A Free Soul Page #4

- Hello, Mr. Ashe.

- Hello.

How long has this been going on?

Take your...

- Here's Mr. Harrington.

How are you? Glad to see you.

Take your wrap?

- Yes, yes, yes.

Well, well, Mr. Ashe. We've been

waiting for you. This is quite an honor.

Honor, my hat.

Hey, how long you been like this?

It's nearly five months

since you handed him back to us.

- Ace will be right down.

- Oh, don't bother him.

I've got nothing but time.

You got any, uh?

Nothing you can want,

we won't do for you, Mr. Ashe.

Yeah? Where is it?

Well, here's to the happiest spot

I've seen in a dog day.

Say, this is swell.

- Oh, Ace...

- Hi, Mr. Ashe, how they treating you?

Fine, never better.

Say, why didn't you tell me

about this place?

All right, I'll see you again, Mr. Ashe.

Plenty proud, sir. You betcha.

- Who's that, John L. Sullivan?

- No, no.

Biggest thing to happen around here,

sir, having you. Have another with me.

I'll have had one

with everyone in the house.

That's all right with me.

Anything around the place.

Okay, look here.

If you've got another case,

it's going to cost you another $ 10,000.

- You can't chisel me out of a dime.

- No, no. Nothing of that kind.

What's the matter? Didn't you send for me?

What are you telephoning about?

Well, it'll keep.

Look around, enjoy yourself.

No, no. I might want to gamble.

I don't like to be interrupted.

Go on, tell me. What is it?

- Well, it isn't easy cold like this.

- Oh, come on. Out with it, out with it.

- Well, it's about your daughter.

- Jan?

Well, what about her?

Why...

...I want to marry her.

What?

What was that?

What's the matter with that?

What's the matter with it?

The only time I hate democracy...

...is when one of you mongrels

forget where you belong.

A few illegal dollars and a clean shirt,

and you move across the railroad tracks.

Tell your boy to bring me some libations,

and don't insult your guests.

Hello there.

Hello, yourself.

Say, it's great to come up

and find you here like this.

Is it, now?

Well? What are you gonna do about it?

I was just wondering what I'd do

if you stopped dropping in.

Very interesting.

You just talked yourself

out of the warmest osculation.

Say, don't women ever want to talk?

Is this physiology or biology?

What do you mean?

Men of action are better in action,

they don't talk well.

Come on.

Now, tell me all about yourself.

- How much do you love me?

- How much? Let me see how much.

Well, it's about 10 feet high

and about 7 feet wide...

No, no. Never mind that.

Oh, I can't measure it now,

it's a storm at sea.

- You do love me, don't you?

- It's madness, nothing else.

- Listen, sweetheart.

- Oh, dear, he wants to talk some more.

What's on your mind, darling?

I want to marry you.

- Why?

- Why? What do you think why?

I'm off my nut about you,

you know I am.

Well, why make so much fuss about it,

darling?

Jan, there's something,

some part of your nature...

...that's taking it on the run from me.

Oh, don't be silly.

Why, I take it on the run

right into your arms, don't I, darling?

Yeah, just the same as your father does

for booze.

That's not nice.

You're the one person that shouldn't

speak unkindly of my father.

None of your friends know about me.

You don't tell anybody anything, do you?

- Of course not, it's my own business.

- You're not shooting over my head, Jan.

You know I've got us dead to right.

We're never seen together anyplace.

You steal up here.

Well, you got to get over this idea

you're doing me a big favor.

You're crazy about me and you know it.

Ace, darling,

I'm head-over-heels mad about you.

But what's in the future, I don't know.

I'm telling you.

Oh, no, you're not. Nobody is.

Marrying you is serious, darned serious.

It would mean the end

of a lot of things for me.

My world would close up on me

in a minute.

Ah, why worry about them?

A lot of high-hat chiselers.

Cut that, Jan, get me? Cut it.

It's cut.

Come on, put them around me.

- Leave it just where I put it.

- All right.

I know where I put it.

Come on.

Come on.

Hey, come on, faster, boys.

Police, clean up, boys.

- Come on, hurry up.

It's a raid.

Come on, get going.

- Hurry up, get it in there.

Pick it up, police.

Come on, let's go. It's a raid.

All right, now, hurry up.

Come on, get it in there.

Go on, the other one, now.

Give him a lift there.

I had a stack of $500 worth of chips.

- Come, we'll fix that up.

- Red chips.

But no... Why did they take them away?

You come up and we'll fix that.

Keep your hands...

You don't have to be...

- Come along.

It's a raid, Mr. Ashe.

- Who cares?

- Mr. Wilfong wouldn't want you mixed up.

Oh, don't raise your voice at me.

Who cares about a raid?

- Now, listen to me, won't you?

- Tell them it's Ste...

Take him upstairs.

- Hello, boys.

- Hello, Harrington.

The chief wanted us

to pay you a little visit.

Take your hands of me, you dirty swine!

Come on, now.

- I'm Stephen Ashe.

Never mind.

- I'll have you...

You... Oh, you low...

Police raid gambling house.

No arrests. That's lucky.

I don't want to hear any more about it.

I was just thinking of Grandma.

- You're a little late, aren't you?

- What do you mean?

Oh, don't do that cheap sidestepping

with me.

Can't we keep this friendly, Dad?

We always have.

We were friendly 24 hours ago.

You were laughing at me.

And even then, you were carrying on a

miserable, backstairs affair with a rat.

Why, you're nothing but a

cheap, common, contemptible...

Oh, Dad, my dear darling,

forgive me.

What could I do?

Oh, there's something very wrong...

...when we see things

as far apart as that.

Something very wrong.

Oh, Dad. But I'm not cheap.

Not even you can say I am.

I can't let you.

But Ace Wilfong...

My dear child,

he isn't good enough for you.

Even if you think you're in love with him.

Ace Wilfong...

Dad, I'm sorry I've hurt you,

dear. But you've hurt me too.

Yesterday, you won your first case

in five months.

Now, there's only one reason

why you've lost all the others.

I haven't criticized or preached, and

I wouldn't let anyone else do it either.

Oh, Jan, that isn't fair,

and you know it isn't.

I've lived most of my life

in great anxiety...

...and terrific strain and excitement.

I've had to drink as I've had to breathe,

and you know it.

Dad, I think my reasons

are better than yours.

Ace Wilfong is the only man in the world

I care anything about.

What?

I'm doing what you taught me to do:

Live my own life.

And if I fall and get hurt,

why, I'll pick myself up again.

But, Jan, darling, this isn't love.

Believe me, I've seen a lot. I know.

Well, seeing this man, as you have, well,

occasionally and secretly is one thing...

...but what if you were ever

to marry him?

- Why, in six months...

- I never thought of marrying him...

...until now.

Jan, darling.

I'm afraid things have caught up with us.

I've done you great, awful harm...

...but when I think of you with this rat...

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