Forrest Crissey

“ A lamp like a great spreading mushroom shed a soft flood of light upon an old carved table. A smaller light flooded a picture of a woman whose bare shoulders were so warm and lifelike that Danny quickly looked away. The face was the face of a lady. She seemed about to speak, disdainfully.
Guiltily, timidly, Danny reached into his pocket—the encompassing multitude of books and the haughty lady in the painting bearing witness to his shame—and took out the mortgage that he had secured from the bank at the close of business. He handed it to Rose. ”

“ Yes, he'd do it; although things were going a bit better at home, and there had been moments of happiness—something like those he had dreamed of when he felt so sure of Rose and of the way she would always feel toward him. Then the fires of his hate had burned low. In those moments he could almost see the situation with the English woman's eyes: he was Irish, and she was English! He was ignorant in that he was not an educated man. He had carried the hod and handled the trowel and the mortar-board—in short, he was a brick-mason, a laboring man. ”

“ The weather map of Rose's face was a variable and exciting study for the next few months. Danny's scrutiny was as worshipful as ever, but more silent. At times he almost wished that she were an Irish lass with whom he could "fight it out" and have it over. But, if she were, she wouldn't be Rose. Oh, there was a world of difference between a common woman and an educated lady! And that difference seemed to be building a solid wall about her that made it harder for him to reach her every day. If it kept on this way for long—but the money on that mortgage was due to him the 17th of December. ”

“ Of course I had to be careful what I said; but you know she's clever, and I hope I made her understand that her old friends are not going to forget her, even if she did marry an ignorant brick-mason—a common laboring man. She wouldn't say a word—you know how proud Rose has always been—but I could see that she was on the verge of breaking down."
"Do you think she feels that she's made a mistake?" Danny heard the other woman ask.
"How could she help it?" came the quick answer. "Rose Wills is too keen and sensitive a woman not to wake up to the difference before the honeymoon is over. ”

“ Yes, Rose was a lady, and he—well, he was a brick-mason, and ignorant and rough by contrast. There was no dodging that. But hadn't he already rebuilt himself so well that the sharp-eyed lawyer had called him a wonder? And with Rose right in his home for him to watch and see how she did things, couldn't he keep on rebuilding until he was at least a brick-veneer gentleman? He would never let up on that job—never!—not so long as he had Rose!
"It's Saturday night," he said, when dinner had ended, "and I ought to see Boyle. He's a good boss-carpenter and knows how to get work out of men. ”

“ An Educated Lady
BY FORREST CRISSEY
SHE was his. And what a heart-siege it had taken to make her his own! All the Irish ardor, wit, readiness, and chivalry that had ever reddened a drop of Beamish blood, and all the cunning, prudence, and constancy that his Welsh mother had given him as a heritage, had gone into that winning. ”

“ It's simply hideous; I can't bear the thought of it. If there was ever a nature that would be mismated with any man not a gentleman, Rose Wills has it. I just can't call her by her married name! Think of a woman of her temperament—"
Danny had heard enough. ”

“ He had set out to make that woman eat ashes out of his hand—and he'd been living on them himself!
"Well," said his friend, reflectively, packing his pipe, "I suppose you'll take your lady around to see that woman get what's coming to her? That's the way it's always done at the theater and the film shows."
Danny shook his head. "Not Rose!" he finally answered. Then he stammered: "You see—well—Rose is an educated lady. They—she don't do things like that." ”

“ As he sat there staring at his plate he could hear her sobs in the bedroom. He had heard women cry before; but an educated lady—he couldn't stand that! Tearing a leaf from his time-book, he scribbled: "Gone to see Kane." This he left on her plate.
When he found Kane patroling the edge of the vacant lot in tow of the leashed terrier, he boiled over in a string of Irish expletives that smelled of peat-fires and eviction riots.
"Now," said the lawyer, "let's cross over to the boulevard, find a seat, and get the rest of this out of your system. I knew it was coming, Danny." ”

“ Now you say 'the terrier' instead of 'the tarrier!' A man who can smother brogue like yours in that length of time has the power to do almost anything he may choose to tackle. And that isn't all you've done, either. You've built yourself over, and done a fairly smooth job of it, too. How'd you like to take a building contract—a small one, to be sure, but a starter just the same?"
"Do you think I could put it through?" asked Danny, no longer frowning. ”