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Show f THE BINGHAM NEWS Frhe GIRL in theMIRROR l By I ELIZABETH JORDAN X s ( by The CeMary Compear.) WHO Nrv . . : CHAPTER IV A Pair of Graf Eyes On their way to the restaurant Laurie had elected he chatted to hit companion In hla buoyant, Irresponsi-ble fashion, but be had put through the details of the episode with tact and delicacy. He knew that lo front of a club two doors away from the studio building short line of taxi-cab- s was always waiting, with te vast patience of their kind. A ges-ture brought one of these to the door, and when It had squawked '.is way around the corner, the girl remained In Its shelter until Laurie had briefly his own building and emerged again, wearing bis coat and lint. They drove to a quiet place where the food and service were excellent, while the prices were an effective bar-He- r against a crowd. When he and his companion were seated on oppo-site sides of a table In an Isolated corner, Laurie confided hla order to the waiter, urged that willing Indi-vidual to special haste, and smiled apologetically at the lady. "I'm hungry," he said briskly. "I haven't had any breakfast this morn-ing. Don't be surprised If I seem to absorb most of the nourishment In the plnce." He studied her as he spoke. It was easy to do so, for she seemed almost to hnve forgotten him and her sur-rounding. 8he sat drooping forward a little In her pet attitude, with her elbows on the table, and her chin In her hand, staring through the window with the look he had seen In the mir-ror. The lethargy he drended again enveloped her like a garment. Ills heart sank. Here was some-thing more thon the victim of a mad but temporary Impulse. Here was a STORY FROM THE START Ijiurle Devon, gay young chap aomewhat Inclined to wlld-- f Pfii, haa recently aueceadrd a playwright. III! wealihy ale-If- ir Bnrbara, who hi helped him to sunreed, has J nut been mar-- I rleil and la going to Japan, lenv-- ! Ins Laurie on hla own. L'pateln and Hanga, hla theatrical part nera, have promised Barbara to keep i.n eye on Laurie. They cold him for hla lailneee of lute. and he retnrta (hat he aeeks ad-- ! venture. From hla window In New York he aeea the reflection of a beautiful girl In a mirror In the house opposite. From the etevntor boy In the girl's houae Laurie learna th glrl'i nam la Miyo. CHAPTER III Continued 5 What to dot Laurie proceeded with his toilet, using the dressing-can- e and carefully avoiding , the long mirror. He experienced an odd unwillingness to look Into that mirror this morning, based partly on delicacy he remem-bered the nightdress - hut more on the fear of disappointment. If he saw Imr. It would be an Immense relief. as she spoke, and held them steadily. Under his expression, one that few had seen on his face, her look of an-tagonism softened a little. He ad-vanced slowly to the table between them. "it will take a few minutes to ex-plain," he said. Then, us she waited, he suddenly formed his plan, and fol. lowed the good old Devon principle of going straight to the point. "I live diagonally across the square," he said quietly, "and I can see Into your window from one of mine. So It happened that Just now I I saw what you were going to do." For an Instant she stood very stll looking at him, as If not quite taking In the meaning of his words. In the next her face and even her neck crim-soned darkly as If under the rush of a wave of angry humiliation. When she spoke her voice shook. "Ton forget," she SHld. "that you have no right either to look Into my room or to Interfere with what you see there." "I know," he fold her, humbly, "anil I beg your pardon again. The looking In was an accident, the merest chance, which I will explain to you later. The Interference well, I won't apologize "Come, let me have that," he suggest-ed, Imperturbably. "Then we'll talk things over. I'll try to make you real-ize what I was made to realize m-yselfthat we were both on the wrong track. I'll tell you what others think who are wiser than we are." As she did not move, he added, more lightly: "You see, what we were go-ing to do Isn't done much nowadays. It's all out of date. Come," he re-peated, genly, "let me have It." With a movement of Irritation the girl swept her hand forward and tossed on the table between them the small revolver she had been holding. "Take It," she snld, almost Indiffer-ently. And she added, "Another time will do as well." He (ilcked up the little weapon and put It Into his pocket. "There Isn't going to be any other time," he predicted buoyantly. "Now, slip Into a coat while I run across the street and get my hat and coat and order a taxlcah. U'e're going out fa luncheon, and to tell each other the stories of our lives, with all the grim and gory details. "I don't know you," muttered the girl. She had dropped Into a chair beside the table, and was sitting with Tor that, surely yon realize tnat It s friendly." For the first time her eyes left his. She looked around the room as If un-certain