iliiilPI»f^i^^^C^lr'^ , >'h CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY MOSES COIT TYLER BOOK FUND AMERICAN HISTORY Digitized by Microsoft® Cornell University Library PS 3523.E95 Jane Street of Gopher Prarie 3 1924 021 758 572 Digitized by Microsoft® This book was digitized by Microsoft Corporation in cooperation with Corneii University Library, 2008. You may use and print this copy in iimited quantity for your personai purposes, but may not distribute or provide access to it (or modified or partiai versions of it) for revenue-generating or other commerciai purposes. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET OF GOPHER PRAIRIE By the Author of "Another Three Weeks" NEW YORK THE PROBONO PUBLISHING COMPANY e West Sixty-Setjesith Street 1921 Digitized by Microsoft® COPTBIGHT, 1921, BY THE PROBONO PUBLISHING COMPANY lU rights reserved, including the dramatic cinemaiic, and that of translaiton into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian, Abyssinian and Early Coptic Digitized by Microsoft® To Those Real Americans who populate the many beautiful small towns of our country; who are not ruled by the nar- rowness, pettiness, and bigotry of Gopher Prairie and who are not so heedless of the value of the America our fathers builded as are the imported citizens of the jazz metropolis. Digitized by Microsoft® This— fortunately — is. not America, but it is going to he, if Americans do not walce up and protect their heritage from cranks, optimists, idealisls, and foreign invaders who won't melt in the melting pot. Also professional politicians. The town is, in our tale, called "New York." It is in fact the concentration of JazzuiUe, Yaptown, Hicksburg, the old Barhary Coast, and the Black Hand of Italy all strongly flavored mth the essence of the Ghetto. It typifies America about as faithfidly as Jane Street does American womanhood and Mayne Street the medical pro- fession. We are left with the firm tradition that, because things are printed, they are true and that the exceptions are more im- portant than the rule. Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET OF Gopher Peairie CHAPTER I IT WAS in Commencement week at the Twin Cities Business University. At the President's reception Jane Carol first met Dr. Mayne Street. She was in a strangely introspective mood. She did not know^ whether it was because she was so soon to leave the familiar halls of the 'Varsity or an echo in her own heart of the moaning sweetness of the ukelele accompani- Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET ment to the Glee Club's singing. In barber- shop harmony and behind an asparagus screen they were pouring forth the old college an- them: "We're the people, we're the gentry. Twin Cities, Twin Cities, Rah, Rah, Rah! Single entry, double entry. Sin Twitties, Sin Twitties, Ha, Ha, Ha!" n Dr. Mayne Street had brought an appendi- citis patient from New York to be operated upon by the famous specialists at Dorchester, Minn. The operation might have been quite as well done in New York as in Dorchester but the doctor felt that he needed a vacation. He had run up to St. Paul, from the famous sur- gical sporting centre, to drop in during Com- mencement time at the old college where, before he began to practise and collect fees, he had taken his first course in medical book- keeping. He had early tecognized the im- portance of this branch of professional educa- tion and had never ceased to be grateful to Twin Cities for the proficiency it had given him in making out bills. He had been vaguely conscious of the pres- ence in the room of the slender girl with the f ar- 6 Digitized by Microsoft® OF GOPHER PRAIRIE away look in her eyes and red Tam o' Shanter on her ash-colored hair. Jane, too, had felt the presence of a new but silent and unformed urge in the old life. She had connected it with nothing in particular until a sardine glided to the floor from her refreshment plate which, after the custom of such entertainments, had been overcrowded with a miscellaneous assort- ment of delicatessen dainties. Street retrieved the elusive fish and restored it to its place on her plate with a surety and grace that were a revelation in the life of this girl of the Northwest. Her knowledge of the amenities of life was confined to the social usages of Gopher Prairie on which had been grafted her experiences in the co-educational gayeties of Twin Cities. "I'm not much of a fishermaji but I landed that one without a fly or a net," was Street's first speech to her, delivered with a smoothness of tone and refined assurance which were in a way a sort of challenge to her own resentful consciousness of some kind of inferiority. "The net result shows that you're fly enough," replied Jane, stung into the quick spirit of repartee by Street's perhaps profes- sional air of knowing more than the person to whom he happened to be talking. 7 Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET "In li'l ol' Nyew Yawk we have to be fly if we're going to live at all," answered Street. "If not, somebody flier than we are is likely to give us the hook. But I don't suppose you know what that means," smiling at the thought of his own joke. : "I obtained you, Mr. Stevens," replied Jane, "Noo Yor-r-k has no monopoly of £^mateur try- outs, even in the practising of medicine. Per- haps that's the reason they always speak of practising medicine." From the corner of his eye Street swept a quick comprehensive glance over this girl whose obvious diflference from the average co-ed of Twin Cities intrigued him strangely. Jane, too, had not been unobservant. It did not require his allusion to New York to tell her he was from the great city which in her dream hours she had not only visited but conquered. That he was a New Yorker (by transplantation) was shown by the almost en- tire elision of the r In his pronunciation of words, the high polish of his finger-nails and the perfect fit of his expensive garments so dif- ferent from the Klassy Kollege Kut Kloathes affected by the youths at Twin Cities. His slender patent leather shoes were also metro- politan as contrasted with the stubby footgear 8 Digitized by Microsoft® OF GOPHER PRAIRIE of local young manhood, whose each shoe was equipped with a bulging bay-window for the comfort of the great toe. In Jane these cultural differences inspired both like and dislike. She was attracted through her irresistible feminine instinct for refinement and repelled by that something due to early environment which made her suspicious and contemptuous of anything which did not conform to the standards of Gopher Prairie. ni Upon her graduation from Twin Cities Jane had accepted a position as cashier in the Bon Ton Pickle Works. She felt that she was in the chrysalis stage of her career and that until she was ready to spread her wings for flight her occupation was not important. During this period she received several offers of mar- riage, one of them from no less a person than the head drummer for a Chicago vinegar fac- tory, but Jane Carol had her vision fixed on something even greater than Chicago. Her duties at the Pickle Works were not exacting and she took advantage of her leisure hours to renew her familiarity with the fascina- 9 Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET tions of Baxter's "The Saint's Everlasting Rest," Fox's "Book of Martyrs" and the larger catechism. As she read, her thoughts often went back to the old home in Gopher Prairie and she could see herself sitting bolt upright on the uncushioned seat of the Hardshell Bap- tist Church enduring basic agony with the for- titude of a Christian martyr. At these times she could also see her dear old father with his steel-bound spectacles and white chin-whisker, pounding the pulpit Bible and describing graph- ically not only the direct road to Hell followed by dancers, smokers, card-players, and theatre- goers but also, with joyful enthusiasm, the exact kind of tortures they were going to enjoy after their arrival. 