Robert W. Chambers

“ In this profound crypt a small iron door and a few stone steps ascending permitted her access to the vacant lot which the janitor had forbidden Smith to enter. And here she was accustomed to sit in the long, rank grass under a big ailantus tree, writing for the fashion papers, to which she contributed such predigested pabulum as the weak-minded might assimilate. In this manner she paid for lodging, board, and almond cream.
Meanwhile, she was growing shyer and more formal with Smith when they chanced to meet on stairs or landing. ”

“ Then, by chance, he caught sight of himself in the ninety-eight-cent mirror, and a slight flush of embarrassment rose to his cheeks.
"Do I look like a respectable man out of work?" he asked. "Tell me the truth."
"Exactly," replied Kerns; "you look like what you are—a well-meaning gentleman, permanently unemployed—and likely to remain so. In other words, dear friend, you resemble a Lulu bird of leisure."
"Do you mean to say I look like myself?" demanded Smith innocently. "Do I seem to be made up for a part? There was an impudent conductor who called me Smith. ”

“ Her quaintly impersonal nod in acknowledgment pleased him.
"Just what I thought," he reflected, as he descended the stairs: "the poor are always nice to each other; they're frank and human, unspoiled by our asinine code of conventions. If I'd worn a top hat that girl would have looked the other way; if I'd noticed her she'd have been defiant or sullen or saucy."
And while he trudged about, purchasing groceries for his luncheon, he looked out upon the world through optimistic glasses, smiling, warm-hearted, pleased with himself and everybody he encountered. ”

“ After a long while she dropped her tired shoulders back against the trunk of the Tree of Dreams, reclining there inert, blue eyes brooding in vacancy.
Meanwhile, Smith had locked up his room, gone home for the first time in two months, telephoned for a stateroom on the Western Limited, and sent for Kerns, who presently arrived in an electric cab.
"I'm going to Illinois," said Smith, "to-night."
"The nation must know of this," insisted Kerns; "let me telegraph for fireworks."
"There'll be fireworks," observed Smith—"fireworks to burn, presently. I'm going to get married to a working girl." ”

“ One scorching day he had been drawing an elevation for his tower, which partook impartially of the worst in both Manhattan, Gothic, and Chinese architecture—a new crinkle in his theory being that the poor had a right to the best in art, and that they should have it in spite of Kerns. ”

“ Do you know what she thinks? She thinks I'm a draughtsman at thirty dollars a week. Isn't it delightful? Isn't it perfectly splendid?"
"Dazzling," whispered Kerns, unable to utter another word.
Smith's progress was certainly rapid. When he arrived at the door of his tenement lodgings he fairly soared up the stairs, flight on flight, until he came to the top.
The door of his neighbor's room stood open and he impulsively crossed the hallway, but there were only two men there moving out a table, and his slender blue-eyed neighbor was nowhere visible. ”

“ Once beyond the financial zone downtown he had no fear of being recognized by anybody; his features, he was modestly persuaded, resembled the typical features of about fifty per cent of the male inhabitants of Manhattan, although those same features had been public and newspaper property for three years now—ever since his father, J. Abingdon Smith, 2d, had faded heavenward, leaving the enormous fortune in Manhattan real estate to his only son, J. Abingdon Smith, 3d. ”

“ I'll plan and design and build an absolutely beautiful and sanitary tower with a hundred rooms and two elevators in it, and Kerns can laugh if he wants to. What these people need is light and air—cheap light and cheap air. I'll just go down and take a look at that lot."
He pocketed pad and pencil, seized his hat, and, locking his door on the outside, ran down the stairs.
"You can't go into that lot," said the janitor. "No tenants ain't allowed in there by orders of Mr. Kerns." ”

“ To be loved for himself alone was one of his impractical ideas, born of the maternal sentimental streak; but, for years, the famous Smith fortune, its enormous holdings in realty, the doings of the Smiths, their shrewd sales, purchases, leases, improvements, their movements, their personal affairs, their photographed features had been common property and an unfailing source of news for the press ”

“ Meanwhile, Smith, doggedly munching his buttered rolls, drank his milk and considered plans for doing good to his tenants without either injuring their self-respect or bankrupting himself.
"Buy up block after block, cover 'em with handsome sanitary tenements, with a big, grassy court and a fountain in the middle—that's the decent and self-respecting way to invest one's surplus! That's the only way a rich man can keep his own respect and administer his stewardship. ”

“ She swept the papers from the table, threw over it a white square of linen, and placed his luncheon under his mortified eyes.
"It will get cold if you attempt to carry it back to your room. You are quite welcome to eat it here, believe me. My range may fail me some day and I may have to beg a little fire at your door."
"You shall have oceans of it!" he cried gratefully.
"Thank you; and, please, begin. I am on my way out."
"Am I driving you away? I know I am——"
"No, really you are not. I work out of doors all I can. I was going out as soon as the janitor came to examine my ceiling." ”

