The Empty Sack

nd a plan which would bring comparative wealth to the Follett f

. Briefly, it was as to how to cook the supper without heat. The gas-man had just gone away, and the gas for the range had been cut off because she couldn't pay a bill of twent

s of a family to meet, she had twenty-two dollars a week. Of his eighteen, Teddy gave her fifteen, three being needed for car fares and other small necessities. From the six she earned at the studio, Jennie contributed three. Gladys, who was now a cash gi

her credit had been the calculation with which she rose in the morning and lay down at night. It was a game that could be played s

Heights did its shopping. In vain she had tried to transfer her account elsewhere, but Pemberton Heights is no more than a huge village where

n cold. She had bread and butter. If she could only make tea.... She might have done that in a

-

or young women busy at desks or with one another paid him any attention. When a girl with hair combed over her ears, very bright eyes, and very short skirts, tripped by him accidentally, he m

ry. We can't do a

d away meekly as he had entered, and with no sinking of the heart. His heart used to sink; but that was four and five months previously, before he had exhausted his emoti

-

ank in a very peculiar situation. At least it struck him as pec

reen. When you eat it, it has a green flavor, or a flat flavor, or none at all. Teddy was a fruit to be left on the tree to take its time. He was now twenty-on

family. They looked to him to do something big because he was a young man. Having heard of other young men who had been financially heroic, they expected him to be the same. The possibilities, open to a bank

by an inextinguishable look. The father did no more than throw emphasis on the boy's re

r momma, working her fingers to the bone. I'd be ashamed if I were you

shake the money tree and pick up coin. How Fred Inglis did it Teddy couldn't think, when your value by the week was so definitely fix

y knew that there was nothing he wouldn't be to her. If he could only have compassed it, she would have had a bar-pin like their neighbor, Mrs. Weatherby; she would have worn the skunk neckpiece for which he had once heard her utter a desire; she would have gone out in hi

he other end of the main office, and would return presently to stow these piles of bills in the safe. These bills were money. Teddy had never consciously dwelt on that fact before. He had been in this same situation a thousand times, when he h

les of bills, all arranged in rows according to their values-a pile of hundreds, a pile of fifties, a pile of twenties, and so on down. Mr. Brunt would come back, as he had done at other ti

t's weakness, followed the next instant by repentance. Teddy knew what theft was. He had not, through his father, had so much to do with banks without being fully aware of the sure and pitiless punishment meted

runt should give him none. Mr. Brunt seemed possessed by a demon of speed, so quickly had he locked all the piles in

k. It was a simple thing to slip a bill through one of the interstices. It would be found next morning on the floor and a fresh running-over of

king after the "ould man" and whether or not he had yet found a job. But Teddy suspected that he was being watched. He didn't know but that Doolan might have seen the movement of the hand which snatched the bill from the pile. When he stirred to go homeward, Doolan

them he bore a secret mark. Tramping along in the crowd, he felt like a soldier marching with his comrades to the trenches, but knowing himself picked for death. Luckily, his folly was not even now beyond reparation. He would get to the bank early in the morning, discover the

-

ay was leaning over Jennie Follett's shoulder

cried, tearfully. "I do

wish you to see how

antine chair, her knees pressed together in the manner of the Egyptian cat-goddess. On a level with her face a

y have pressed his lips against her amber-colored hair, and Jennie wished he would. But having long ago made up his mind that she could best be

ny more-that is, for the present. Since you

f picture," she argued indignan

artist doesn't paint the picture he choos

nt. It isn't a commission. I

you. You've got to obey it. This is the picture I've seen and which I'm obliged

s are crazy-the way you stick it up where it doesn't belong. Look at that picture of Sims's you were all so wild a

of business. If you want to be a model, you must

g of the type which subordinates externals to itself, she was more than adorable; she was elegant. With tears st

f he thought I was going to be painted

the sketch o

any more. You're not that kind of a model, a

hat advertisement in the paper nearly a year ago. I answer

g else. It doesn't follow that because you're satisfied with an egg for bre

d up repr

the way you talk. Nothing will ever be e

thing-not as fa

xpect me to st

talk of it. You've made up your mind; I must make up mine. There's nothing between us now but a question of business. I'm looking for a model who

her resentment took was a trembling of

hat ca

ean for a

y, he smiled, with a fain

decide, is it, Jennie?

g you. You're d

r? We've-we've liked each other. I've never made any secret of it on my side

n discreet abo

thing is the w

creet about that if th

way I've to

after two or three years, nei

looking pret

ugh to talk. There you'd be, able to walk off without a sign on y

wouldn't there? They're not so diffi

mped he

ate

ie. You love me-only, y

never! Not if I was starving i

d the model's exit wh

our place-another woman-" When she threw him a despairing glance he snatched the

was, first of all, a fear of the other woman dressed like that, and

ave her free for her hours with Wray, but she had failed. She had failed, too, in stores, factories, offices, and dressmaking establishments. Perhaps they saw she was only half hearted in her attempts; perhaps her air of helplessness told against her. "She was too much like a lady," had been one employer's verdict, and possibly that was true. Whatever the reason, she seemed a creature not primarily mea

rved the huge studio building, in order to give herself the chance of changing her mind. She went down a few steps and stood still, then a few mor

let him invoke her. Let him paint her; let him do anything he liked. She, Jennie, w

feet like lead as she dragged he