10 Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTER II IT WAS about this time that Mayne Street had another attack of appendicitis, or at least One of his patients had, which involved another trip to Minnesota not at his own ex- pense. His conscience was so thoroughly medicated that he never cared who else paid the bills. It might have been accident. Or it might have been Street's foxy but apparently general inquiry addressed to the President of Twin Cities concerning the whereabouts of last year's graduates. The result was the same. Jane had left the Bon Ton at noon hour for the monotonous walk to her boarding-house Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET to partake of the equally monotonous warmed- ups which passed in that estabUshment for luncheon. "Miss Jane Carol, if I'm not mistaken," purred into her left ear a voice which she had not forgotten despite the months that had passed since her graduation. She would have been more surprised if out of the corner of her eye as she left the ofiSce she had not al- ready recognized Street's carefully clothed figure in the man who was so interested in the display of corn-plasters in the window of the corner drug-store. "Still Miss Jane Carol," she replied, rather surprised at the ease of speech this man seemed to inspire in her. "Glad to hear it," said Street. "Is that a threat or a promise?" asked Jane, who in the same moment could have bitten out her tongue for the apparent Westernness of the speech. "Play it either way you like. I'm game. But seriously, where are you going? Won't you come down to the hotel and have luncheon with me?" In Jane's inner nature all the tiredness of the long succession of boarding-house meals leaped to a quick acceptance of the invitation 12 Digitized by Microsoft® OF GOPHER PRAIRIE but she also realized that her shabby office dress and punctured shoes, in comparison with the attire of the other women in the hotel res- taurant, or cafe as it was better known, would set her back in the estimation of the immacu- late doctor from New York. "No," she said, decisively, "I can't " "0.h, that's all right," he urged, "we won't see any one we know." "No," she continued, "I can't go to lunch- eon with you but if you will make it dinner, I'm your huckleberry." "Good; that's more like it," said Street, smiling inwardly at her naivet6 of expression. "In the ladies' reception room at seven," and, lifting his Fedora gracefully, he swung himself aboard a passing trolley. Seven o'clock seemed a long way off to Jane because she knew that with better things in prospect she would not be able to touch her regular luncheon. She wished he had made it six or six-thirty. n The meal passed like a dream, only that it was more substantial and filling than dreams usually are. For the first time she tasted real 13 Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET oysters from real shells instead of the canned ones customary in Minnesota. She drew one bad one but she didn't notice it in her absorp- tion in the music, the lights, and gayety of her novel surroundings. Her previous nearest approach to it had been a visit to a Minneapolis rathskellar with a crowd of roystering Twin Cities sophomores in the good old days when beer was beer. Street was at his best when talking of New York. This was largely because he was not a native but had come to the'city in his twenties. His standard of judgment was based on the town from which he came and not on the New York of the time when it was an American city. His enthusiasm had led him into an unusually long talk in which he was almost eloquent. "But after all," asked Jane, "is New York a religious city? I mean religious at heart." "Surest thing you know," answered the doctor. "We have the handsomest churches in America and more synagogues than any other place in the world. The statistics of the Salvation Army shows that annually in New York it rescues more bums than In any other five cities put together. As a doctor I know that in every hospital in New York on Sunday afternoons the patients, whether they Tvant to 14 Digitized by Microsoft® OF GOPHER PRAIRIE or not, have to listen to amateurs singing de- pressing hymns. H that isn't genuine religion, I'd like to know what is. To be sure the death rate runs higher Sunday nights, but we doctors should worry." in As they walked to her boarding-house under the clear light of the Minnesota stars and the St. Paul electric system, Jane Carol, with the intuition she shared with all the other women in the world, knew what was coming. Although she was not entirely sure that she loved Mayne Street she was happy at her prospective escape from the monotony which surrounded her and because she felt that the time was near when she was to embark on the career of world improvement which had been her dream ever since the dear old dreary Sun- days in the Hardshell Baptist Church in Gopher Prairie. Besides, ^he was beginning to feel that her surroundings iu the Bon Ton Pickle Works were souring her entire outlook on life. IV "It sure IS one fine little burg and you're bound to like it," said Street the next evening 15 Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET at dinner, resuming the New York paean he never tired of chanting. "Finest people in the world and something doing every minute of the day and the night, too." "What tio you do f6r amusement?" Jane asked. "Practise medicine mostly," answered Street. "Sometimes in the evening I shoot craps with Ike Weisenheimer and his crowd. He's one of the best shots in New York and a bully good fellow. You'll like Ike." "Is he a German? His name sounds Ger- man." "Not a bit of it. His father might have been a Svenska or something but Ike's a regu- lar New Yorker — oflBce in Wall Street and all that sort of thing." "And the women you know. Shall I like them, too?" "You certainly will. Take Ike's wife, Becky. There isn't a woman in New York who can mix a Bronx cocktail as well as she can — that is, if everything hasn't gone com- pletely dry by the time we get back. But even so I guess you could trust Becky's smart- ness to get the makin's somehow. And then there's Mrs. Billy O'Bryan. Billy was one of my first patients. Made his pile in sub- 16 Digitized by Microsoft® OF GOPHER PRAIRIE way contracts. His executors were going to fight my bill but Mrs. Billy wouldn't stand for it. Go to her house for dinner almost every Sunday night. Fine eats, coon band, and a lot of pippins to jazz and shimmy." Jane felt her spirits sinking as Street rattled on. Cocktails and Sunday jazz. Were these to make up the future life she had builded so high? It was a relief to her when Street re- verted to his other favorite topic — ^the practice of medicine. "Billy O'Bryan's case certainly was a strange one. I was young then and my bill sure was steep for a beginner but I needed the money and Peggy did stand by in good shape. But it didn't hurt me any. Lots of folks in New York don't think aUything's any good unless they have to pay two or three prices for it and that goes in medicine as in everything else. My friend Bobus — ^he's the head visiting surgeon at St. Mike's — ^knows how to handle them. When he put in a bill of six thousand dollars to old Curtiss, the millionaire, for cutting a polypus out of his daughter's nose, the old man hol- lered murder. 