The Coming-out of Maggie by "O Henry"

 

                             The Coming-out of Maggie

EVERY SATURDAY NIGHT, the Clover Leaf Social Club held a hop in the hall of the Give and Take Athletic Association on the East Side. To attend one of these dances, you must be a member of the Give and Take, or, if you belong to the division that starts off with the right foot in waltzing, you must work in Rhinegold's paper-box factory. Still, any Clover Leaf was privileged to escort or be escorted by an outsider to a single dance. But mostly, each Give and Take brought the paper-box girl that he affected, and few strangers could boast of having shaken a foot at the regular hops.

Maggie Toole, with her dull eyes, broad mouth, and left-handed style of footwork in the two-step, went to the dances with Anna McCarty and her 'fellow.' Anna and Maggie worked side by side in the factory and were the greatest chums ever. So Anna always made Jimmy Burns take her by Maggie's house every Saturday night so that her friend could go to the dance with them.

The Give and Take Athletic Association lived up to its name. The hall of the association in Orchard Street was fitted out with muscle-making inventions. With the muscles thus built up, the members were ready to engage the police and rival social and athletic organizations in joyous combat. Between these more serious occupations, the Saturday night hops with the paper-box factory girls came as a refining influence and an efficient screen. For sometimes the tip went 'round, and if you were among the elect that tiptoed up the dark back staircase, you might see as neat and satisfying a little welter-weight affair to a finish as ever happened inside the ropes.

On Saturdays, Rhinegold's paper-box factory closed at 3 p.m. On one such afternoon, Anna and Maggie walked homeward together. At Maggie's door, Anna said, as usual, 'Be ready at seven, sharp, Mag; and Jimmy and I'll come by for you.'

But what was this? Instead of the customary humble and grateful thanks from the non-escorted one, there was to be perceived a high-poised head, a prideful dimpling at the corners of a broad mouth, and almost a sparkle in a dull brown eye.

'Thanks, Anna,' said Maggie, 'but you and Jimmy needn't bother tonight. I've got a gentleman friend coming 'round to escort me to the hop.'

The comely Anna pounced upon her friend, shook her, chided her, and beseeched her. Maggie Toole, catch a fellow! Plain, dear, loyal, unattractive Maggie, so sweet as a chum, so unsought for a two-step or a moonlit bench in the little park. How was it? When did it happen? Who was it?

'You'll see tonight,' said Maggie, flushed with the wine of the first grapes she had gathered in Cupid's vineyard. 'He's swollen all right. He's two inches taller than Jimmy and an up-to-date dresser. I'll introduce him, Anna, just as soon as we get to the hall.'

Anna and Jimmy were among the first Clover Leafs to arrive that evening. Anna's eyes were brightly fixed upon the door of the hall to catch the first glimpse of her friend's 'catch.'

At 8:30, Miss Toole swept into the hall with her escort. Quickly, her triumphant eye discovered her chum under the wing of her faithful Jimmy.

'Oh, gee!' cried Anna. 'Mag hasn't made a hit—oh, no! Swell fellow? Well, I guess! Style? Look at 'em.'

'Go as far as you like,' said Jimmy, with sandpaper in his voice. 'Cop him out if you want him. These new guys always win out with the push. Don't mind me. He doesn't squeeze all the limes, I guess. Huh!'

"Shut up, Jimmy. You know what I mean. I'm glad for Mag. First fellow she ever had. Oh, here they come."
Across the floor, Maggie sailed like a coquettish yacht, convoyed by a stately cruiser. And truly, her companion justified the encomiums of the faithful chum. He stood two inches taller than the average give-and-take athlete; his dark hair curled; his eyes and his teeth flashed whenever he bestowed his frequent smiles. The young men of the Clover Leaf Club pinned not their faith to the graces of the person as much as they did to its prowess, its achievements in hand-to-hand conflicts, and its preservation from the legal duress that constantly menaced it. The member of the association who would bind a paper-box maiden to his conquering chariot scorned to employ Beau Brummel airs. They were not considered honorable methods of warfare. The swelling biceps, the coat straining at its buttons over the chest, the air of conscious conviction of the super-eminence of the male in the cosmogony of creation, even a calm display of bow legs as subduing and enchanting agents in the gentle tourneys of Cupid—these were the approved arms and ammunition of the Clover Leaf gallants. They then viewed the genuflections and alluring poses of this visitor with their chins at a new angle.
"A friend of mine, Mr. Terry O'Sullivan," was Maggie's formula for introduction. She led him around the room, presenting him to each new-arriving clove leaf. She is almost pretty now, with the unique luminosity in her eyes that comes to a girl with her first suitor and a kitten with its first mouse.
"Maggie Toole's got a fellow at last," was the word that went round among the paper-box girls. "Pipe Mag's floor-walker"—thus t the Give and Takes expressed their indifferent contempt.
Usually at the weekly hops, Maggie kept a spot on the wall warm with her back. She felt and showed so much gratitude whenever a self-sacrificing partner invited her to dance that his pleasure was cheapened and diminished. She had even grown used to noticing Anna joggle the reluctant Jimmy with her elbow as a signal for him to invite her chum to walk over his feet in a two-step.
But tonight the pumpkin had turned into a coach and six. Terry O'Sullivan was a victorious

