Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise

or a car, each under her own umbrella. "Holy Gee!" crie

s as they warmed themselves by its bright fire. At that time a famous and much envied, admired and respected "captain of industry," having looted the street-car systems, was preparing to loot them over again by the familiar trickery of the receivership and the reorganization. The masses of t

op," cried Susan

e. "You don't suppose a New York conductor'd miss a ch

ch her young prettiness made seem witty. And certainly she did have an amazing and amusing acquaintance with the slang at the moment current. The worn look had vanished, her rounded girlhood freshness had returned. As for Susan, you would hardly have recognized her as the same person who had issued from the house in Twenty-ninth Street less than an hour before. Indeed, it was not the same person. Drink nervifies every character; here it transformed, s

d flirt that exhibited her legs almost to the hips. Susan saw that they were well shaped legs, su

girl. "Sometimes it starts something on the tr

Susan. It appealed to her, the idea o

den as the miraculous upward thrust of a steel skyscraper. It had now sunk to relying upon the trade of those who came in off Broadway for a few minutes. It was

n time. The boys were sen

ng-room in disorder with two young men partly dressed, seated at a small table on which were bottles, siphons, matches, remains of sandwiches, boxes of cigarettes-a chaotic jumble of implements to dissipation giving forth a powerful, stale odor

nk. Ain't you ashamed to speak so free before your innocent young lady frie

ters she had admired at moving picture shows to which Drumley had taken her. He had a singularly handsome face, blond yet remotely suggesting Italian. He smiled at Susan and she thought she had never seen teeth more beautiful-pearl-white, regular, even. His eyes were large and sensuous; smiling though they were, Susan was ill at ease-

a pleasant tone that subtly mingled mocker

l for you, Fredd

clared Freddie with the same attrac

is eyes. The whiskey was once more asserting its power. S

ound her and kissed her full upon the pale, laughing lips. His eyes were still smiling in pleasant mockery; yet his kiss burned and stung, and the grip of his

away from me unless I let you go-I'll kill you-or worse." And he laughed as if he had made the best joke in the wor

y finished

kirt over the back of a chair close to the radiator, took off her shoes and stockings and put them to dry also. In her chemise she curled herself on a chair, lit a cigarette and poured

aid Susan, but n

ced in the newspapers and the novels. So the cigarette did not make her uncomfortable. "Look at the way she's holding it?" cried Maud, and she and the men burst out laughing. Susan laughed also and, Fred

ndwich," s

not h

while to only drink means dying of delirium tremens. I guess

sandwiches disappeared, the second bottle of whiskey ran low. Maud told story after story of how she had played this man and that for a sucker-was as full of such tales and as joyous and self-pleased over them as an honest salesman telling his delighted, respectable, pew-holding employer how he has "stuck" this customer

reddie!" exclaimed Jim at las

" retorted Freddie. "

ddie to leave her. He laughed, seized her in his iron grip. She struck at him, bit him in the shoulder. He gave a cry of pain

ntom of things worse than death that can be conjured to the imagination by the fury of a personality which is utterly r

Freddie. "I'm going to a

d have to be broke. Well, the sooner it's done, the sooner we'll get along nicely." His blue eyes were laughing into hers. With the utmost deliberation he gripped her throat with one hand and with the other began to slap her, each blow at his fu

gurement. Under her left eye there was a small cut from which the blood had oozed to smear and dry upon her left cheek. Upon her throat were faint bluish finger marks. The damage was not nearly so great as her throbbing nerves reported-the damage to her body. But-her soul-it was a crushed, trampled, degraded thing, lying prone and bleeding to death. "Shall I kill myself?"

onsciousness-her real self, aloof and far removed, observing calmly, critica

amily at her, as smiling and innocent as a child. When their eyes met, his smile broadened until he was s

d to look fi

he said gently, "Do you wan

arms round his neck. Both were asleep. His black beard had grown out enough to give his face a dirty and devilish expression. Maud looked far more youthful

e for me,

, held it

me,

lips co

vicious gleam of that boundlessly ferocious cruel

d him on

ips," he

a hot flame, terrible yet thrilling, s

me?" he ask

as si

?" he asked

ll it that

d women. The way to make a wom

m. "I am not af

That's why you do what

do it because I am afraid,

so," said he, after inspecting her bruises. "Now, I'l

uffed at his cigarette in silence for a moment, as

n fools work-and the clever man waits till they've got something

to make a living at

oss-legged, a cove

't make a living at it-not what's a living for a woman brought up

"I'm going to dres

ay we were to be partners? . . . You want to

he silence

me man-behind her. Married or single, respectable or lively, working or sporting-N

Susan's experience to en

got a pull with the organization. I'm one of Finnegan's lieutenants. Some day-when I'm older and have served my apprenticeship-I'll pull off something good. Meanwhile-I manage

It is impossible for any human being to contemplate mystery in any form without being fascinated. And here was the profoundest mystery she had eve

is gentle, friendly smile. "We'll be partners.