'All right,' said Bobus, 'six thousand dollars or nothing. I have only two kinds of patients: charity patients and those who pay. My bill is six thousand dollars 17 Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET or nothing.' Old Curtiss would have stood suit but he couldn't aflford to be known as a charity patient so he paid up. In the pro- fession Bobus always referred to it as one of his finest and most skilful operations." In this vein Street talked on through most of the meal. The greater part of his talk con- cerned itself with big fees and professional incomes rather than either technical accom- plishment or the alleviation of suffering. Jane, who had always idealized his calling, began to see that it also had its practical side. 18 Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTER III IN THEIR honeymoon trip to New York the Streets stopped over one night at Niagara. In her vast loneliness at leaving be- hind her all her girlhood, Jane first began to realize how wholly she was dependent on this new male influence which had come into her life. Her feeling was almost terror when at the Canadian border the ofiBcers went through the car making their search for contraband hootch. But as she snuggled closer to Street and pressed her smooth cheek against the point of his waxed moustache she unexpectedly felt less lonely. Niagara Falls gave her a new estimation of the mightiness of nature and the littleness of man. For centuries this force had been at work. Now she, an atom in the cosmos, could Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET in almost the same moment look on the swirling, irresistible rush of waters and in the next, by sHghtly turning, realize that it was all created to give the visiting public an unusual place to eat their lunches and scatter the unde- voured fragments and discarded papers. It gave her the conviction that in some, in fact most, humans the enjoyment of natural beauty and eating are inseparable processes. That night she was wakeful. Street had fallen into a heavy sleep not long after he had touched the bed. Through the open window came the mighty roar of the cataract. And then for the first time she realized that he snored. As yet Jane did not feel sufficiently ac- quainted with him to wake him and ask him to turn over on his side. She lay there close by this almost stranger, drowsily wondering whether she loved him or dreaded him more. And through the window came the roar of the cataract — the sound of the snore — ^the roar — the snore — love — dread — roar — snore — and Jane herself slept. Late the next afternoon their train was pounding its way through the level stretches of 20 Digitized by Microsoft® OF GOPHER PRAIRIE New Jersey nearing New York. Jane, lan- guid, sat with her cheek on the plush of the chair back, vaguely picturing the great city she was to conquer or which was to conquer her. As she looked out the window one feature of the panorama impressed her. "Why do they have so many advertising signs?" she asked Street. "I don't know," he replied. "Perhaps the Jerseyites think their state is so dam ugly they want to cover up as much of it as they can. Or maybe it's to furnish places for the mosqui- toes to hide in the daytime." in Jane's apathy left her as they jerked through the streets in the taxi on the way from the terminal. It was still daylight and the side- walks and crossings were crowded with the human ants pouring out of the shops and oflBce buildings. She was amazed at the prepond- erance of young women in the multitude and the lujoiry of their clothing, if they were work- ing girls as they seemed to be. Most of them were under-sized and hooked of nose but quick of movement and eager of look. Almost without exception they wore fur neck-pieces or wraps and their fat and bowed legs, showing 21 Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET generously below short and scant skirts, were cased in silk stockings tipped with footgear of varying degrees of fanciness. Jane wondered. She had not learned of metropolitan ways of adding to a legitimate income. Nor had she ever heard of buying clothes and jewelry on the instalment plan. Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTER IV THE modest "Dr. Mayne Street" on a small panel of glass inside one of the lower windows, which she noticed as the taxi pulled up to the curb, told Jane she had reached her future home, if in this great, human bee-hive there could be such a thing as home. She started slowly up the steps while Street lifted out the bags and paid the ex-convict chauffeur. Suddenly, as Street joined her, the front door burst open and in the doorway there ap- peared a short, oldish-young man whose belted coat and much-oiled hair rather belied the ob- vious thickening of his waist line,.* ''Here comes the bride I Get on to her stride!" he sang to the famiUar Lohengrin march. "And do I get thekissf Well, I should ejaculate! Better late than never." Before Jane knew Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET what was happening she felt his arms around her and his thick wet lips pressed into the curve of her neck. She felt desecrated — ^unclean. That this should happen to her — Jane Carol — ^who through the four years of her college life had successfully held at bay the most expert fussers of Twin Cities. But she was no longer Jane Carol. She realized that she was Jane Street. "You old hyena, you!" he exclaimed, turn- ing his attention to Street and slapping him so vigorously on the back that the hand-bags almost fell from his grasp. "Slipped one over on us, eh? Old Doc Street. Forty years in practice and never lost a case. Well, I've sized her up and you should worry." II Recovering from her surprise Jane saw in the doorway a fat, smiling face topped by a mass of untidy, artificially reddish hair built out into two wide extensions completely hiding the ears. This combination surmounted a one-piece black velvet gown, very tight-fitting, short in the sftirt, and a square-cut neck re- vealed a necklace of large pearls and the be- ginnings of an exuberant bust. 24 Digitized by Microsoft® OF GOPHER PRAIRIE "So this is the little lady our bad boy has gone and married! Come right in, my dear," and before Jane knew it she was hugged and kissed again by a perfect stranger. She had never heard that New Yorkers were so affec- tionate. She was far from pleased by the dis- covery as it was almost inborn for her to hold herself in spinsterly aloofness from physical familiarity. "Well, Becky, I am glad to see you," ex- claimed Street. "And you too, Ike, you vil- lain. Jane, these are my good friends the Weisenheimers of whom you've heard me speak so often." "Pleased to meet you, I'm sure, Mrs. Street," smiled Mrs. Weisenheimer. "Oh, can that 'Mrs.' business," interrupted her husband. "Jane is good enough for me — Jane and Ikey — ain't that so, Jane?" Before her affronted soul could frame a reply Street had pulled back the portieres which separated the hall from the room behind it and for a moment Jane enjoyed an agreeable surprise. The window-shades had been drawn and the room was filled with a soft hght from the shielded side-brackets and candles on the table in the centre. This Jane failed to notice was 25 Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET the kind of table seen only in doctors' offices of which one leaf makes a back and the other a foot-rest when it is not in use as a table for professional purposes. On the mantel, on the tops of bookshelves, on the instrument cases and in every other available spot were flowers and potted plants in bloom, pouring forth their heavy, hot-house odors. To each was con- spicuously attached a florist's envelope pre- sumably containing a card. On the improvised table which had been covered with a tablecloth was a miscellaneous collection of viands comprising salads, pickles, sandwiches, two or three kinds of pickled her- rings like those Jane had seen the Swedes bring to picnics in Minnesota, cakes covered with thick, soft frosting in brilliant colors, all punc- tuated with glasses of varied sizes and shapes. "What did you do with the cocktails, Ikey?" asked Mrs. Weisenheimer. "Right here," he answered, opening one of the cases and producing a tray on which was a large mixer, frosted with cold, and four glasses. "Becky's best. I bet you, Doc, you ain't had a decent drink since you left New York. Has he, Jane?" "No cross-examinations now," said Street. "Where did you get the hootch, Becky?" Digitized by Microsoft® OF GOPHER PRAIRIE "Off a boot-legger gentleman, a friend of mine. And that ain't all. Down in the ice- bbx I got two bottles of genuine champagne, two bottles of sherry wine, and two of port wine." "Isn't Becky a wonder, Jane?" asked Street in an approving tone. "She certainly is," replied his wife, "but, if you'll aU excuse me, I'd Uke to go to my room a minute and freshen up." "Of course, my dear. One flight front and if you want any help ring for Bosco." ni Jane hadn't the faintest idea who or what Bosco was but she was very far from wanting to ring for anybody or anything. She wanted nothing so much as to be alone. Instinctively she found the bathroom, bolted the door and, sitting on the edge of the tub, burst into tears. She was not of the weepy sort and the out- burst was a brief one. Tearing open her bodice and wetting the corner of a towel, she vigorously scrubbed the