what to do or say. "Perhaps you mean It so," she mut-tered at last. "Hut I consider It Im-pertinent." A change was taking place In her. The fire that had flamed up at his en-trance was dying out, leaving her with the look of one who Is cowed and al-most beaten. Kven her last words lacked assurance. Watching her In puzzled sympathy, Laurie for the first time wished himself older and wiser than he was. How could he handle a situation like this? Neither then or later did he ask himself how he would have handled It on the stage. For a moment the two young things gazed at each other, In helplessness and Irresolution on his side, In resent-ful questioning on hers.' Even in the high tension of the moment Laurie subconsciously took In the picture she made as she stood there, defying hltn, with her back to the wall of life. She was very lovely, more lovely than In the mirror; for now he was getting the full effect of her splendid coloring, set off by the gown she wore. i victim or a sick soul, or or a ouraen greater than she could bear, or per-haps of both. He decided that what-ever her trouble might be, It was no new or passing thing. Every curve In her despondent figure, every line In her worn, lovely face, suggested a vast weariness of flesh and spirit. In this moment of realization he al-most forgot the girl's beauty, though, Indeed, It was not easy to forget. It seemed enhanced rather than dimmed by the haze of melancholy that hung over It, and certainly there was noth-ing dim In the superb red-gol- color-ing of her hair. Her eyes seemed red-gol-too, for they were reddish-brow-with flecks of yellow light In them, quite wonderful eyes, lie told him-self that he hnd never seen any Just like them. Certainly he had rarely seen anything to equal the somber misery of their expression. There was a remoteness In them which repelled sympathy, and which whs Intensified by the haughty curve of the girl's short tipper lip. She was proud, proud as the devil, Laurie told himself. Again, and very humbly, he won-dered how he was to handle a situa-tion and a personality so outside his own experience. In truth, he was afraid. When the food came, her expression changed. She shot a quick look at him, a glance at once furtive and sus-picious, which he saw but Ignored. He had dismissed the waiter and was serving her himself. In the simple boyish friendliness of his manner she evidently found reassurance, for she If he didn't, he'd fancy all sorts of tilings, fur now his Imagination was ri'nnlng away with him. When he was fully dressed he crossed the room in three strides and stopped before the mirror with a sud-denness that checked him halfway In I lie fourth. Miss Mayo's window was open. He rould see that. lie could see more than that, and what he saw sent him rushing through the study and out into hall of the big apartment build-ing, where he furiously rang the ele-vator bell. He had not stopped for It In hat nnd coat, but he had caught a vision of Hangs' astonished face and half of his startled exclamation, "What the dev " The elevator came and Laurie leaped Into It . "Down," he aald briefly. The operator was on his way up to the twelfth floor, but something In the expression of his passenger made him change his plans. Also It accel-erated his movements. The car de--' scended briskly to the ground floor, from which point the operator was privileged to watch ,the progress of the temperamental Mr. Devon, who had plunged through the main en-- '' trance of the building and across the square without a word to the hall at-tendants, or a backward glance. AS he reached the studio building Laurie recalled himself to a memory of the conventions. He entered with-out undue haste, and sought the door ' of the waiting lift. It was noon, and an operator he had not seen before was on d"ty. "Top floor," directed Laurie, and stepped Into the car. The operator hesitated, ne did not remember this tenant, but he must belong to the house, as he wore no hat or coat. Probably he was a newcomer, and had run downstairs to mall an Important letter, as the old building held no mall chute. While these reflections passed slowly through his mind, his car rose as slowly. To the mentally fuming young man at his side Its progress was Intolerably deliberate. He held himself In, however, and even w nt through the pantomime of paus-ing In the top-floo- r hall to search a pocket as if for a latchkey. Satisfied, the attendant started the elevator on Its descent, and as It sank from sight Laurie looked around him for Number Twenty-nine- . He discov-ered It In an eye-flas- on the .door at the right. T'.ie next Instant he had reached this door and was softly turn-ing the knob. The door did not yield. He had not expected It to give, and he knew exactly what be meant to do. He stepped back a few feet, then with a rush hurled his shoulder against the ,' wood with the full force of his foot-- ' hull training In the effort. The lock a thing of rich but somber shades, lit up by a c necklace of amber and gold, that