It was another instance of the unreality of the outward life. He had not done it, any more

I want nothing

? Why, you'd be taking turns at the Island and the gutter within six months. You'd be giving all your money to some rotten cop or fly cop who cou

for myself,"

lf. Not for nothing, of course. You wouldn't value me if you got me for nothing. I'm going to help you, and you're going to help

t on this a while

s you'll soon find out. Suppose you didn't obey orders-just as I do what Finnegan tells me-j

now," conf

I'm not. You won't get outside the door before your good angel here will get busy. I'll be telephoning to a fly cop of this district. And what'll he do? Why, about the time you

ll falling, changing the City of the Sun into a city of desolation. It looked

iling pleasant

minute you set foot on the streets again alone, back to the Island you go. . . . Now, do you understand, Queenie?" And he laughed

ining. Outside lay the vast world; across the street on a flagpole fluttered the banner of freedom. Freedom! Was there any such thing anywhere? Perhaps if one had plenty of money-or powerful friends. But not for her, any more than for the

ps of his and with one of his strong smooth white arms about his head, he looked at her, an expression of content with himself, of admiration for her in his handsome eyes. "You don't realize your good luck.

atement explained, or seemed to explain, certai

you up in a flat and keep you all to myself. But I can't afford it. It takes a lot of cash to keep me going. . . . You'll do well. You won't have to bother with any but classy gents. I'll see that the cops put

supplied with money. She had heard of this system under which the girls in the streets were exploited as thoroughly as the girls in the houses. In all the earth was there

rls have you

e laughed and blew a clo

nfinity of spiritual solitude can stretch uncrossable even between two locked in each other's loving arms! But New York's solitudes, its separations, extend to the surface things. Susan had no sense of the apparent nearness of her former abode. Her life again lay in the same streets; but there again came the sense of strangeness which only one who has lived in New York could appreciate. The streets were the same; but to her they seemed as the streets of another city, because she was now seeing in them none of the things she used

or stationary washstand, but the landlady supplied tin tubs on request. "Oh, Mr. Palmer's recommendation,"

rom her ears. Her eyes were hard and evil, of a brownish gray. She affected suavity and elaborate politeness; but if the least thing disturbed her, she became red and coarse of voice and vile of language. The vile language and the nature of her business and her private life aside, she would have compared favorably with an

usan's expression of horror. "You are a greenie," she mocked. "Why, it's all the rage. Nearly all the girls do-from the headliners that are kept by the young Fifth Avenue mil

ast disposition to test by defiance the truth of Freddie Palmer's plain statement as to his powers and her duties. He had told her to go to work that very

she said. "With a veil

n't a veil,

garter. I haven't been home since th

a veil at night,

en like what they can't see. One of the ugliest girls I know makes a lot of money-all with her veil. She fixes up her figure something grand. Then she puts on that veil-one of the kind you think you c

r a veil all the t

u take me for? I've got too good

seemed, it concealed astonishingly the swelling in Susan's face. Obviously, then, it must at l

ys wear a vei

k you're quite pretty-though a little too pr

eil and hat, was le

for?" cried Maud impatien

way my hair's do

eal swell-good as a hair

ally. With Maud forgetting to be impatient in admiration of her swift fingers she made a coiffure much more elaborate-wide waves out from her temples

" she said to Maud

claimed Maud. "A lot dressier-an

like Broadway. Now, she would take the opposite tack. Not loud to

l about the feet. Where do you get y

xplained she. "And if the man opens wine we get two dollars on every bottle. The best way is to stay behind when the man goes and collect right away. That avoids rows-though they'd hardly dare cheat you, being as you're on Freddie's staff. Freddie's got a big pull. He's way up at the top. I wish

f freedom to fly, freedom to escape-helpless! "Can't I get a drink?" asked she. There was a str

back. When I introduce you, he'll probably set 'em up. B

a drink," r

rent. But I had nothing else to do, so I took to drinking, and I got so reckless that I let him catch me w

id Susan. "W

sucker-a fellow that keeps a girl. Well, it'd be no

ut the more strongly for the sallowness of his skin and the smallness of his sunken brown eyes had his hands spread upon

on Sundays. How goes

usiness regular and make something out of it, instead of loving free. I'm down on a girl that's neither the one thing

ro

prietor laughed with the heartiness of tradesman at goo

responding waiter departed with orders for a w

ze-fighter. He was mi

things in my days,"