spot on her neck that Weisenheimer had kissed. By that act she felt restored to something like her normal self. 27 Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET She dreaded what might be the consequences of her staying too long away from the others and quickly rearranging her dress started down the stairs, not even glancing at the details of the place which was to be her future home. They had pulled up chairs to the table and by her place was the cocktail she had not tasted although she noticed the glasses of the others had been emptied. "Sister, we have missed you," Ikey ex- claimed. "Now take your medicine like a nice little girl." Jane tried to with a vague idea that, if she did not. Street might be displeased. Her only experience with spirits had been infre- quent doses of gin taken medicinally and much diluted so a cocktail was an unknown quantity. As the fluid touched her throat it burned and she coughed and spluttered before she had half emptied the glass. "Don't waste it — not in these days," said Weisenheimer, as he took the glass she had put back on the table, "we'll make a loving- cup of it," and he swallowed what was left. After a Uttle even the small quantity of the drink she had taken began to have a slightly exhilarating effect on Jane but even so she felt herself an outsider in this new world. She Digitized by Microsoft® OF GOPHER PRAIRIE tried to understand their allusions to things she knew nothing of. She forced herself to smile when they were laughing heartily. She sipped the other fluids which Bosco — who turned out to be Street's Japanese man of all work — ^brought from the ice-box, but they seemed only to depress her more. At last, after the Weisenheimers had eaten what seemed to Jane unbelievable quantities of the miscellaneous food, topped oflF by large cups of coflFee which Bosco brought, there was a lull in the talk. "Well, dearie," said Mrs. Weisenheimer finally, "you must be tired after your travels. Come, Ikey, it's time for us to go home." The protest which Jane murmured was too weak to be effective although it was obvious that Weisenheimer had counted on making the festivity a prolonged one. "What sort of a wedding do you call this, anyway?" he said to his wife. "There's lots of booze left and the Doc don't get married every day. Come on, Jane, start the Victrola and we'll have a dance." "Please excuse me," said Jane. "I really am tired and I've got a headache." "All right, all right, anything to oblige the bride. Come on, Becky, get your things." Digitized by Microsoft® JANE. STREET It was apparent that Mr. Isaac Weisen- heimer was not in entirely good humor. IV When Jane went to her room — their room — she for the first time took in her surroundings. The furniture was not even of the gorgeousness of the later-period Grand Rapids and the win- dows were uncurtained. The few pictures were of the nude and semi-nude school. On the dresser and mantel were silver easel-frames containing the photographs of contemporary ladies, among them Mrs. Weisenheimer in an evening gown generous in its display. On a small table at the head of one side of the bed was an electric reading lamp and a pile of medical journals. Although Bosco had brought up the bags and opened them, Jane felt that her welcome was far from a cordial one. She sat down on the side of the bed and from below could hear Street opening a pile of letters which had accumulated in his absence. There came to her the thought of the Welsen- heimers and that they should be seemingly her husband's closest friends. Jews. She had not seen many of the race in 30 Digitized by Microsoft® OF GOPHER PRAIRIE Minnesota but she recognized the type and felt the childish repulsion which had come with her early religious training and her associating them always with the tragedy of Calvary, 31 Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTER V WHEN Street came upstairs Jane saw in his face a sullen look she had never known before. Without speaking to her he started unpacking his bag. "What is it, Mayne?" she finally asked. "What's what?" "Why are you so cross?" "Who's cross? And who wouldn't be?" "What have I done?" "It isn't what you've done but what you didn't do. Couldn't you be at least decent to my friends?" "I was as decent as I could be. Did you see how that Jew kissed me?" "No. And what do you mean by calling Ike 'that Jew'?" "Well, he is a Jew, isn't he?" Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET "What of that? In this town Jews are as good as anybody else." "I don't thinJs so." "Then you'll have to think so. Please re- member, Jane, that I've got to make my living and yours and Jews are among my best pa- tients. They all eat too much and I'm a specialist in the kind of treatment they need. Without them my practice wouldn't amount to much and they're mighty god»d pay for their doctors." "Why don't you try to get a practice among our own kind of people? " "Why don't I do lots of things? You might as well undCTstand right now. In this city the Jews have got the rest of us whipped to a finish. They own this town, lock, stock, and barrel. Folks who don't like it can move over to Jerusalem where they won't find so many of them." "And do you mean to say that Americans don't do anything about it? " "How can they? You'll hear a lot of Amer- icans cussing them out — ^when they know there are none of the tribe to hear them. And the same Americans will walk right up to the polls and vote for a Jew and their wives will spend all their money in stores run by the race." 33 Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET "I won't, for one." "Oh, yes, you will. They're smarter than we are when it comes to dealing with women and you'll find out tha:t pretty soon you'll be buying clothes designed by Jews, made by Jews, or Christians working for Jews, and from stores owned by Jews," "I don't believe it." "You'll see. And I want you to remember one thing. There are three of them on the board of the hospital of which I am visiting physician and from which I get a good lot of paying patients. I'll lose that job if they hear I've got a wife who talks about Jews. When you're talking to me you can call them Jews, Kikes, Yids, Geese, anything you like, but when you're talking to them, or about them to any one else, call them Hebrews. Forget there are any such folks as Jews — ^nothing but Hebrews." "I'll remember, Mayne. But I'm getting sleepy. Where do I sleep — ^here? " " Of course. You're my wife, aren't you? " With recollections of the snore Jane had vague hopes that the old matrimonial tradition was to be modified in some way in her favor but she was so fatigued by the day's experi- ences that she could have slept anywhere. 34 Digitized by Microsoft® OF GOPHER PRAIRIE Nevertheless she dreamed and in her dreams there kept recurring the vision of the man she had married nailed to a cross. II While they were at breakfast the next morn- ing, which happened to be Sunday, Street answered the telephone. From his tone and the occasional talk and laughter she heard, it was evident that it was not a professional call. "It's Peggy," he said as he returned to the table. "She wants to meet you and I told her we would go up there to dinner." It was a new sensation to Jane to have her movements mapped out for her by some one else without consulting her wishes. Her momentary resentment was stifled by a re- turn of the thought that she was no longer Jane Carol but Jane Street. With a vivid remembrance of Street's other friends she asked if there was to be any one there, besides themselves. "I suppose Peggy will have the whole gang. You may be sure they're all anxious to give you the once over so you'd better put on your best bib and tucker. I'll be home in time to dress but this is going to be a busy day for me. 35 Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET Got to get around and see how many of iay patients have got well while I was away." Jane took advantage of his absence to look over her new home. A house with no windows except in thefrontand rear did not fit in with her ideals of what a home should be but gave her a problem to be solved and that, with her un- packing, made the day pass with reasonable quickness. In fact, she had only just