Prince Charming, and Maggie Toole winged her first butterfly flight. And though our tropes of fairyland be mixed with those of entomology, they shall not spill one drop of ambrosia from the rose-crowned melody of Maggie's one perfect night.

The girls besieged her for introductions to her 'fellow.' The Clover Leaf young men, after two years of blindness, suddenly perceived charms in Miss Toole. They flexed their compelling muscles before her and tailored her for the dance.

Thus she scored, but to Terry O'Sullivan, the honors of the evening fell thick and fast. He shook his curls, smiled, and went easily through the seven motions for acquiring grace in your own room before an open window ten minutes each day. He danced like a faun; he introduced manner, style, and atmosphere; his words came trippingly upon his tongue; and he waltzed twice in succession with the paper-box girl that Dempsey Donovan brought.

Dempsey was the leader of the association. He wore a dress suit and could chin the bar twice with one hand. He was one of 'Big Mike' O'Sullivan's lieutenants and was never troubled by trouble. No cop dared to arrest him. Whenever he broke a push-cart man's head or shot a member of the Heinrick B. Sweeney Outing and Literary Association in the kneecap, an officer would drop around and say:

'The Cap'n'd like to see you a few minutes round to the office when you have time, Dempsey, me boy.'

But there would be sundry gentlemen there with large gold fob chains and black cigars, and somebody would tell a funny story, and then Dempsey would go back and work for half an hour with the six-pound dumbbells. So, doing a tight-rope act on a wire stretched across Niagara was a safe terpsichorean performance compared with waltzing twice with Dempsey Donovan's paper-box girl.

At ten o'clock, the jolly round face of 'Big Mike' O'Sullivan shone at the door for five minutes upon the scene. He always looked in for five minutes, smiled at the girls, and handed out real perfectos to the delighted boys.

Dempsey Donovan was at his elbow instantly, talking rapidly. 'Big Mike' looked carefully at the dancers, smiled, shook his head, and departed.

The music stopped. The dancers scattered to the chairs along the walls. Terry O'Sullivan, with his entrancing bow, relinquished a pretty girl in blue to her partner and started back to find Maggie. Dempsey intercepted him in the middle of the floor.

Some fine instinct that Rome must have bequeathed to us caused nearly everyone to turn and look at them—there was a subtle feeling that two gladiators had met in the arena. Two or three give-and-takes with tight coat sleeves drew nearer.

'One moment, Mr. O'Sullivan,' said Dempsey. 'I hope you're enjoying yourself. Where did you say you lived?'

The two gladiators were well-matched. Dempsey had, perhaps, ten pounds of weight to give away. The O'Sullivan had breadth with quickness. Dempsey had a glacial eye, a dominating slit of a mouth, an indestructible jaw, a complexion like a belle's, and the coolness of a champion. The visitor showed more fire in his contempt and less control over his conspicuous sneer. They were enemies by the law written when the rocks were molten. They were each too splendid, too mighty, and too incomparable to divide preeminence. Only one must survive.

'I live on Grand,' said O'Sullivan insolently, 'and no trouble to find me at home. Where do you live?'

Dempsey ignored the question.

'You say your name's O'Sullivan,' he went on. 'Well, "Big Mike" says he never saw you before.'

'Lots of things he never saw,' said the favorite of the hops.

'As a rule,' went on Dempsey, huskily sweet, 'O'Sullivans in this district know one another. You escorted one of our lady members here, and we want a chance to make good. If you've got a family tree, let's see a few historical O'Sullivan buds come out of it. Or do you want us to dig it out of you by the roots?'

