Books › Blue Book v018 n04 [1914-02], 1914 › scan 196
Scan 196
Blue Book v018 n04 [1914-02], 1914
52 lines. Read by computer on 17 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1all that caterwaulin' goin' on, dearie," said she. "So I went over and had a word wit' them McNamaras—worse luck to 'em!
3"I gives the door-bell the divil's own yank and 'twas Mrs. McNamara herself that opens the door.
5"'Tis an awful rumpus that's goin' on ev'ry blessed mornin' in this neighborhood these days—which was peaceful enough before certain folks moved into it,' says I.
7"'Meanin' jest phwat, now, Mrs. Carney?' says she, looking like a icicle—the weazened thing she is.
9"'Meanin' the fiddle playin',' says I, 'which do be disturbin' the rest of better people than them as has no more sense than to be makin' the uproar,' says I.
11"At that her face gets black.
13"'My Lily,' says she, 'is ambitious. She don't intend to stay all her days in the orchestra she's playin' in now,' says she. 'Besides,' says she, "'tis time all decent and rayspectible people was awake.'
15"'Me husband,' says I, 'do be on the night shift at the foundry and has to get his sleep days,' says I.
17"'Ye talk as if that was my fault,' says she sarcastic. 'Believe me, Mrs. Carney, I had nothin' at all to do wit' it,' says she.
19"I could 'a' clawed the smug grin that she put on wit' them words. But I held me temper, dearie, and I says: 'At least ye might get yer Lily to shut them win-ders while she's practicin'.'
21"'She'll do nothin' of the sort,' says she. 'She aint the ruggedest girl in the world, and what wit' bein' inside as much as she is wit' her practicin' and playin' in the orchestra at the movin'-picture show, she needs all the air she can be gettin'. Also, Mrs. Carney,' says she, 'when ye pay the rent of this house 'twill be high time to be sayin' what goes on in it.'
23"And she bangs the door in me face. Are ye goin' to let anny new upstarts in this neighborhood put annything like that over on ye, Con Carney?"
25"I am not," said Carney with deep conviction, and he drew the blanket about him as if it had been a toga. "'Twill stop—the noise of that violin, Aggie—or I'll know the reason why. I've bought this house and paid for it all except the last three installments. I'll not be driv out of it be anny violin-scrapin', either. I'll—I'll—"
27Just what Mr. Carney was intending to do will probably never be known, for at that moment he caught sight of young Artie Concannon in the yard of the house next the one from whence came the offending squeals of the violin. A sudden smile—the first that morning—wreathed Carney's heavy features.
29"Ye might make out a complaint against it as a public nuisance," suggested Mrs. Carney.
31"That wouldn't do—it wouldn't do at all," he declared. "They've paid the rent. I suppose they have the right to do as they want. There's a better way than that. Just let me get on something a bit more dacent than this bed-spread and I'll see what can be done about it."
33"Ye're goin' across the street yourself?" asked she, and her tone implied it would only farther complicate matters if he adopted such a course.
35"I'm goin' across the street," he admitted, "but not to the McNamaras; have no fear of that."
37Presently Carney, fully dressed and smiling grimly, went out the front door. Across the way Artie Concannon, a young man with an amiable if rather weak face, was pruning the one rose bush the parental yard boasted.
39Carney crossed the street and leaned his elbows on the Concannon's fence.
41"Ye're stayin' out late this evenin'," suggested Artie, with one of his stereotyped attempts at humor.
43"Maybe," Carney admitted. "Now maybe. There's reasons," he ended, glaring savagely at the open front windows on the second floor next door, from which the strains of the classy stuff were now drifting out.
45Artie Concannon snipped off a dead shoot and grinned his sympathy.
47"Now what," said Carney, "has become of that flute ye used to be tootlin' on every night?"
49Young Mr. Concannon flushed uncomfortably.
51"Times has been hard since I lost me last job," said he. "But I have the ticket for it."
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