finished dressing when Street came in. "Hurry up, dear, and get dressed. It won't do for the guests of honor to be late." "I am dressed," she said. "You're the one that's going to be late." She didn't — then — understand the curious expression which came into his face as his glance swept over her and he hurried up the stairs. m Owing to delay in getting a taxi they were in fact late when they reached the big apartment house in which Mrs. O'Bryan occupied the whole of one expensive floor, i Jane u was somewhat overcofiie ^with the magnificence of the entrance and the speed of the elevator which landed them directly in Digitized by Microsoft® OF GOPHER PRAIRIE the large square hall of the O'Bryan floor. As she stepped out of the elevator she was stunned with the brilliancy of the lights, the discordant uproar of three negro players getting all the barbarous noises they could out of their instruments and the almost shrieks of the wo- men guests, all talking at once and each trying to make herself heard above the voices of the others. A waiting maid led Jane to a near-by room and helped her off with her modest wrap which was added to a collection of furred and color- ful garments already on the bed. As Jane turned from the mirror into which she had glanced to see that her hair was still smooth, the music and the chatter stopped completely. She stepped into the hall to join Street when suddenly the musicians struck up the Lohengrin march and she felt her arm puUed through that of a man and herself being walked to the door of the principal room. As she and her companion entered, the music changed to a jazz version of the Mendels- sohn composition to which so many couples have marched to their varying fates. "Ladies and gentlemen," her companion shouted, and she recognized the voice of Mr. Isaac Weisenheimer, "the bride and groom!" 37 Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET "Stop your kiddin', Ikey." This from a stout lady in a low gown with a liberal ex- posure of much-powdered sldn. "Mrs. Street* I'm pleased to know you. Sure your hus- band's a smart feUah and he's made no mis- take this time. Here's Becky. She and Ike got the start of me last night but she'll intro- duce you to the folks while I go out and have a look at the table." Somebody stopped Becky which gave Jane a chance to look about. The guests were some twenty in number, about equally divided be- tween the sexes. The dress of the women re- called to Jane a venture she had once made into a Turkish bath while she was in college. She had thought her own bodice was low in cut, in fact it had made a sensation on that account when she had worn it on the occasion of her last visit to Gopher Prairie, but she was modesty itself compared with the women about her. She noticed, too, the appallingly high and slender heels of the brocaded and beaded slip- pers worn by the others as compared with the plain black satin and comparatively low cadet heels of her own. She suddenly recalled and understood the look Street had given her before they left the house and the thought in- creased her feeling of being out of place. 38 Digitized by Microsoft® OF GOPHER PRAIRIE At table she found herself at the right of Mr. Larry Desmond, a cousin of Mrs. O'Bryan, who filled the place of host. On her right was an enormously stout man who fortunately for Jane seemed to think that the proper thing for a dinner guest to do was to devote himself exclusively to the food and drink both of which were abundant in quantity. Later on she learned that he had been a partner of the late O'Bryan and was invited simply as an ex officio member of the family. In conversation Mr. Desmond was not bril- liant, his information and his topics being seemingly confined to a knowledge of minor Tammany politics and the accomplishments of the New York Giants, each of whom he called by his first nanie. The frequent silences of this trio were not noticeable. At the other end of the table Mrs. O'Bryan sat between Street and Weisenheimer. They led in the almost continuous bursts of laughter which punctuated the competitive high speech of the women. After the dinner which, owing to her interest in making a mental catalogue of the guests, had not seemed as long to Jane as it might, the jazz band resumed its discordant efforts and everyone — except Jane — danced. On account 39 Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET of the prevalent stoutness the grace displayed was elephantine. Jane pleaded ignorance as an excuse, not caring to make a display of her fourth-commandment scruples. Being only human the jazz artists couldn't keep up their strenuous work all the time. During one of their pauses Jane heard Weisen- heimer's voice above the others. "Say, O'Scannell, let's have the sponge-cake story." It seemed that O'Scannell was the name of the fat ex-partner. "Aw, go on," he growled. "Everyone here's heard it." "Mrs. Street hasn't," said one of the stout ladies. "Go ahead, Mike, tell it." A chorus of other voices to the same effect. "Well, it was this way," he began. "Pat Flaherty gave a party" — and then followed a recital in which the words "sponge cake" recurred at frequent intervals. Every time he repeated them O'Scannell pronoimced them "spoonge cake" with a splutter on the "sp." At every repetition of this pronunciation there was a howl of laughter from the crowd in which Jane pretended to join al.though she could see nothing particularly funny in it and the story seemed to have no other point. "Come on, Peggy, give us a reel," shouted 40 Digitized by Microsoft® OF GOPHER PRAIRIE one of the men, as the prolonged sponge-cake story came to an uneventful end. "Come on, Ikey." Mrs. O'Bryan simpered that she couldn't dance so soon after eating but it was easy to see that she was flattered by the demand and had no idea of refusing. "On the table! On the table!" the rest cried out. As the players struck up an honestly ren- dered and Hvely tune of Hibernian origin, everyone went back to the dining room. Ikey lightly jumped to the top of the table to which, with the aid of some of the other men, he raised his more bulky hostess. Facing each other, she with her hands on her hips and her arms akimbo, they began a jig — followed at in- tervals by a crossing and change of places. As she turned Peggy would pick up the sides of her short skirts and display her thick ankles clad in brilliant green silk and her massive under-piiming even above where the green stopped. Then by request, a Mr. Bozinski who, as Jane was informed, was one of the rich- est magnates in the moving-picture business, told a dialect story, the interest in which hinged on the cleverness with which one Semite out- witted another in a bankruptcy transaction. 41 Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET Then more dancing, more eating, and more drinking until Street told his hostess that on account of an operation in the morning he and Jane would have to leave. As Jane sought to sleep to the accompani- ment of Street's nasal solo, she recognized that she had before her some task to impress her own ideas on the popular brand of metropolitan culture. IV It was about a week after the (yBryan dinner that Jane awoke one morning with a dull headache which, after she had bathed, dressed, and made a vain attempt to eat breakfast, disappeared and left her with a feeling of weakness and depression. She had a shut-in feeling which made her vaguely desirous of the open spaces of St. Paul or the even wider expanses of Gopher Prairie. About noon the door-bell rang and Bosco asked her if she would see Mrs. O'Bryan. Jane was in no mood to receive that voluble lady but there was always with her the feeling that if she followed her own inclinations she might do something, or omit to do something, of importance to her husband's fortunes. On 42 Digitized by Microsoft® OF GOPHER PRAIRIE that account she instructed Bosco to bring Mrs. O'Bryan up. "Why, dearie, you look as though you was sick," was the first remark of that lady as she entered the room. "It's nothing," replied Jane, "just a little nervous headache." "You young women ain't got the stayin' powers of us old-timers and you the wife of a doctor, too. But doctors never was any good in their own families. You