Argosy, Vol. 123, No. 1 — page 151: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A RINGING TALE. I don’t know, really, whether to blame Jim- mie for not giving me the lawnyett, or Bessie for doing what I asked her to, and pawning the ring. But being that he’s a man, I prefer to blame Jimmie.” “ Quite right,” assented the boss heartily. “ Well, anyhow, I dragged her off down the stairs and over to Ornstein’s shop, and shoved her in through the doors, and went off, with beating heart, to await events. And they weren’t long in coming. Bessie, as I might have known, is no actress, “ Well, in a few minutes, out comes Bes- sie, out of Ornstein’s shop, sort of falling out, stumbling and crying, and looking wildly about. And white! Say, a sheet that’s just left the hands of the best hand- laundress on our block never looked any whiter! And when she reaches me—say, I thought the kid was dying! Her head sort of lolled back on her neck, and her mouth opened, and her eyes rolled up, and that was all. ‘‘ At once I suspected that something was wrong—and I was right. I grabbed hold of her and spoke rough and asked her what was the matter—and she told me. For a minute I couldn’t tell what she was saying, she spoke so low. But she kept repeating it, and at last I got: ‘ He kept the ring.’ ‘* Well, you can imagine my feelings. For a moment I was simply nonplused. ‘“* But in a second I saw that there was no occasion to die over it—it just meant that I was going to be disappointed—this was where I lost out on the lawnyett. So I says: ‘ All you got to do is to go back and give him the money and get the ring back— and tell him you haven’t got to pawn it, after all.’ : “ But do you think she’d go into that shop again? Not much! And she started to get sort of hysterical. Now if there’s anything I hate, it’s scenes. So I grabs the ticket and the money and runs back to Ornstein’s place myself. Well!” Maggie paused and drew a long breath. “Well, in I went, and at first I couldn’t see anything—he had the lights turned so low. I never thought a pawnbroker had to economize on gas, did you? Well, any- way, a voice comes out of a round piece of whiteness. and I saw Ornstein, all of a sud- 141 den, as if he’d just appeared, like a ghost. Well, I guess I was startled, and I guess that accounts for what happened after that. It was a new experience, and him show- ing up there all of a sudden, small and fat and round and white in that funny, soft darkness, and asking me in that soft, vel- vety voice of his what he could do for me— well, really—perhaps you can understand.”’ Maggie paused more or less hopefully— her tone indicating that she had failed of ccmprehension so far—and she was not dis- appointed. “What would you have done?” asked. ‘““T?” exclaimed the boss. ‘I would just have gone all to pieces.” “Well,” said Maggie, recovering con- spicuously her self-esteem, “I didn’t do that. But I couldn’t speak. Wasn’t that funny? I simply couldn’t say a word. You see—it had come over me all of a sudden that it was Jennie’s wedding-ring that Bes- sie had pawned—and what Jennie would feel if she were to know that her ring had been in a pawnbroker’s shop for even one minute. So I just pushed the ticket at him and the money, and waited. ‘* And he looked the ticket all over, both sides, and then he looked up at me and shook his fat, bald head very slow, and handed them both back to me. And then he spoke! ‘““ And the things he said! I shall never forget them! He said—you don’t mind if I don’t show you exactly how he talked— he said: ‘ Young lady, you ain’t got no right to this ticket,’ and he went on: ‘ Young lady, not fifteen minutes ago a young lady with brownish eyes and reddish hair and very small fingers, so that her wedding- ring won’t stay on no finger but her thumb, come in here and pawned this ring. And now you, a tallish young lady with bluish eyes and blondish hair, come in here and ask for that same ring. What do you think I think?’ Well, for the life of me, Mr. Thatcher, I couldn’t answer him. I saw he was get- ting suspicious, and that something awful was going to happen. And it was. “Well, he goes on, getting nicer and Sweeter every minute, so that I begun to she cCoOmiclboooks C©@