Show b h 99 I 1 the narrow hot stifling concert hall was filled to overflowing with the class of people who follow in the wake of the song and dance girl in the far west paying lavishly tor for the entertainment furnished by a weak weal unmusical voice singing to the ac compani ment of a wheezy piano or a discordant fiddle called by courtesy a violin on this occasion the audi ence composed mostly of miners and cowboys were treated to a surprise for the girl who sung and danced was both young and pretty with less rouge and more natural cerms chi than any of her predecessors la in the con cert hall stage stape she could sing too and that with out straining ber voice into a dis ills corrance cor dance and she danced the most difficult fancy dances with a grace and intelligence that showed not only superior training but an artistic con caption of its value and her stage byplay and side coquetries were as effusive and harmless as those of a child the too vivid color of her yel low hair was undoubtedly due to chemicals but it was one strong con cession to the tastes of her audience she was billed as the girl with the yellow hair and tried faithfully to live up to her reputation she sho was singing with quaint humor that had a serious side tot a popular travesty dancing down the rude platform stage between the 11 lines ne s any old place under my hat Is home sweet home to me As she danced to the edge of the stage she stopped singing and tor for a moment stood poised motionless on the tips of her slim well formed feet her face rigid like a mask a quick look of terror in her eyes A man roughly dressed with his trousers tucked into his boots had just enter ed the place he carried a buggy whip in his hand and was greeted with cries of sit down stop inter the sing n and thankful for the diversion of this criticism the girl with the yellow hair started her song anew and sung with so much spirit and charm that she was wildly applauded and danced off the stage kissing her hand with Ini mitar ble grace to her fasel petted audience who encored her and loudly only to be told by tho the manager that she would not appear again she had retreated to the back of the hall to an alcove that served as a dressing room the man who bad had disturbed her singing found her bo h young and pretty A sudden pallor had settled on her face when sho she turned to meet him what brings you here john dem minga she asked with constraint and impatience I 1 knew if you dis ills covered who I 1 was you would be angry with me tor for coming to this place where where oh how could you make it so hard tor for me when I 1 too was learning to forgets I 1 im M not here of my own free will rose you may feel sure of that when wa we two parted we parted for keeps and I 1 haven t any claim on you I 1 tt t s some one else elizabeth gasped the girl her lips whitening has anything hap bened to elizabeth oh I 1 will never forgive you in this world or in the next it if come with me then if you want what brings you here john deming to see her alive said the man he ile was not purposely brutal but his tones were hard and even hard as nails the woman caught his arm elizabeth dying my elizabeth oh god my punishment has come too soon and I 1 have worked so hard and lived only for her take me to her at once she had caught up a be flowered hat with much lace falling in festoons from the brim and woud have rushed from the place but the man stopped her not in that rig rose for god a 8 sake something to cover you from prying eyes from elizabeth who does not know quick I 1 isn t this a cloak wrap it round you and throw the hood over your head now come he ills buggy was at the door and he swung her inte into it and drove away as he had done so many times in the past when she had the first right to his care As they rode rapidly over the four miles between them and the farmhouse where her child lay dying she I 1 ad time for a severe and ing retrospect she had never meant to abandon elizabeth but the law of the state had given the child to the father and the step she had taken in a fit of foolish jealousy had become irrevocable john demming bad had not been an unkind husband so far as words or deeds went but he believed that any woman who h had ad a root provided to cover her head and three ahree meals daily should be happy an ab sence of tf unkindness was his sole claim laim to tenderness the woman at his side fleeing through the night could feel the granite of his nature in the touch of his rigid arm as he drove he was as more like cast iron than flesh and blood even so it was not from that she had run away avay in the two years since she had not heard from him or of him she groaned aloud as the thought ol 01 her child and the awful renunciation to v nich the law had compelled her the man sitting beside her was no longer her husband she asked who has cared tor for elizabeth A good woman a nurse and the child wao wa fond of her but she has always wanted anted you it really is strange that she can remember she has asked for you often but I 1 hoped she would forget and be happy I 1 am not afraid to see her she straightened herself proudly my innocent child will know her mother has done no wrong I 1 was driven to the step I 1 took people have said no harm of me but they talked of you and bachel rachel dov nes until my heart broke I 1 dare say I 1 was foolish to be lieve them she waited to hear him deny or affirm but when he spoke again it was to his horse and soon they were at the farah loue auoe go in he said more gently than he had yet spoken she Is in the south bedroom down stairs she threw off her cloak as an she passed through the narrow batry and unmindful of what sho she wore stood by the bed on which a little girl lay transparently thin and wan reaching up wasted arms to this radiant figure at her bedside my beauty mamma my angel mamma and they were in each other s arms 1 I 1 new you would come to take me away with you with you mamma you look just like you do when you come to see me every n night ight but papa said it gasn wasn t you A As s if elizabeth didn dian t know tho the nurse a pleasant faced silent woman hovered near and john dem ming coming in stood at the head of the bed with his arms crossed on his breast the little girl fixed he her dark sunken eyes on her mothers mother s face on or the nimbus of yellow hair on the despised tawdriness that her 4 father wanted concealed and a beav enly only smile broke over her thin teat feat ures gosp my mamma my beauty mamma she said with a sigh of ineffable sat Is faction and with that sigh the lit te tie elizabeth had passed beyond the lines 0 ot f contention john demming forgetting tor for the moment everything but that rose was the mother of his dead child held out his hands to her in her great anguish but before she could respond the nurse said quietly your wife wants you mr dem dern ming ghe he wae was looking at some one in the doorway beyond rose a bold looking young woman with snapping black i eyes and defiant manner who carried herself with the air of one who felt at home it was she who had been rachel downes mrs M L rayne in chicago record herald |