this partic

er of delusions and cherished hypocrisies and pretenses, therefore makes the broadly intelligent of its citizens hardy, makes the others hard-and between the hardy and hard, between sense and cynicism, yawns a gulf like that between Absalom and Dives. Susan, a New Yorker now, had got the habit-in thought, at least-of seeing things with somewhat less distortion from the actual. She no longer exaggerated the importance of the Rod-Susan episode. She saw that in New York, where life is crowded with events, everything in one's life, except death, becomes incident, becomes episode, where in regions offering le

self, instead of halting with underlings. She owed this favor to advantages which her lack of vanity and of self-consciousness prevented her from surmising. Ransome-smooth, curly, comfortable looking-received her with

nal assurance. If you register with me, I can

th reluctance paid the five dollars. She felt ashamed of her distru

can see how unbusiness-like that would be. I am a substantial, old-established concern. You-no doubt you are perfectly

cal comedy houses where girls were wanted. "You can't fail to suit

He was just leaving. But he smiled genially, opened his des

n the wages they offered at the musical c

vaudevill

ance, they looked discouraged. When I sa

beaten. You must take dancing lessons-perhaps a few

ns several hu

said Ransome airily. "A

like that," said Susan.

r attractive mingling of youth and experience. Her charm that tempted people to give her at once the

necessary-and where it's necessary it's usually imprudent. However-I'll give you the address of a flat where there is a lad

business proposition. Susan understood. She rose. Her expression was

afford to be squeamish. The way I suggest is the simplest and most direct of several that all i

rlornly. "But I'm not,

for you. You may think it a very poor best-and it is. But"-he shrugged his shoulders-"I didn't make this world

unreasonable, let us say. Among those who don't know anything about life there's an impression that my sort of people are in the business of dragging women down. Perhaps one of us occasionally does as bad-about a millio

eed it," said he. "I know how it is with a girl alone and trying to get a

s," sai

ncommon luck to pull you thro

lily-and she felt that he was a man with real good in him, m

and indecency that are deep hidden by, and for most of us under, hypocrisies of conventionality. She had found out that a decent woman was one who respected her body and her soul, that an indecent woman was one who did not, and that marriage rites or the absence of them, the absence of financial or equivalent consideration, or its presence, or its extent or its form, were all irrelevant non-essentials. Yet-she hesitated, knowing the while that she was risking a greater degradation, and a stupid and fatal folly to boot, by shrinking from the best course open to her-unless it were better to tak

y despite long disheartening days, and wakeful awful nights. In the

s enough to make her downhearted. She walked with head down and umbrella close to her shoulders. No one spoke to her. She returned dripping; she had all but ruined her one dress. She went to bed, but not to sleep. About nine-ear

put up for me, and I'd be weak enough to accept. And if I did that, I'd never be able to get strong or even to hold my head up.

hats at your grand millinery stor

as immoral; to Susan it was the aroma of a friendship as noble, as disinterested, as generous, as human sympathy had ever breathed upon human woe. With her few personal possessions in a package she descended the stairs unnoticed, went out into the rain. At the corner of Sixth Avenue she paused, looked up a

wy nights, and take shy men for sociability-breeding drinks and for the preliminary bargaining. The air of the room was strong with stale liquor and tobacco, the lingering aroma of the night's vanished revels. In the far corner sat the girl she had followed; a glass of raw whiskey and another of water stood on the table before her. Susan seated herself near the door and when the swoll

er," s

lated. "You must be afraid o' catchin' cold

rl in the corner. "Won't you ha

er to show that she, too, is a perfect lady in every respect, used to

ast woman's life with the idea that it is a career of gayety-and do not find out their error until looks and health are gone. Susan drank her second drink in three gulps, several minutes

th me," she suggeste

Want to g

d felt almost as reckless several times before; but never had she felt this devil-may

he was suddenly took ill. Appendicitis complicated with d.t.'s the ambulance guy said. The boys are waiting for me to

wreathed in a reckless smile. She felt courageous for adventure-any adventure. Her capital had now sunk to three quarters and a five-cent piece. They issued forth, talking without saying anything, laughing without knowing or

ey they had, back

you don't care

care what you say or

s good for that,