We Can't Have Everything
r infant owe it to their victim to be rich, brilliant, and ge
en have more dignity than anybody else, because they have not l
ened to spank her-and did-and when her mother aided and abetted him, they forfeited all claim to her tolerance. The
the middle, Kedzie ran to the opposite sidewalk. She saw a policeman dashing into the thick of the motors. Her eye caught his. He beckoned to h
d on her. Why should s
tream flowed down into the yawning maw of a Subway kiosk as the water ran out of the bath-tub in the hotel. She floated down the steps and found h
was some small money. She fished out a nickel an
a card that asked, "How
One!" He shot out an angry glance with the ticket, but he melted at sight of Kedzie's lush b
him smile for smile, took up her pasteboa
at the back of her head,
s scowl relaxed. He point
re, miss, if
did Kedzie. The wicker seats were full, and so Kedzie stood. She could not reach the handles that looked like cruppers. Men and women saw how pretty she was. She was so pretty that one or
foolishly, helped the giggling Kedzie to her feet and rose to his own, gave her his place, and went blushing into t
f any one had asked Kedzie if she knew the Bronx she would probably have an
ie did not know. She had an infi
stopped at Seventy-second Street and at Ninety-sixth Street and at many other sta
tral Park and beneath the Harlem River. She would have li
e below, with street-cars on it. Also there was a still higher track overhead. Three layers of tracks! It was heavenly, the n
me young man at the front door called, "All out!" He said it to Kedz
d left his protection with some reluctance. He studied her as she walked along the platform. She seeme
the level. She was distressed to find herself in a shabby, noisy community where streets radiat
ston Road. Kedzie had no ideas as to the distance of Boston. She only knew that New York was good enough for her-the
g the rough and neglected streets were little rows of
le ragged yard with an old apple-tree in it; and there was a pair of steps up to the front door, and a rough trellis from there to
at way, used to pause and look at that little nook and
t had a sign on it that said, "To Let." It was a funny expression. Kedzie stu
seedy, frame church nearly all roof, a narrow-chested, slope-shouldered churchlet with a frame cupola for a steep
ple's gallery; one structure promulgated the glories of a notorious chewing-gum. There was a gorgeous proclamation of a
at the opera, she would take her chances on the sunniest cloud-sofa in heaven for an evening at the opera.
them from right to left in a southerly direction. Finally she abandoned the Bost
ing that her father and mother were at that moment telling their troubles to some policeman who would shortly be putting her description in the hands of detectives. She did not
extravagance. The car went sliding and grinding through an amazing amount of
where the Third Avenue Elevated collaborated with the surface-cars and the loose traffic to create a delicious pandemonium. She
Street looked like. It was probably along the Atlantic Ocean
e was caught by the gaudy placards of a moving-picture emporium. Ther
other side stood a handsome devil in evening dress. He was tugging villainously at a wicked mustache, and his eyes were thrillingly leery. Behind a curtain
e hated to spend money that was her very own. Some of the dimes and quarters in that little purse
what scathing meant, or what the pronunciation of it was. Sh
chestral uplift, and nearly classic song. This was a dismal little tunnel with one end lighted by the twinkling pictures. Tired mothers came here to escape from their children, and children came here to escape from their tired mothers. The plot
She learned the fearful joys of a limousined life, and was lured into a false marriage which nearly proved her ruin. The villain got a fellow-demon
ore, and so Kedzie knew it was a swell home. Also the
womanly, though welching, intuition led the bride to lock her door. Some manly intuition led the hero to enter the gardens and climb in through a window into the house. If he had not been a hero it would have
erywhere in the homes of the moveaux riches, and waited with drawn
ard one of those yachts which rich people keep for evil purposes. Thus the villain unwittingly sav
minister, repenting, told the hero, who told the heroine after he rescued her from the satanic yacht and various other temptation
this for herself. She prayed for a chance to be tempted so that she might rebuke some swell villain. But she intended to postpone the rebuke until she had seen a lot of high life. T
Thropp and Kedzie, and had counted on marriage to reform her surname. But she could not wait. She wanted an alias at once. The police wer
notion of being a daughter of a terrible swell family who wanted to force her to marry a wicked old nobleman, but she ran away soon
g: Kedzie Thropp was annihilated a
tenor. The song was a scatting exposure of the wickedness of Broadway. The refr
hawt for everee lig
ore. And yet it would be rather nice to have a br