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
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