“ He forced his door in with the point of his knee, made his way to the table, and dropped the packages. Then, producing a match box, he advanced blithely toward the gas range.
"The first thing to do is to start that exceedingly convenient machine and get action at once," he continued, turning on the gas and lighting a match. "Cooking coffee and eggs is nothing to any man who has ever camped out in the woods——"
Flash!—bang! went the gas range; and Smith executed what his office boys might have characterized as a "quick get-away." ”

“ An' who do you think you are, young man? John D.? or the Dutch Emp'ror? Or do you think you're J. Abingdon Smith, the owner of this here plant, because you look like his grandfather's hired man?"
"Not at all," said Smith, turning red. "I had no intention of interfering."
"Well, you go and sit on your range and keep it warm till I get a gasfitter, see!" growled the janitor; "an' mebbe he'll fix it to-night," he said, looking back malevolently over his shoulder as he descended the stairs, "an' mebbe he'll fix it next month. You mind your business, young man, an' I'll mind yours." ”

“ Smith," said the conductor, meaning a joke.
Smith ambled along, intent upon his own business. The blue-eyed girl had preceded him in the same direction; but as he entered the main door way of the Smith model tenement houses, which formed almost a complete quadrangle around the block, he was not aware that she was on the iron and concrete stairway, three stories above him, and was still climbing heavenward.
When he reached his room, which he had paid for in advance, he found that his trunk and furniture had arrived. The air in the room was close; he opened the window. ”

“ Her problem is a great deal simpler than to bother with usages." There was a defiant smile hovering about eyes and lips—a hint of recklessness in the bright color rising under his gaze: "A girl can't live and flourish on silence."
"You always hurry past me when we meet——"
"But surely you didn't expect me to invite you to a seat on the stairs, did you?" ”

“ But it doesn't matter," he added, determined to dine on the remainder of his rolls and milk, for he simply would not begin by running to a restaurant at the first mishap.
She hesitated, not knowing whether again to offer her salt and fire; then, finding it too difficult, she said "Good night" in a low voice, and crossed the hallway to her own abode. And there she sat down, fair face tense, gaze concentrated on space, her big straw hat still on her head, her portfolio and papers in her lap. ”

“ I think it's his daughter I'm going to marry. I'm going to Chicago to find out. Good heavens, Kerns! It's the most pitiful case, whoever she is! It's a case to stir the manhood in any man. I tell you it's got to be righted. I am thoroughly stirred up, and I won't stand any nonsense from you."
Kerns looked at him. "Smith," he pleaded in sepulchral tones; "Smithy! For the sake of decency and of common sense——"
"Exactly," nodded Smith, picking up his hat and gloves ”

“ At this juncture Kerns, his agent, general estate manager, and boyhood friend, slipped into the room on tiptoe, carefully closing the door behind him.
"I don't know where to put it," Smith said, pausing to settle his refractory glasses and glance suspiciously at Kerns out of pleasant, near-sighted eyes. "When they have only one chair where do they usually put it, Tommy?"
"When they get down to one chair they usually put it in the stove," said Kerns.
"What? They do? That's another point, Kerns; we've got to give them free furniture somehow; I mean for the same rent. You figure it up ”

“ Alone in her room, palely considering the why and wherefore of the disagreeable, she invariably almost fell a prey to temptation; but, so far, the victory had remained with her. Temptation came when somebody refused her work or when somebody removed an article of furniture for nonpayment of the installment due, and the temptation confronted her in the shape of a packet of yellow manuscript. ”

“ After a while, I suppose, a girl becomes partly stupefied under the strain of it all—the tension of self-respecting silence. Two years of self-suppression! Even pickpockets receive a sentence more humane. ”

“ Then, he looked at the floor; but his tenants, being wingless, required something to stand on. "Could we give them bed, tables, and chair, and cut out that gas range?" he suggested.
"Not unless you throw in a stove," said Kerns, trying to look serious. "And if you do that, they'll keep their coal in the bath tubs, as before."
Smith began to remove the contents of a shabby little trunk. First, there were shaving utensils, which he placed in a row on the unpainted wash- stand, then a tin pitcher and wash basin, a cake of soap, and last, some cheap towels. ”

“ A few minutes later he murmured drowsily: "Build handsome tower—spite of Kerns. ... Nobody pay rent. ... 'Strordinary eyes that girl ... pretty blue—very blue—for—a—a girl. ... 'Strordinary rot I'm talking. ... G'night, Smith; ... night!"
The next morning a pessimistic gasfitter repaired Smith's range. That night it blew up again. Two days later it was again in commission, then remained quiescent for a week. ”

“ She laid aside her portfolio and papers, removed the smoking pan, scraped it, tinkered with it, and then, preparing it properly, poured in the remainder of the eggs.
"It's awfully good of you. I'm ashamed of myself," he muttered; "but, please—please don't mind about the coffee. I can do that, I'm sure."
"It will take only a moment," she said. "You are not accustomed to—to—gas ranges, I see."
Before he knew it his modest luncheon was ready. ”

“ You insisted on inserting rotary ventilators in every window, and the noise of the wheels kept your tenants awake at night; and, when they don't sleep, they fight. Besides, they all caught cold, and there are a dozen enraged Hibernians suing you now. ”