Motion Picture Story Magazine (Feb 1914 - Sep 1916 (assorted issues))

64 THE MOTION PICTURE STORY MAGAZINE maid has a Poine, aisy toime, an ' whin yez buy some rale shoes and comb ye hair loike mine, ye '11 be as dawnsy as tir rest av thim. Shure, woman dear, dhry yer eyes. 'Tis Marie Maloney is ye frind, an' manny's th' gran' tonnes we'll be afther havin', mavrone !" Maybe 'twas the Irish brogue, maybe the friendly words, and maybe 'twas the part about the shoes and the hair that dried the salt woe on Peggy's cheeks. As long as there's a new way of doing her hair or bedecking herself, life isn't wholly dark to a colleen, and, besides, Peggy was soon to be introduced to other joys. "Kin yez dance, agra?" asked Marie, one afternoon. "I could in Killarney," said Peggy, wistful-like. "Ach! but th' illigant jiggin' at th' fair!" "I know a betther place f 'r dancin' thin th ' fair, ' ' said Marie, tossing her head scornfully. "An', what's more, I'll be takin' yez there this blissid evenin', as shure as pigs is swine." 'Twas a trembling Peggy that stood afore her mirror a bit later, hardly knowing herself in her new American finery and wondering whether she was really pretty or only looked so. " 'Tis Jerry Donovan would be thinkin' I was pretty," she said to herself afore she remembered, then she grew red with anger and tossed her head. "Ye '11 do," said Marie, critically, as the two of them started out. "Ach ! darlint, yez should have seen th' grand, new diamint croon my missus has on th' night. Master gave it to her, an ' she looks loike th ' Impress av Roosia, bedad! That's why I'm afther bein' late. We must hurry our bones, or th' byes '11 think we're not comin' at all, at all." To Peggy the dance that evening was like the dreams one has in a fever. She could not remember afterwards what had happened, only vague impressions of wonderful smooth floors, strange, hot, uneasy music, not a bit like the cheery pipes or fiddle at home ; a young man named Mills ^ho danced every dance with her, and his crony, "Red" Randolph, Marie's partner. She knew that Marie had boasted of the mistress's new tiara ; that they had all laughed at her for ordering tea instead of beer to drink, and that, when he left her, Jim Mills had squeezed her hand and whispered : ' 1 You 're one swell dancer, kid, and I've took a shine to you. See you Saturday ; s 'long." She had had a good time — very ; but strangely, in the shelter of her small room, as she took down her hair for the night and it fell in the old Irish ringlets about her face, Peggy stamped her foot and wrung her hands. "I'll marry who I plaze!" cried she aloud, stormily. ' ' Shure Ameriky is an illigant counthry, afther all!" But, ah ! the pipes and the Irish lads and the dance of youth on the green ! "No, I cant go." Marie's voice was prickly with disappointment. ' ' Shure, an ' 'twould thry th ' patience av a saint t' wait on th' missus tonight. Dont I get her ready f'r th* opery, gownd, diaminds an' all, an* thin doesn't her head sthart t' achin' — off cooms th ' tiary — ' Marie, rub me head — Marie, th' hot-wather bottle — Marie, a glass av wine ! ' Here, Peggy mavrone, take th' ghlass in t' her f'r me, will yez, an' thin throt along t' th' dance." Peggy took the tray good-naturedly into her mistress's bedroom. The great lady lay scowling on a pink satin couch in. the midst of a drift of scattered possessions. On a table by the window Peggy caught the chilly gleam of the wonderful new tiara, and wished that she dared ask to look at it, but the china clock on the dressing-table warned her that she must not tarry, or she would be late to the dance. "Gee! but you're a peacherino t 'night, b'lieve me," Jim Mills greeted her a little later. * ' Come on, kid, an ' I '11 learn you th ' Fascination Glide." The music sank to an undertone, full of subtle meanings; the smooth floor seemed to sway and slide beneath