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Show "Yes." The Captain took cut a not hook and tore a leaf from it. Then he' wrote the note with a hand that trembled, trem-bled, while the Small Girl watched him curiously. "What does it say?" she asked when it was folded. "It says, 'Come down.' " She opened it, looked at the scrawled scrawl-ed characters, and was satisfied, al-. though she could not read it. But what it really said was: "Margaret: Fate led me to the- , beach, where we had been together in those first days, and brought to me your second self, little Margaret. It has been such a long time, dear. Surely Sure-ly after all these years there is nothing noth-ing to keep us apart? Come. "Jack " .s the Small Girl laborously climbed the bluff the Captain watched her out of sight. Then he paced rest-lessly rest-lessly up and down, up and down. At last he say a woman down the beach coming, her figure half-hidden by the ascending morning mists. H went to meet her, his eager eyes taking tak-ing in the beauty of her her curls A CASE OF RESEMBLANCE By TEMPLE BAILEY. gathered up in the old way, her chteks pink with the hurry and excitement "Margaret." "Jack." There was onlv a minntfi for a silefi: roRT Publishing Company.) Over the child's face there ran a ripple of mischievous laughter. "Mother doesn't know," she gurgled, and clasped her small hands ecstatically. ecstatical-ly. "I ran away." At the flash of her blue eyes the hand of memory tugged once more at the Captain's heart. "She's asleep," went on the Small Girl, "and pretty soon she will wake up and say, 'Margaret, Margaret, darling darl-ing ' " The Captain stopped her. ''Is your name Margaret," he asked excitedly. "Ye-es," said the Small Girl. "Is your mother's name Margaret, too?" he went on. greeting, and then the Small Girl came' upon the scene. Her mother called to' her before she reached them. "Run back and get my parasol,, darling." "The red one," shrieked the Small Girl, "and can I carry it over my head?" "Yes, anything you want." The child danced out of sight, and; Mrs. Burton turned to the Captain- "Does she know?" she asked. 1 "No," he said. 1 - "Why did you come back?" "Because I am your husband and? her father, dear. I should not have gone." "But I sent von nwav " sha aaMV (Copyright, 1B02, by DAiir Si As the Small Girl with the Ruffles faced the Captain in the early morning light, he was again haunted by a resemblance re-semblance which had startled him the night before when he had met her on the hotel porch. He bad worried through a restless night and had come early to walk up and down the beach and watch the green waves, with heavy, miserable eyes, and listen to their maddening monotone. And all at once he had come upon the Small Girl. She was barefooted and stood where the waves, shallow and foam flecked, touched her toes. Her infinitest.imal skirts were gathered up in a smaii uuncn oeninu, ana more nudes nu-des than ever were in evidence. Her hair was twisted up into a knot on top of her head. And now the Captain knew why he was haunted. Somebody else had worn her hair that way. Somebody who had looked like this small maiden. But his reflections were broken in upon rudely, as the Small Girl rushed straight at him and clung to his white trousers with sand soiled hands. "It was a bigger wave," she shiver-lid. shiver-lid. "And I am awfully afraid of the tig ones." With a 'sudden rush of memory the Captain gathered her up in his arms. Somebody had clung to him once in lust that frightened wav. and snnac- wearily, and the tears trickled downi her white cheeks. "How can you forgive for-give me?" He sat down on the driftwood beside her and drew her head down on his. broad shoulder. "Because I have such a 'lovely di's--p'sition,' " he said. Into her eyes came the same flash, of mischief that he had seen in the Small Girl's. "She told you I said that?" "Yes, and it gave me courage." Down the beach came a bobbing figure fig-ure submerged in a red silk sunshade.. When the Small Girl reached tht.ni, she was evidently much uplifted by-the by-the sight of her mother with her hendt against the Captain's coat. Mrs. Burton swept her up in her- She nodded and then gasped as the Captain caught her in his arms and held her very close and kissed her. "Margaret Burton?" So many questions for such a Small Girl to answer. . "Ye-es;" the Small Girl was a little tired of so much emotion which she did not understand. "My father's name was Jack," she volunteered. "How old are you?" l.e asked, suddenly. sud-denly. "Six," was the proud answer. "I knew your mother once," he said quietly. "When I was up in heaven?" asked tho Small Girl piously. The Captain nodded, zm the Small Girl settled herself to listen. "Tell me about it," she said. "Was she a little girl then?" j 'l ' "She was very young and she had cu:1;; like yours, and eyes like yours." "everything like me but her nose," broke in the Small Girl, with her hand over her own diminutive affair. "My nc-e i-s like my father's.' Involuntarily the Captain's hand went up to his own face. "Oh, no," he cried. "You don't know," ;aid the Small Girl arrogantly. "Mother raid it was. And 1 ha.-" my father's lovely disposition." disposi-tion." "Did she say that?" demanded the Cap'i'.ir.. "Ye:;. But he went away." "lie and mother had r. quarrel. It is dreadful for reopie to quarrel," proceeded the Small Oi,l virtuously. "1 don't do it. And mother sent him away, and he went to war. and she can't write to him and tell him she is sorry, or he didn't tell her where he wad." Is your name Margaret?" he asked, excitedly. body's curls had blown across his lips, and he had kissed them. He put the Small Girl down suddenly. "Did you get wet?" he asked solicitously. solici-tously. "No," she whimpered, "but it came up to my knees and it looked so deep." He sat down on a piece of driftwood ud took her on his knee. "It's too early in the morning for little girls to be out alone " "The idiot," breathed the Captain, whose face was white and set. The Small Girl slid down from his knee and laced him wrathfully. "You shan't call him names. He's my very own father " Into the Captain eyes there came a look which the Small Girl did not understand. un-derstand. He caught the small hands in his and drew her to him. "Suppose we write mother a letter and ask her to come down." "Here?" i "Why did you come back?" arms and put her on the Captain's-knee. Captain's-knee. "It's your father, dear," she said. Burton waited for a cry of rapture, but the Small Girl was not alive -to-dramatic situations. She kissed him calmly, and then stroked his handsomo -nose with admiring fingers. "We really have very nice noses, , father." she Eieeled. |