FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   229   230   231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245  
246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253   254   255   256   >>  
sought and enjoyed "here, there and everywhere." The idea is repugnant to Florence, who is unusually fine in her ideas of propriety; but she comes to see that Ella's way is the only outlet for youth and the desire for companionship, brightness, life. She is very choice in her selection of escorts, and never permits any young man she meets to discover even where she lives. The owner of the tenements is a bored, money-spoiled young man--Alexander Blinker. His lawyer tries to make him take enough interest in his tenements to change the leases so that the girls can have a place to meet gentlemen with the shield of propriety. Blinker is too anxious to get to a golf tournament even to listen. Florence grows used to her role of "Everybody's Girl," and while she is decidedly decorous, she learns the arts and affectations of the "street meeting." Blinker has to come to his lawyer in order to sign some important documents; they are not prepared. He must stay in the city over Sunday. The idea fills him with disgust; he longs for the hunting trip he has planned. In sheer desperation he decides to do that which his butler considers equivalent to jumping from the window, in view of his social status--Blinker determines to go to Coney Island. His experiences may be imagined as he is pushed and jostled by the rough-and-ready pleasure-seekers. He gets on the boat and is seen by Florence, who regards him as a prospective escort and so conducts herself that he is virtually forced into conversation, and with no experience to guide him in this strange method of introduction, he manages to bear himself suitably, to the end that the two debark at the island of pleasure-seeking and set out to enjoy themselves, Florence being the guide, by virtue of her experience. At first Blinker feels entirely out of his element, but Florence shows him the spirit in which to accept the tinsel and the rude fun-making. He soon comes to like it--and to think very well of the naively "different" girl beside him. He is treated like all her other cavaliers at the time and place of parting--she goes home alone. He returns to his apartment with a new idea of the city's possibilities. That same evening Florence finds an intruder unceremoniously invading her room--a "gang" leader who believes the shot he has just fired at an adversary has been fatal in its effect. He tells her his story, but says he did not do the shooting. She believes him, and wh
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   229   230   231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245  
246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253   254   255   256   >>  



Top keywords:
Florence
 

Blinker

 

experience

 

tenements

 

propriety

 

pleasure

 

lawyer

 

believes

 

seeking

 
island

virtue

 

debark

 

suitably

 

prospective

 

seekers

 

pushed

 

jostled

 
escort
 
conducts
 
strange

method

 

introduction

 

conversation

 

virtually

 

forced

 

manages

 

invading

 

unceremoniously

 
leader
 

intruder


possibilities
 
evening
 

shooting

 
effect
 
adversary
 
apartment
 

returns

 

making

 
element
 
spirit

accept
 

tinsel

 

naively

 
parting
 
cavaliers
 

imagined

 

treated

 

Alexander

 

spoiled

 

discover