Mr. Soft Touch

Plot

She takes him to the Borden Street Settlement House, where the down-and-out are helped. As they get better acquainted, Jenny and Joe begin falling in love, though she turns down his advances, as she believes he is Victor. Joe falls from a ladder while hanging some Christmas decorations tumbling onto and breaking an old upright piano. He later goes to a nearby piano store (which he knows is actually a front for a backroom gambling parlor), and pretending to be a detective newly assigned to the precinct, cons the so-called salesman/owner into donating a piano in return for Joe turning a blind eye to the illicit activities. However, he is recognized by local

Byrd tries to find out from Jenny if Joe is staying at the settlement house, but she refuses to tell him anything. From Byrd's descriptions and questions, Jenny figures out that Joe is not Victor. When she finds out Joe has acquired a pistol, she insists that he leave the premises. During their argument, he describes his lifelong drive to get out of the "gutter" where he was born, and accuses her of living in an ivory tower and not knowing the real sordid underside of life; she shames him by telling of how a drunken blow from her father in her childhood rendered her deaf, so she has to use a hearing aid.

Byrd tries to get Joe to tell him the name of the man providing protection to the crooks, but Joe refuses to talk. When he collects his hidden loot, Jenny pleads with him to give it back so they can start a life together afresh. He counters by asking her to leave the country with him. Neither accepts the other's proposal. Meanwhile, the mobsters force Clara to tell them where Joe is hiding out and start a fire at the charity house to smoke him out. They recover the money, but the settlement house is left smoldering in ruins. Joe tries to justify himself to Jenny, but she pulls out her hearing aid to show him she is not listening.