ought to go to see Doctor Lottofaddi. All the best women in town are going to him." "Is he a friend of my husband? I never heard Mayne speak of him." "No, indeed. And don't you ever say any- thing to your husband about him. The regular doctors haven't got any use for him. He's one of them psycho-analyzers. He don't give you any medicine and his office aiu't a bit like a doctor's office. Just a room with handsome drapes and a fountain and easy chairs and sofas, and low lights. You sit there and he talks to you — ^he's got a fine voice — and you tell him things about yourself, especially about your dreams. And from that he finds out somehow that -sometime in your life you did something you ought not to 43 Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET and unbeknownst to you that's what's making you sick. It won't do you any hurt to go to see him when you ain't feeling well and the women all say that just talking to him makes them feel a lot better. You'll find him in the telephone book." Mrs. O'Bryan drifted into other subjects, none of which interested Jane, being mostly connected with dress, the amount of alcoholic beverage possessed by her different acquaint- ances, and the latest humorous speeches and accomplishments of Mr. I. Weisenheimer. She found Jane a poor listener and shortly started away to keep a luncheon and bridge engagement. This visit of Mrs. O'Bryan had a more im- portant influence on Jane's life than she knew of at the time. Back in senior year at Twin Cities she had one idle afternoon run across in the Public Library a work on psycho-analysis and the Freud theories and practice. She read enough of it to become vaguely interested and won- dered whether there was really anything in it. Now that the opportunity had offered itself Digitized by Microsoft® OF GOPHER PRAIRIE to make an investigation, Jane was not so far above the curiosity of her sex as to pass it by. The appointment with Doctor Lottof addi was easily made. She found the surroundings much as Mrs. O'Bryan had described them and that the Doctor besides possessing a deeply vibrant voice had also a persuasive and caressing manner calculated to put his lady patients at their ease and encourage their con- fidences particularly as the soothing environ- ment invited a sense of languorous non-resist- ance. Jane found him very easy to listen to and talk to. As expected he finally touched on the subject of dreams. He explained to her in non- professional language their importance in reveal- ing the workings of the subconscious mind and giving the sympathetic healer a clue to hidden causes of mental illness. She was so sure of her blameless and im- eventful past that she did not hesitate to narrate such of her recent dreams as she was able to remember. As she talked the Doctor made brief notes on a pad resting on his knee. Even this process was robbed of any semblance to a professional examination. The soft tinkle of an altar-bell announced to Jane, as she had been instructed by the 45 Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET Doctor's secretary, that the period allotted to her was ended. As he was helping her in his gentle way to resume her hat and wraps, she asked him if he thought he had made any progress in his study of her case. "Ah, dear child," he answered, "it is yet too soon to be siure of anything. That will come in our conferences later on." "And you find nothing at all? " "Only one slight indication which perhaps we will make sure or remove entirely in the future." "What is that?" Jane asked. "I find," said the Doctor in a reassuring tone, "a faint trace — only a trace — ^of the existence of the chewing-gum complex." VI As Jane left the house she felt her checks burning with shame. How did this man knOw? She recalled how easily she had glided into the hideous vice. She remembered, too, how bravely she had struggled to escape from it and how that, once she had conquered, she had so thoroughly dismissed it from her mind that 46 Digitized by Microsoft® OF GOPHER PRAIRIE only this man's words had brought back the long-discarded memory. She had heedlessly indulged in the vice without thought of its consequences until she chanced to read the rebuke administered by a veteran and respected actor to another young girl who was indulging in the habit on a street- car. "Young lady," he had said, knowing that his white hairs and benevolent looks would save him from misunderstanding, "do you not know that you are engaging in a very harmful practice? You are a remarkably pretty girl, but that constant working of your facial muscles is going to enlarge and harden them so that before long you won't be pretty at all." Reading this gave Jane her first reaUzation of the enormity of what she was doing and the extent to which she was a slave to her vice. She was naturally refined and she at once realized the vulgarity of indulging in the habit in public as well as the unpleasant spectacle afforded to everyone who beheld her rapidly moving jaws at work. At first she confined her indulgences to places where she knew that no one could see her. Then she gradually, by force of will, cut down her daily allowance until at last she was entirely free from the 47- Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET habit. As said before, she had coinpletely for- gotten her indulgence in her vice until Doctor Lottofaddi so suddenly recalled it to her. As she neared her home she began to regain her composure. Her thoughts came more clearly. She began to doubt that the Doctor had really read her dreams. She finally con- vinced herself that the whole thing was charlatanry and that his allusion to the gum- chewing complex was based on a guess that she like most women had engaged in the prac- tice in her girlhood. At all events, she never again returned to Doctor Lottofaddi's soothing and exciting treatment. VII She could not help thinking of her ex- perience. She wondered whether it was her duty to tell her husband. She hesitated to do so because it meant also confessing to him the buried and forgotten secret of her past. She had never concealed anything from him because until now there had never been anything to con- ceal. The student escapades at Twin Cities she had spoken of freely and they had both laughed at the harmless stupidity of them. 48 Digitized by Microsoft® OF GOPHER PRAIRIE That evening after dinner they were sitting in his office. She was darning hosiery and he was reveling in the baseball scores in the evening paper. This was the only literature he cared for in spite of Jane's efforts to interest him in a broader culture. The light from the Argand burner brought his face into high relief against the darker background of the room. He clung to the Argand because it was part of the house- furnishing his mother had left behind when she fled at Jane's approach. Jane did not mind the Argand because the odor of kerosene it diffused brought back subtle memories of her life in Gopher Prairie. As she paused in her work from time to time and looked at him, there flashed on her a dis- covery she might never have made if it had not been for the experience of the afternoon. She saw now with perfect understanding the regular and rhythmical but hardly noticeable movement of the jaws. She had seen it before but it had not provoked her attention until now. He was evidently an experienced and skilled addict as the motion was hardly apparent and did not extend to the mouth and lips. Nor had Jane ever found about the house any evidence of his indulgence in his vice. 49 Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET He must Lave made a practice of swallowing the remains. It was a sad moment for Jane when she realized that she had married a gum-chewer. She could hardly believe, even with the evidence of her senses, that this grown man, fastidious in his tastes and eminent in a way, was the victim of a habit which she as a weak and inexperienced girl had been able to con- quer. She hastily gathered up her work and went to her room. She felt she must go somewhere. If only she were back in Minnesota, she would have put on her overshoes and walked miles through the bracing snow or the mud and slush of Gopher Prairie. But here in New York she could only put her head out of the back window and listen to the competitive jazz of the neighbors' victrolas and player- pianos. This did not lessen the repulsion which was even greater than that she felt when she made the discovery at Niagara. This was the beginning of what was to come after. 