'Suppose you mind your own business,' suggested O'Sullivan blandly.

Dempsey's eyes brightened. He held up an inspired forefinger as though a brilliant idea had struck him.

"I've got it now," he said cordially. "It was just a little mistake. You ain't no O'Sullivan. You are a ring-tailed monkey. Excuse us for not recognizing you at first."

O'Sullivan's eye flashed. He made a quick movement, but Andy Geoghan was ready and caught his arm.

Dempsey nodded at Andy and William McMahan, the secretary of the club, and walked rapidly toward a door at the rear of the hall. Two other members of the Give and Take Association swiftly joined the little group. Terry O'Sullivan was now in the hands of the Board of Rules and Social Referees. They spoke to him briefly and softly, and they conducted him out through the same door at the rear.

This movement on the part of the Clover Leaf members requires a word of elucidation. Back of the association hall was a smaller room rented by the club. In this room, personal difficulties that arose on the ballroom floor were settled, man to man, with the weapons of nature, under the

supervision of the board. No lady could say that she had witnessed a fight at a clover leaf hop in several years. Its gentlemen members guaranteed that.

So easily and smoothly had Dempsey and the Board done their preliminary work that many in the hall had not noticed the checking of the fascinating O'Sullivan's social triumph. Among these was Maggie. She looked around for her escort.

"Smoke up!" said Rose Cassidy. "Wasn't you on? Demps Donovan picked up a scrap with your Lizzie-boy, and they've waltzed out to the slaughterroom with him. How's my hair done up this way, Mag?"

Maggie laid a hand on the bosom of her cheesecloth waist.

"Gone to fight with Dempsey!" she said breathlessly. "They've got to be stopped. Dempsey Donovan can't fight him. Why, he'll—he'll kill him!"

"Ah, what do you care?" said Rosa. "Don't some of 'em fight every hop?"

But Maggie was off, darting her zigzag way through the maze of dancers. She burst through the rear door into the dark hall and then threw her solid shoulder against the door of the room of single combat. It gave way, and in the instant that she entered, her eye caught the scene: the Board standing about with open watches; Dempsey Donovan in his shirt-sleeves dancing, light-footed, with the wary grace of the modern pugilist, within easy reach of his adversary; Terry O'Sullivan standing with arms folded and a murderous look in his dark eyes. And without slackening the speed of her entrance, she leaped forward with a scream—leaped in time to catch and hang upon the arm of O'Sullivan that was suddenly uplifted, and to whisk from it the long, bright stiletto that he had drawn from his bosom.

The knife fell and rang on the floor. Cold steel was drawn in the rooms of the Give and Take Association! Such a thing had never happened before. Everyone stood motionless for a minute. Andy Geoghan kicked the stiletto with the toe of his shoe curiously, like an antiquarian who has come upon some ancient weapon unknown to his learning.

And then O'Sullivan hissed something unintelligible between his teeth. Dempsey and the board exchanged looks. And then Dempsey looked at O'Sullivan without anger, as one looks at a stray dog, and nodded his head in the direction of the door.

"The back stairs, Giuseppi," he said briefly. "Somebody'll pitch your hat down after you."

Maggie walked up to Dempsey Donovan. There was a brilliant spot of red on her cheeks, down which slow tears were running. But she looked him bravely in the eye.

"I knew it, Dempsey," she said, as her eyes grew dull even in their tears. "I knew he was a Guinean. His name is Tony Spinelli. I hurried in when they told me you and him were scrappin'.

The Guineas always carry knives. But you don't understand, Dempsey. I never had a fellow in my life. I got tired of coming with Anna and Jimmy every night, so I fixed it with him to call himself O'Sullivan and brought him along. I knew there'd be nothing doin' for him if he came as a dago. I guess I'll resign from the club now."

Dempsey turned to Andy Geoghan.

"Chuck that cheese slicer out of the window," he said, "and tell 'em inside that Mr. O'Sullivan has had a telephone message to go down to Tammany Hall."

And then he turned back to Maggie.

"Say, Mag," he said, "I'll see you home. And how about next Saturday night? Will you come to the hop with me if I call around for you?"

It was remarkable how quickly Maggie's eyes could change from dull to a shining brown.

"With you, Dempsey?" she stammered. "Say, will a duck swim?"