Blue Blood*

Mr. Johnson's Dramatic Interlude The Story. Two rivals aspire for the hand of Rita Kilblaine, nee Majendie, beautiful young widow of an old roue. One of the rivals is Dan Haggerty, he-man from the flannel-shirted West. The other rival is one Captain Daingerfield, who, by way of contrast, is no wizard at business. In fact, his obliging old uncle has settled an allowance of $20,000 a year on him with the express stipulation that he is not to attempt any more business.

Lovely Rita lives in a Manhattan mansion with her vain, affected mother, possessor of a "shrill falsetto which carried well in restaurant and at the opera," and her father, whom she adores. When the story opens, her father, caught on the short side in Wall Street, is faced with financial calamity.

Now it seems that Rita had been rather rough in her treatment of Heman Haggerty, for whom, by the way, matters are further complicated by the presence of a wife in an insane asylum. Though he will not divorce the companion of his early struggles, nevertheless he loves Rita and has hit upon a novel way of bringing her to her knees. It turns out to be Haggerty who engineered the corner in the stock market which is threatening to ruin her father. Since Haggerty is the only one who can save the old man, Rita sends for him and informs him defiantly that though she does not love him, still he holds the winning cards, and if he will save her father, she will be "his--whenever he may wish it." Somewhat staggered, he accepts the conditions, ends the corner on the market, lends her father five million to settle up his difficulties.

Time passes. Rita waits in suspense for him to hold her to her bargain. But nothing happens. Indeed, Haggerty goes off to Mexico, cleans up on a little oil affair down there, and even appears before a Committee in Washington. Also, his wife dies in the asylum. But still nothing happens. At length, unexpectedly, he returns from Washington, asks her to marry him. She refuses haughtily, though she will abide by the letter of her bargain. He swears he knows she loves him, she swears she does not. Just to "show" him, she summons Daingerfield to the conference and calmly announces that she has decided to marry the Captain if he still wishes it after hearing Haggerty's story. Then she leaves the room.

An engaging tete-`a-tete ensues, while Rita waits in suspense outside the doors.

At this juncture Haggerty exhibits a degree of imagination for which one would not have given him credit. Being a heman, he has a revolver on his hip. So he proposes that a shot be fired, and Rita, dreading a tragedy, will thereupon rush into the room calling out the name of the man she really loves. The shot is fired--just at the end of a chapter. Rita rushes into the room, calling Haggerty's name hysterically. Still, one cannot help but wonder what would have happened if she had yelled, instead: "Who's hurt?"

The fade-out follows rapidly. One assumes that Capt. Daingerfield picks up his hat and stick, and leaves in a dignified manner. Rita falls into Haggerty's arms. "'Oh, you are too strong,' she confessed with a half sigh. 'Too strong,' she repeated in a whisper, 'Thank God!' "

The Significance. Here one pauses. Just what is it ? Mr. Johnson has written a rather implausible tale about a lot of rather implausible people, caught In an assuredly implausibly situation. He calls it "A Dramatic Interlude." But that unpleasant word "potboiler" hovers in the back of one's mind. And it is the more unpleasant because there are also stored up back there such entrancing memories of his Varmint, Skippy Bedelle and Tennessee Shad. After all the red blood of those inimitable personages rather spoils one for any other shade.

The Author. Owen Johnson was born in New York, 1878, and educated at Lawrenceville and Yale.

*BLUE BLOOD --Owen Johnson --Little, Brown ($1.75).