Henry C. Rowland

“ She was afraid of Mickey. But, seeing Legrand in the café opposite, she was quick to take advantage of this means of escape.
On the way down, Nica readjusted her veil and noticed, as the door was opened, that the big car shielded her directly from the café. She got into the limousine and Mickey seated himself beside her. As they drew away from the curb, Mickey leaned toward Dominica.
“Say, Nica,” said he, “is this straight goods about the manicure business? If there's anything you need, you know you've only got to say the word.” ”

“ She recognized in the person of the beautifully gowned woman beside the empty chair a celebrated actress famed less for her histrionic talent than for her ability to charm. She also observed that this guest was wearing a tight necklace of enormous pearls, and a long rope of the same jewels smaller and matched.
Dominica, in her figured veil and stylish gown, slipped into the vacant seat a good deal as a Persian cat might coil itself on a silken cushion beside the canary-cage. Her neighbor gave her a brief glance and resumed her conversation with some one beside her. ”

“ She would have welcomed even the society of Braga, whom she cordially disliked. But she dared not send for him, because she was afraid that Legrand, knowing of her quasi-partnership with the Argentine “fence,” might be having him shadowed with the idea of discovering her location.
As her courage returned, Dominica's caution began to wane. It was glorious late-autumn weather, and Paris was gay and alluring. Dominica loved the races, not only for the spectacle but because she was a born gambler and liked to place a few hundred francs on some horse which took her fancy. ”

“ Why can't you be reasonable?'”
Dominica flung her arm across her face and shrank back deeper into her corner. She had welcomed Mickey's protection for the moment as a means of escape from Legrand, but she now wondered if, perhaps, she had not got out of the frying-pan into the fire. For Mickey, in the growing ardor with which Dominica's nearness infused him, was most obviously on the point of losing his self-restraint. Aside from his brutal masculinity (a quality which usually made its distinct appeal to Dominica) , there was nothing particularly offensive about Mickey. ”

“ She was trying to absorb things when Mickey came in with lines across his forehead. He looked troubled, and Dominica was glad. There had been something in Mickey's scrutiny of herself which had frightened her—and Dominica was no coward.
“Now here's the deuce of a mess!” said he. “A fool of a woman I know, an actress, has just telephoned me that somebody has stolen her pearls at a lecture at my aunt's, the Countess de Rosoy's, just around the corner. She wants me to hustle down to the préfecture and get 'em to put some of their best men on the job. ”

“ He rose suddenly from his chair, and stepping to Dominica pinched the lobe of her pink ear. “I shall send you a wedding-present—dear little thief that was and is no more!” said he gruffly.
Dominica's first baby is named after the prefect of police. Joe was the strong advocate of conferring this honor on that dignitary.
“Say, Nica,” said he, “a chief like him is what a town needs. He's more like your old dad than a boss cop. Me for him!” ”

“ Dominica had several thousand francs deposited to his credit in a French bank, and this sum she would no more have touched than she would have stolen votive offerings to a Madonna.
And when driven to a choice between posing and stealing, Dominica preferred to steal. It cost her less self-respect.
“I've got to turn a trick pretty soon,” said she to herself, “or take a chance on getting croguée by Legrand. Plague take the police! Why can't they do something?”
But as the days passed and the police seemed still unable to do anything, Dominica's money and patience came nearly to an end. ”

“ Ryan, and Dominica's quick wit immediately supplied one. Arriving before the door of the luxurious apartment, she whipped off her veil (for this black-figured affair was too easy a mark of identification) and rang. Her finger had not left the button when the door was flung open rather violently and Dominica found herself face to face with a red-faced, thick-set young man who appeared to be going out in a considerable hurry. ”

“ Dominica, observing that a party of ladies preceding her fumbled in their bags for cards, did the same.
“Oh, madame, don't put yourself to the trouble,” said the nice old maître d'hôtel, and Dominica went in. She knew that the practised eye of the old domestic had assayed her Rue-de-la-Paix costume. Dominica found herself in the midst of a stylish, chattering crowd, and, from fragments of the conversation, gathered that the affair was an illustrated lecture on “The Evolution of Dress,” given for the benefit of Les Enfants Tuberculoses. ”

“ Dominica was scarcely seated when Miss Millar, exquisitely gowned, appeared on the little stage and proceeded to explain the object of her lecture. She traced through successive cycles the styles which she was to illustrate with living models. Dominica, though fond of clothes, was far less interested in Miss Millar's thesis than in the propinquity of her neighbor's pearls. ”

“ Dominica, stifling her cough, gathered them into her muff. Miss Millar was explaining the subtleties of the tunic, but this did not interest Dominica. She was thinking of the pearls in her muff and how best to get away with them.
She was seized with another violent paroxysm of coughing. Miss Millar hesitated, then waited. Women turned to look resentfully at Dominica, who rose and, drawing down her veil, placed her handkerchief against her mouth and, with a smothered word of apology, slipped out of her seat and toward the door. ”

“ You are one of the many young people who find outlawry amusing because of a mistaken sense of its romance. They should be whipped, not sent to prison, and the game would lose all of its glamour. Our young apaches would not return from correction as heroes to their comrades if their backs were well striped. ”

“ AFTER her narrow escape from assassination by Legrand, Dominica gave up her apartment, telling the concierge that she was going to America, then took another, next door to a local bureau de police in Montmartre. She really valued her young life and thought she might keep it longer if she were to disappear for a while. The prefect tried to enlist her services for the Bureau de Sûreté, but Dominica would not consider this. ”

“ Seems to have busted up the whole show. Says there was a woman beside her in a long cape and a figured veil, and that she knows she swiped the pearls when they turned off the lights. Pretended to having a coughing-spell and went out. I've telephoned for my car.”
“Why should she bother you about it?” asked Dominica. “Did you give her the pearls?”
Mickey gave a short laugh.
“Not on your life!” he answered. “She happens to be rather a friend of mine and seems to want to hold me responsible because I got her a card for the bloomin' affair. Old Von Hertzfeld gave her the pearls.” Mickey grinned. ”

“ She returned about dusk without enough to pay for her taxi and had to go to her apartment to get the money.
Dominica was nettled. She went again the following Thursday, when the crowd was not so great, and with a similar result. This thing continued for the rest of the racing season, and Christmas found her desperately near the end of her resources. The money which she had counted upon supporting her in comfort for the next year had gone to swell the coffers of the Paris Mutuelles (with five per cent. deducted for public charities) . ”