50 Digitized by Microsoft® [The kindly reader will here, of his or her own knowledge, please supply three-hundred- and-seventy-nine pages of minute detail of Jane's further experiences and impressions in becoming acquainted with New York. The high cost of printing and a humane regard for those who will make this work a best seller, suggests the omission of a large amount of repetition and wearisome detail. Jane shopped in the department storesj her inexperience causing her to believe what they printed in their advertisements. She spent hours, simply waiting for her parcels and change, not realizing the opportunities for further purchases purposely furnished by these delays. She went to the opera and was stunned by the display of new wealth exhibited under a pretence of love for music which only bored the majority who compelled themselves to sit through it. Every time she ate in one of the better class restaurants she wondered where the patrons got the money taken from them by the exor- bitant checks. And the same wonderment 51 Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET came to her when, as a surprise to her hus- band, she tried to buy two theatre tickets out of her savings from three months of house- hold economy. Once, and once only, she was caught in the subway rush hour and saw and suffered the indignities to which women are subjected by foreign- Americans . She never ceased to marvel at the lofty build- ings plastered, on every spot where it was pos- sible to stick or paint them, with signs bearing strange names and announcing that the bearers dealt in cloaks, suits, underwear, or strictly Kosher food. She went to dinners at houses of greater social distinction than Peggy's where the enter- tainment was equally costly but not so riot- ously conducted; where the hospitality was marked by more ceremony but by similar absence of appeal to any but flippant minds. She was taken to after-the-theatre suppers at fashionable dancing places where the women were in scant evening dress and in the crowded mass on the floor men in business suits vied with others in evening clothes in toddling and squeezing and pawing the yielding forms of their thinly clad young partners. In the theatrical district the gaping crowds m Digitized by Microsoft® OF GOPHER PRAIRIE of yokels, by day and night, and the garish surroundings seemed to her a perpetual carni- val week at Gopher Prairie, only on a larger scale. Invited to a musical morning of the Pallas Athene club she anticipated from the name that at last she would come into touch with real metropolitan culture. The only touch was in the five dollars she paid for her ticket. The large gathering of women was made up mostly of be-jewelled and be-plumed stout ladies who looked as they had been poured or harnessed into their gowns. She listened to a programme which included a number by one of the operatic stars and other numbers by aspiring persons who had managed to secure the interest of the self-important lady oflBcers of the club. The important feature was the luncheon whose outstanding features were a chicken croquette and a salad whose composi- tion of grape-fruit, mayonnaise, nuts, lettuce, and other vegetables might in other circum- stances have been called garbage. Estimating the number of women, whose competitive shouting almost deafened her, Jane with her mathematical mind figured that somebody must have made a good many hundred dollars out of the event. 53 Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET Jane had two experiences which rather shook her self-confidence and sense of mental superiority. Both were dinners to which she and Street were invited by what he called "G. P.'s," meaning grateful patients, One was at an old New York home where a gentle courtesy and refined hospitality took the place of the glitter and hurrah usual with the friends more congenial to Street's tastes. The other was at the apartment of a rising and successful author who, in his impecunious days, had been the recipient of medical favors from Street and unlike most New Yorkers had not forgotten the obligation. Here the unpretentious but artistic surroundings and the mental alertness of everyone present gave Jane a glimpse into a world where she might have been content although the contact gave her a feeling of insignificance. Street did not see enough possibilities of profit in these connections to make it worth while to cultivate them.l 54 Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTER VI JANE was despairing of her ambitions to better this big town which was to be her home. Where was she to insert the entering wedge? The opportunity came when Street suggested that they ought to do something by way of return for the many courtesies they had ac- cepted, explaining to Jane the mathematical system of quid pro quo on which New York hospitality is based. Jane at once set about planning something which should be different and on a plane higher than the monotony of jazz, stuffing, and drink- ing of which she had grown hopelessly weary. She had found a shop where there was a wonderful display of things made of paper, inexpensive and calculated to deceive those Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET whose imaginations were strong enough to accept them as the things they purported to represent. She and Street sent out the invitations not only to what he called "the old crowd" but also to a few others who had it in their power to advance his professional fortunes. Among these was the pubKsher of a string of periodicals whose wife of obscure origin was trying to break into what she called "sosity." Jane was very glad that the man was in- cluded because she hoped to lead him to spread some of her own ideas instead of using his news- papers only to debauch and vulgarize their readers. The evening arrived on time. Street had been busy with his practice and had given little thought to Jane's preparations. When he came home to dress he found the house con- verted into a rural interior with paper fohage and autumn flowers. "What's all this, Jane?" he asked. "It's to be a Harvest Home party. Look in the parlor." From her grocer Jane had bor- rowed, to lend realism and further her self- M2 Digitized by Microsoft® OF GOPHER PRAIRIE expression, an assortment of actual pumpkins, cabbages, potatoes, turnips, beets, and carrots which added decorative force. Over Street's face swept a look which was not entirely of approval but it was too late for discussion. In a corner of the hall was a Victrola with records of the "Largo," the "Miserere," "Flee as a Bird," "Adeste Fidelis," and similar selections within easy reach. The march from "Lohengrin" was conspicuously nowhere to be seen. Ill As the guests arrived they were shown to the dressing rooms in which were displayed signs having the legend "This is a Harvest Home party. Choose your own costumes." On the bed in the men's room were a number of suits of overalls and straw hats of different sizes, including one outfit specially provided for Mr. O'Scannell and bearing his name. The women found a similar assortment of gingham gowns in varied checks and stripes. "I don't know what it's all about but I'm game, if the rest are," Jane heard in Ikey's voice from the men's room. From the women there was nothing but silence for a while and 443 Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET then a mixture of laughter and talk and giggles which showed her that they were entering into the spirit of the affair. The guests came down with fhe costumes provided put on over their own apparel. There was much laughter over the grotesque effects and this part of the entertainment was a success, although the fact that Jane had equipped herself in advance, and very becom- ingly, did not seem to make much of an im- pression with some of the ladies who had been accustomed to score with the elaborate- ness and expensiveness of their attire. As they scattered over the first floor they found a number of tables supplied with cards for the game of "Authors," parcheesi boards, tiddledy-winks, and picture puzzles. In Street's office the operating table had been prepared for a ping-pong game. Not a poker deck, chip, or bridge-score card in sight. Jane bustled about getting the guests arranged at the different tables. She found them a dull lot when it came to playing the games and inclined to resist taking any interest in them. At last she had them settled and made a visit to the kitchen and basement dining-room to see how Bosco was getting on with the supper arrangements. 