Harold MacGrath

“ So much for the inanimate. Crawford, erect, proud and defiant; the girl poised on the threshold, with the winged eagerness of Victory; Forbes, twirling his hat, diffident and abashed. All these things Haggerty saw from behind his curtain.
In life as in fairy-tales, 'tis woman who breaks the enchantment. The picture dissolved as she ran toward Crawford, whose glance went past her to Forbes. ”

“ XIII A LOVE STORY TABLEAU. The rosy light from the fire touching the gold-leaf on a royal cartonnage, or moving the shadows on the wall behind, ruddying a face three thousand years old, twinkling back from the shoe-buttons. ”

“ On Tuesday night, th' second week in June last, you played poker till six in th' morning in th' studio of that young chap over there”—with a jerk of his head toward Forbes. “You won three hundred dollars. Coming home that morning you gave ten dollars t' th' ol' apple-woman on the corner near th' pawn-shop. There's a flat not far away, with a young woman living in it. No harm done in telling that since th' young lady here knows all about it. I could 'a' told her you was straight an' decent an' that th' young woman was living on your charity.” ”