. "They say they've got you

oo flip." Susan drank her whiskey as soon as it came, and the g

uralgia, ain't you? I see

which awful disease, death, maiming, eviction, fire, violent event of any and every kind, is part of the daily routine in that life of the masses there is no time for lingering upon the weathered storm or for bothering about and repairing its ravages. Those who live the comparatively languid, th

other drink. "I can't offer to pay for one for you," said she to Maud. "I've almos

away. Oh, it's all awful! But I've stopped caring. I'm stuck on Jim-and another little fellow he don't know about. For God's sake don't tell him or he'd have me pinched for doing business free. I get full every night and raise old Nick. Sometimes I hate Jim. I've tried to kill him twice when I was lo

ll she made above thirty dollars a week, and in hard wee

oo-though they're careful never to speak first to a man. We can go right up and brace men with the cops looking on. A cop that'd touch us would get broke-unless we got to

districts-the young men who refuse to submit to the common lot of stupid and badly paid toil and try to fight their way out by the quick methods of violence instead of the slower but surer methods of robbing the poor through a store of some kind. These gan

is gang used to kill somebody nearly every night. Then he got a lot of money out of one of his jobs-some say it was a bank robbery and some say they killed a miner who was drunk with a big roll on him. Anyhow, Freddie got next to Finnegan-he's worth several millions that he made out of policy

betray her. Maud walked her up and down the block several times to give the fresh air a chance, then led her up to a man who had looked at them in passing and had paused to look back. "Want to go

ch?" as

. Come along, sporty. Ta

for both

e us both, dearie. I know a h

t Susan through his glasses. "And if she treats me well, I'll t

night," said Maud glibly. "Go ahead, Queenie. I'll be chasing up and down here, waiting." In a lower t

he wake of the man two hours later, Maud sprang from the litt

ing the stairway to the street. "He said he'd pay me next tim

ied. As she passed the desk she said to the cler

hell," sai

Susan, overtook the

not paying my lady

ne, with an uneasy glance round. "I

"I'll do the calling myself, you bum, and have you pinched for insulting two respectable working

happened to be stand

row about?"

to blackmail me," said

m. "Will you cough up or

," said Max savagely, "and l

st it toward Susan. Maud saw that it was a five. "Th

bargain," wh

ently by the arm. The man visited his pocket again, found another five, extended the two. Maud s

ney on Susan and th

ell Freddie what I

m, all right,"

t through Forty-secon

that man'll

"He'll run like a cat afire

int," said Susan. "I

tle. You let that dirty dog keep you too long. Half an hour's plenty enough. Always make 'em cough up in advance, then hust

er. The five-dollar man took a three-dollar room-that was seventy-five for me. The three-dollar man wouldn't stand for more than a dollar room-so I got only a quarter there. But he set 'em up to two rounds of drinks-a quarter more for me. So I cleared nine twen

her eyes were sparkling and she was laughin

bully, d

he giddily. "I don't give a damn. I'

their faces. You'll soon be that way. Then you'll only drink for fun. Drink-an

irls has Fr

hrough, but Freddie's a kind of a pullman. The other men-even Jim-hate him for being such a snare and being able to hide it that he's in such a low business. They'd have done him up long ago,

tian cigarettes. "They don't allow ladies to smok

away from home. Maud explained that, except "out-of-towners," the married men were the chief support of their profession-"and most of the cornhuskers are married men, too." But Susan had the novice's luck. When she and Maud met Maud's "li

ut gave Harry the necessary money. "Here's a five," said s

e to his mother who sewed, he could not afford to spend money on Maud, and she neither expected nor wished it. When she picked him up, he like most of his fellow-clerks had no decent clothing but the suit he

all is I like a good beating once in a while. It's exciting. Jim-he treats me like the dirt under his feet. And that's what we are-dirt under the men's feet. Every woman knows it

strict. He was having an affair with a much admired young actress-was engaged in it rather as a matter of vanity and for the fashionable half-world associations into which it introduced him rather than from any present interest in th

awer," replied she, the covers up

nted his eyes had a look in them that was strangely like jealous rage. He kept his back towa

rent and buy some clothes. I've got to invest something in my new property. It's badly run down. You'll get busy again tonight, of course. Never lay off, lady, unless the weather's bad. You'll find you won't

covers away from her face. "What are you so grouchy a

thi

he vote and getting the repeaters ready. It all means good money for me. Look out about the booze, lady. It'll float you into trouble-trouble w