444 Digitized by Microsoft® OF GOPHER PRAIRIE On her return she found her guests divided into two camps. In the oflBce Street had set forth glasses and bottles of alcoholic fluids with which he was Uberally supplied for medi- cinal purposes. The men had also discovered that the green cloth of the ping-pong table made an excellent field for matching half dollars on the principle of odd man out. The women had remained at the tables but had abandoned the games and were either gossiping or yawning. Jane began to feel recollections of Waterloo but she was not yet beaten. "Come on, girls," she cried. "Now for the peanut races. Push back the tables and chairs against the wall." "Peanut races? What are they?" asked Becky Weisenheimer. " I never heard of such a thing." "You'll see," answered Jane. "Come on, you men; all ready for the peanut races. The first one wiU be for ladies only and the prize will be this gilt-edged volume of 'Thoughts from Our Best Poets.'" The word "races" evoked a languid interest from the men who gathered in the folding doors at the end of the room. "Now, girls, all at this end and line 4A5 Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET up. Now, then, all down on your hands and knees." Some of the stouter ones demurred and were slow in getting into position but with Jane's assistance and slight compulsion they were finally all set. Then she produced a bag of peanuts and placed one of them on the rug before each contestant. "The rule is that you may not touch the peanut with your hands but you may roll it along with any part of your head or by blowing on it. The one who gets her peanut to the folding doors first wins the prize. Now, then, are you ready? One — two — ^three — go!" What with jostling, wriggUng, blowing, and keeping their skirts from under their knees, some of the racers were exhausted and retired from the race before it was half finished. The men cheered on the remaining contestants and Jane's party began to assume an appearance of real gayety. The prize was awarded to one of the slenderer women and then Jane announced a similar race for the men with a silver pencil to the win- ner. This was easily won by Ikey who used his shoulders to push his competitors out of his way and, when he was threatened with defeat, blew his rival's peanut well to one side of the course. 446 Digitized by Microsoft® OF GOPHER PRAIRIE "The next race will be for this two-pound box of chocolate creams," Jane announced, "and the contestants will be Mrs. O'Bryan and Mr. O'ScanneU." Urged on by the others these two took their positions and started. It was really a ludi- crous sight with Mr. O'ScanneU every instant growing redder in the face with the unusual exertion and Peggy in her eagerness making a lavish display of hosiery which in this occasion was baby blue in color. Peggy was not so handicapped by weight and was an easy winner over the puflBng and perspiring O'ScanneU. The shrieks of laughter over this event made Jane feel that after all she had not lived in vain. Ill "Now take partners for supper." "O'ScanneU, you'll have to go down alone," added Ikey to Jane's announcement. "Those basement stairs aren't very wide, you know." When they reached the dining room, the look of disapproving inquiry again came into their faces. On the table were platters of cold meat, dishes of baked beans, jars of dif- ferent kinds of Bon Ton pickles, plates of doughnuts, and loaves of cake. From these 447 Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET last Jane had purposely omitted sponge cake, fearing it might suggest another repetition of Mr. O'Seannell's story. On the sideboard were tumblers and glass pitchers filled with an amber fluid. The men's eyes turned in that direction with interest until one of them tasted it and made a wry face, "What is it?" asked one. "I dunno. Vinegar, I guess." The second made the venture. "Why, you darned fool, it's hard cider. Go up and bring down a bottle of the doc's whiskey and we'll make some stone fence." After that discovery the men took an interest in the viands but the women only made a pretence of nibbling at the food served to them on wooden plates with paper napkins. The men's voices began to drown out those of the women who again had relapsed into attitudes of complete boredom. IV Jane had never understood the practice of some New York women of making the bath, room a social centre. Having occasion to go to her own room she noted coming through the partly closed door of the bathroom the 448 Digitized by Microsoft® OF GOPHER PRAIRIE sound of women^'s voices and the odor of ciga- rette smoke. "Of course she thinks she's better than we are," Jane recognized Becky's voice. "She began it the first day she got here. Ikey and I both noticed it." "Poor Mayne," said another. "I heard he got her out of a pickle-factory. She's a pickle, all right." "I've got enough of her" — Becky again — "and her games and her peanuts and her wooden plates. Did you ever see such a supper? Tell the rest of 'em and we'll all go over to the Pazaza and have something decent to eat." Jane's nerves could stand no more. "You cats!" she exclaimed, throwing open the door. "Yes, ungrateful cats, that's what you are. Here I've done everything I could to please you and you don't appreciate what decent hospitality is. Out of my house, every one of you. I never want to see your faces again," and bolting upstairs to the next floor Jane threw herself on a bed in a storm of tears. After a little she heard Becky's voice from below. "Good-night, Mrs. Street," it said, "You don't want to see us no more, and we neither." 449 Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTER VII AFTER an interval punctuated by the slam- ming of the front door and the rolling away of limousines and taxis the house grew still. Jane finally roused herself and started down stairs to tell Bosco to begin the work of clear- ing up. As she entered the parlor she saw Street, stretched out in one of the chairs, scowling and biting the end of a half-smoked cigar^ "Well, Jane, you've done it good and plenty. You've ruined toe." "No, I haven't," she replied, having re- gained her composure. "There is a very easy way out of it. I knew something of this sort had to come. I am going to leave you." "Leave me? You don't love me." "Yes, I love you, but here I can never be anything but a hindrance to you. Your gods and my gods are different gods. I must go back to Minnesota where in the clear air and broad fields I can think things over, and with me away you will have no trouble in getting back your old friends." Digitized by Microsoft® JANE STREET The next day the final arrangements were completed. Street had made provision for Jane's future by transferring to her his inter- ests in a profitable drug-store and a popular undertaking establishment. They parted on good terms but with no definite promises for the future. Street took her to the station and they even kissed each other good-bye. As the swiftly moving train whirled its way through the picturesque advertising signs of New Jersey, Jane felt surging through her veins the sense of a new freedom and the conviction that she might yet find her true channel of self-expression. She even began to think of herself as no longer Jane Street but once more Jane Carol. II Once more Jane was back at the cashier's desk of the Bon Ton Pickle Works, diffusing a needed sweetness in its acrid atmosphere. And the next spring— if nothing happened— she would go back to Gopher Prairie and to that typical town add a new Street — perhaps a new Mayne Street. THE END Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® a' *-nj.fi^4"3|W ft