Page:Angna Enters - Among the Daughters.djvu/272

 route. "Since you do not know Chicago you have not met Capone. Capon! What a name for such a strong man! Him I should like to meet. It is said he is the true ruler of America?"

"I don't know about that. Of course, he's the head gangster, but Piselli is the Capone of New York."

"Oh Piselli! I find him bourgeois, always talking of his sons becoming gentlemen, and how he would like to visit his old mother in Castiglia."

"He may be a mother's boy in Italy but, oh boy! what a bastard he is here. At that, he's better looking than Capone who is a big ape. I've seen him."

"The appearance of a man is not of a final consequence."

Lucy considered this. "You said it. I don't care for men who have nothing but looks."

Simone lit a cigarette. "You mean they must have something of substance as well?"

Lucy cocked her head and looked at Simone out of the corner of her sparkling eyes. "I don't mean what I think you mean. Everybody likes money. It's fun, if you haven't had it, to buy things, but after you've got the things then what? All you can do with money is spend it, but you never seem able to buy what you really want. It sounds silly, I know, but I don't want things, like furs and diamonds, from a man. I'd rather buy my own—I'll never be a good gold-digger. I like a man who can teach me things, someone who does things himself. If I weren't a dancer and if I had a lot of money and time I think I would keep on going to school, because there are so many things I'd like to learn."

She is telling me of Paul, thought Simone unhappily, and with an effort said as lightly as she could, "Of course money does not make one happy, but it is good for the nerves. What a charming student you would be. And what would you study?"

"Well, for one thing, I'd like to be an artist."

Simone was startled. "A painter!"

"Oh no, I couldn't draw a straight line if I tried. I'd like to be an artist of the dance."

"You are not that now?"

"Not the way I mean. I don't even know how to get to be one. I know you are an artist but I don't know why. All I know is that the artists I know seem to get more out of life, have a special way of understanding, if you know what I mean."

"My dear, that is an illusion. It is true that artists make 260