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Page 5
A taxicab drew up before the canopy. He knew it was a taxicab because
he could hear the sound of the panting engine. The curb-end of the
canopy was curtained by the abominable fog. Mistily a forlorn figure
emerged. The doorman started leisurely toward this figure. Killigrew
pushed him aside violently. Molly, with her hat gone, her hair awry,
her dress torn, her gloves ragged, her eyes puffed! He sprang toward
her, filled with Berserker rage. Who had dared.
"Give the man five pounds," she whispered. "I promised it."
"Five. . . ."
"Give it to him! Good heavens, do I look as if I were joking? Pay
him, pay him!"
Killigrew counted out five sovereigns, perhaps six, he was not sure.
The chauffeur swooped them up, and set off.
"Molly Killigrew. . . ."
"Not a word till I get to the rooms. Hurry! Daniel, if you say
anything I shall fall down!"
He led her to the lift. Curious glances followed, but these signified
nothing. On a night such as this was there would be any number of
accidents. Once in the living-room of the luxurious suite, Mrs.
Killigrew staggered over to the divan and tumbled down upon it. She
began to cry hysterically.
"Molly, old girl! Molly!" He put his arm tenderly across her heaving
shoulders and kneeled. His old girl! Love crowded out all other
thoughts. Money-mad he might be, but he never forgot that Molly had
once fried his meat and peeled his potatoes and darned his socks.
"Molly, what has happened? Who did this? Tell me, and I'll kill him!"
"Dan, when they started up the street for the prime minister's house, I
could not get out of the crowd. I was afraid to. It was so foggy you
had to follow the torches. I did not know what they were about till
the police rushed us. One grabbed me, but I got away." All this
between sobs. "Dan, I don't want to be a suffragette." Sob. "I don't
want to vote." Sob.
And for the first time that night Killigrew smiled.
"Where's Kitty?"
He started to his feet. "She hasn't got back from the opera yet.
She'll be the death of me, one of these fine days. You know her. Like
as not she's stepped out of her cab to see what's going on, and has
lost herself."
"But the Crawfords were with her."
"Would that make any difference with Kitty if she wanted to get out? I
told her not to wear any jewels, but she wouldn't mind me. She never
does. I haven't any authority except in my offices. You and
Kitty. . . ."
"Don't scold!"
"All right; I won't. But, all the same, you and the girl need
checking."
"Daniel, it was only because I wanted something to occupy myself with.
It's no fun for me to sit still in my house and watch everybody else
work. The butler orders the meals, the housekeeper takes charge of the
linen, the footman the carriages. Why, I can't find a button to sew on
anything any more. I only wanted something to do."
Killigrew did not smile this time. Here was the whole matter in a
nutshell: she wanted something to do. And there were thousands of
others just like her. Man-like, he forgot that women needed something
more than money and attention from an army of servants. He had his
offices, his stock-ticker, his warfare. Not because she wanted to
vote, but because she wanted and needed something to do.
"Molly, old girl, I begin to see. I'm going to finance a home-bureau
of charity. I mean it. Fifty thousand the year to do with as you
like. No hospitals, churches, heathen; but the needy and deserving
near by. You can send boys to college and girls to schools; and
Kitty'll be glad to be your lieutenant. I never had a college
education. Not that I ever needed it,"--with sudden truculence in his
tone. "But it might be a good thing for some of the rising generations
in my tenements. I'll leave the choice to you. And when it comes to
voting, why, tell me which way to vote, and I'll do it. I'll be a bull
moose, if you say so."
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