Motion Picture Classic (Jan-Dec 1916)

MOTION PICTURE A FEW DROPS OF WATER HAD SPATTERED THE LAWYER’S SHOES do, Mister High V Mighty,” he muttered. ‘‘There’ll be somethin’ doin’ before long, I’m thinkin’, that’ll maybe pull a tail-feather or two.” He spat contemptuously upon the trampled earth and lounged unsteadily into the tunnel, unaware that at that very moment his prophecy was coming true. In Mother Malone’s boarding-house parlor — given the impressive title from a half-dozen wooden chairs, an airtight Franklin and a bunch of dried puma grass in a blue china shavingmug on the mantel — a snickering crowd of loungers stood in a pleasantly expectant circle about a little serio-comedy, in which Peggy, the landlady’s buxom daughter, took the part of leading lady. Daniels, immaculate with neatly creased trousers and mirror-like shoes, had elected to walk across the exact portion of the floor which Peggy was scrubbing with all the elbowenergy of her Scottish pedigree. A few drops of water had flown from the impact of a particularly lively swirl of her brush and spattered the lawyer’s shoes ; and the idlers, standing around and back-tilted in Mother Malone’s chairs, had applauded the “Eastern dude’s” discomfiture, whereupon he had kicked over the pail of dirty water upon the apologetic girl. In a moment a ring formed, and Peggy’s voice, upraised in shrill exasperation, floated out above the grinning crowd. With the insensibility of an unwomaned parcel of men, the loungers chuckled loudly as the small, drenched figure charged upon Daniels, scrubbing-brush upraised in one seamy, grimy little hand ; even when the lawyer raised -his cane threateningly, they saw no grounds for interference, and slapped one another’s shoulders in the transports of their glee. “Sic him, Peggy!” “Swat His Nibs in the bean !” they advised. “Good gal — haw ! haw ! haw ” Their mirth died in their throats as a tall form blocked the doorway and two muscular hands swept a pathway thru the crowd. “You contemptible cad !” said Drew, between tight lips ; “you dirty coward ! I’ve a notion to manhandle you; but no” — for Daniels’ face had turned a sickly white and he was casting painful glances to right and left — “dont cry! I’ll let you off easy. Just get down on vour knees and apologize to this young lady, and you can go. We’ll throw your hat out after you.” On the stairs, a pink figure hesitated, one slippered foot poised un certainly over the next step, small hands tense on the pine rail. Bettina Warren, who had watched every important “first night” for ten years from the sedate shadows of her father’s box, had never felt her blood stirred bv handsome hero or uniformed matinee idol as now at the sound of the young foreman’s voice. Overalled and grimy, he towered above the cowed Daniels, jaw set and great shoulders squared -crude, powerful, a man in every inch of his six feet of lean, muscular height. Bettina drew a quick breath, and the small, ringed hands fluttered to the breast of the pink gown. She had dreamed and hoped that there were men like that in the world, but her eighteen years had shown her only the invertebrates of society, like that sneering, pastycheeked creature down there babbling a furious apology to the little scrubgirl. “I wonder,” she thought — •"I wonder who he is ?” Then, as Daniels, shaking with futile anger, jerked himself free and hurried out of the house, she drew back quickly and ran into her own room, with strange furies beating their wings about her ears. For she had seen something that stripped the civilization of generations from her and left her a mere woman-thing — sister to Peggy Malone herself, with her red hair and crude tongue and hot heart. She had seen Herbert Drew turn to the scrub-girl in her stained gown, smile at her, speak to her, pick up her pail and scrub-brush as tho she had been a lady who had dropped her fan. “She isn’t bad-looking,” Bettina acknowledged, justly, to her own mirrored image. “In decent clothes she’d be almost pretty. Perhaps he is in love with her.” The course of the next few days saw large issues determined in the Warren Construction Camp. They may be stated briefly from the viewpoint of Herbert Drew, with the most important thing placed last. He lost (Farty-six)