The Empty Sack

o in or out of

k herself this question, and, as she d

s. Each time she refused him she considered that it was for good. There was a quality in him that raised her ire-a certainty that, pressed by need, she would one day come to him. That, Jennie said to herself, would be the last thing! She wouldn'

mad. Her temperament being naturally happy, anguish was the more anguishing for being so unnatural. The mere necessity of havin

beside her. The studio building was in a street in the Thirties and east of Lexingto

ouble, Jennie

trouble with him from her point of view that he was so watchful and overshadowing. He poured out so much more than her cu

e?" he persisted, wh

for him to know, she

cket that would-that would h

mean money, money which she would in her own way be expected to repay. As

oo

ut a ring held between his thumb and forefinger on the

he said, coldly, pausing to give

u back upon y

a had put home conditions and Wray's cruelty a perceptible distance behind her. It was sheer terror

tting into another," she argued, ungraciously. "Th

f it only warms and comforts yo

would burn

ng, and cheering everybody up." If she could have listened to such words from Hubert Wray, she thought, how enraptured she would have been. "Did you ever hear the story of the guy who gave us fire in the fir

they freez

t was a great big creeping horror on the edge of nothing

d he do

brought it down. After that, they were able to open the bal

it? Much

-that I could give you a

give me the go

fire from heaven-beforehand; but once they'd got it, they knew what it meant to them. That's the way you'd feel, Jennie, if you married me. You c

ied that

may mean a great

one o

r one we

ld we get

his little thing I've got in here wouldn't do us any good wi

ssion told him that

Robert Bradley Collingham, bachelor, and Jane Scarborou

on was just enough to s

It wouldn't take half an

that she echoed the word

ted with his stick. "Do you see that church? Well, that

o you

I said that if he was going to be at home, we mig

ht to say anyth

nnie? It would mean the beginning of the end of all your troubles. In t

r appeal. That marriage meant being taken care of imparted, according to her thinking, its chief common sense to the institution. She shrank from marrying just to be taken care of;

an awful hurry? We cou

k man who wasn't in an

t as bad a

"listen, and I'll tell you what I am. I'm like a chap that's been cut in two,

well; but where's

e arm. "You're the other half of me,

ghed ru

s news

lling you. You don't suppose any other fe

o me because I've so many oth

ort of

olks would s

arrassment: "They'd say some pr

o end

. Families always do when you o

into the s

be all pie fo

rld if you want to eat. I'm ready to work for this, Jennie. I'm ready to mov

"I suppose beca

pose you were inventing a machine and had got it pretty well fitted together, only that you couldn't make it work. And suppose, one day, you found the very part that

any other man t

, Susan'll do, and when they're tired of Susan they'll run after Ann. That's one kind of fellow, and he's in the great majority. They're polygamous by nature, those chap

the possibilities of flesh and blood, and, with her preference for cave men, Jennie had agreed with him. That is, she had agreed with him as to everyone but himself. Others could take their pleasure whe

ful chump, Jennie, but

idelong glance of

n the ki

it is, laid out flat. I'm-" He hesitated before using the term lest she might not

at the strangeness, it almost seem

the opposite of polygamous. A polygamous guy wants to marry all the wives he can make love to. A one-

as a tear of regret that Hubert couldn't have expressed himself like this, but Bob th

hey call the battle of

ought

gamous women and the small number of monogamous men. Out of every hundred men, about ninety are polygamous, and ten want only one woman for a l

you know I'm not

, it'll be ten to one that you'll fall into the hands of one of the gay ninety who'll make your life a hell. I'd hate that. God! how I should hate it! Even if I didn't ca

n them. If she married him, he could go off with an easy mind, and they could keep their secret till his return. In the meanwhile he would be able to supply her with a little cash, not much, he was

last, Jennie," he summed up, "because

e back from South America in six months' t

ys knew his mate as a monogamous bird knew his. It was in

in spite of the queer looks of the

Jennie,

e hung

n I? All of a su

udden as any other way, since y

on't bel

rove to you

his tremendous hands. But she was afraid of letting him go, of dropping back into the horror of no lover in the studio and no money to bring home. To do this thing would save her from that emptiness, eve

-

ous. He knew it was fancy, that no hint of his folly could have come to this quiet suburb, and that his theft could not possibly be discovered as yet, even by those most concerned. But

f, as he hurried past the trim grassplots where care-fre

ngs of remorse. She had once run away from being shut up in the coalbin, her fate when the family went to the movies, and had been lost for half a day. The agony of being adrift and the joy of seeing Gussie come whistling and calling down the Palisade W

that it could get into scrapes like herself. All she could do on second thoughts was to creep forward timidly, raise herse

e was peacocking up and down the room, saying things to her little sister that were apparently not comforting. Now that Gussie, at Madame Corinne's request, h

e plain one, a little red-haired, snub-nosed thing, with some resemblance to Pa

le kiddie, what

eet," Glad

s welcome. My soul and body! Corinne would blow her across the river when she got into a temper. I say that if you're a cash girl you've got to take th

've got to do is to play with ribbons as if you were dressing a doll. If

tstretched arms in sheer joy of the da

last night, I pushed it out of his hand on purpose, though I'm in the next room. All the same, I say, 'Buck up,' and I don't care who says different. Sn

he kitchen to see if

her, and from it was paring the last rags of the

t are you giving us for supp

hing new in the way of care, as Pansy had sensed it in him. He stood at a little distance,

er, ma? Has anyt

zie raised her eyes, thou

but I haven't told your sisters bec

t, ma? Out

d demand fifteen dollars on account before the gas would be turned on again. There were just two possibilities: The father might come home with the news that h

that he could look so neat. He had only two suits, a common one and a best one, but even the common one was as brushed and pressed and stylish as if he had a valet. Nevertheless, his great activity and his love of rough-and-tumble skylarking made him hard on clothes in

treasury. Teddy had let it go without a sigh. He would have let it go without a sigh to-day, only that he had nothing saved. Being naturally of a loving, care-taking

ndows being open, the voices of playing children mingled with the even-song of birds. To Teddy, there was mockery in these cheerful sounds. There was mockery in the westering May sunshine, mockery in the groups of girls, bareheaded and arm in arm, as they strolled toward Palisade W

entials in living. You could get a substitute or you could go without. But for heat there was no substitute, and you couldn't go without it. It ranked with clothes and shelter as a necessity even among savages. And yet h

ll. He did this unconsciously, merely because it was there. It did

. He must tell his mother that he didn't have fifteen dollars put away. He h

lls with instructions to buy all she wanted. Why couldn't he, Teddy Follett, do the same? He was, as Gussie phrased it, a great big fellow of twenty-one-and his value was

ork with a broad grin, just as wholehearted. If good intentions had commercial value, both father and son should have been rated high; but here was his father a bit of old junk, while he himself, having

rched down the room toward the kitchen, while Pansy watche

red cent. We've got to eat cold and wash cold till Saturday, anyhow. W

had thought he had seen red; but he had never seen red like this. He had never supposed it possible that this torrent of

of meat on the plate, and the knife on top of them. But she, like Gladys a few m

other never. The strong spirit had grieved in strong ways, but not in this way. Now it seemed as if all the griefs she had laid up since the da

nees beside her, his ar

s her own. "Here's the money I had saved for my new clothes. Take it and go and pay something on the gas bill. There! There! Stop! For God's sake! For your

"To hell with Collingham & Law's