hung almost to her knees. Yes, the girl was a picture against the tinforgetable background of that tragic situation. But what he ad-mired most of all was the dignity that shone through her panic and her She was up In arms against hi in. And yet, If he hud not come, If that vision had not flashed Into bis mirror five" minutes ago, she might now have been lying a huddled, life-less thing on the very spot where she stood so proudly. At the thought his heart shook. The right words came to him at last. "I've had Impulses like yours," he snld. "I've had them twice. For-tunately, both times there was some one around to talk me out of them." He had caught her attention. She showed that by the way she looked at him. "The argument that Impressed me most," he went on, "was that It's quitting the game. You don't look as If you were a quitter," he ended, thoughtfully. The girl's eyes biased. He had aroused her once more, and he was glad of It. He didn't know at all what to do or say, but he dimly felt that almost any emotion In her would be better than the lethargy she had Just revealed. "I'm not a quitter!" she cried. "But I've got dignity enough to leave a place where I'm not wanted, even If that place happens to be the world. Go away !" she added fiercely. "Uo away and leave me alone!" Besting one hand on the table be-tween them, he held out the other. "Come, Let Me Have That," He Imperturbably. her chin In her hand. In what seemed a characteristic attitude, watching him with an expression he could not analyze. Laurie seemed surprised. "Why, so yon don't!" he agreed. "But you're going to, now. We're going to know each other awfully well before we get through. In the meantime, you can see by the merest glance at me how young and harmless I am. Where's the coat?" He turned and begun a vague, masculine search for It. The girl wavered. His rising spirits were con-tagious, and It was clear that she dreaded being left alone. "I warn you," she said at last, "that If you have anything to do with me you will be sorry for It." Laurie stopped his search, and, turning, guve her one of his straight looks. "Why?" he demanded. "Because I'm In a net," she said. "And every one who tries to help me gets caught In It, too. Oh, don't smile! You won't smile afterward." lie picked up a coat he discovered In a corner, and held It for her to slip Into. "I like nets," he remarked lightly, "especially If they're bright-colore-large, roomy, comfortable nets. We'll have some great times In ours. Come along." She shrugged her shoulders, and In the gesture slipped Into the garment "I'll go," she said. In a low voice. "But don't forget that I warned you!" suddenly sat up and began her break-fast. Laurie exhnled the breath he had been holding. Up till the last mo-ment he had feared that she might see through his subterfuge In taking her there, and even now refuse the food he offered. But If In that fleet-ing Instant she felt doubt. It had died as It was born. She drank her coffee slowly nnd ate her eggs and toast as deliberately, but her characteristic air of intense preoccupation had depart-ed. She looked at her companion as If she really saw hltn. Also, she ap-parently felt the stirring of some sense of obligation and need of re-sponse to this friendly stranger. She was answering him now, and once at least she almost smiled. Watching the little twitch of her proud and perfect upper lip, Laurie felt his heart-beat- s quicken. She was a wonder, this girl ; and with his de-light In her beauty and her pride came another feeling, almost as new as his humility an overwhelming sympathy for and a desire to help another. These sentiments served as needed balance to his spirits, which, as al-ways, mounted dangerously when he was Interested. He held himself down with dlltlculty. ' This was no time r the nonsense that he loved to talk. One doesn't rescue a lady from suicide and then try to divert her mind with innocent prattle. One gives her a decent time to pull herself together, and then, with tact and sympathy, one gets to the roots of her trouble, If one can, and j helps to destroy them. Despite his limited experience with drama off the stage, Laurie knew this. Because he ' was. very young and very much In earnest, and was talking to a young thing like himself, though In that hour she seemed so much older, he Instinc-tively found the right way to approach the roots. They had finished breakfast, and he had asked and received permission to smoke. When he had lighted his ciga-rette and exhaled his first satisfying puff of smoke, not In rings this time, he took the cigarette from his mouth, and with his eyes on Its blazing end expressed his thought with stark slm plicitj. Hi Laurie is getting In deeper I and deeper. Who la this girl? I j Is Mayo her real name? What f ; is her trouble? (TO KB COtfTUiUHD.J ) yielded, and under the force of bis own momentum the visitor shot Into the room. Then, recovering his equl- - , librlnm, he pushed the door luto place suit stood with his back against It, ' r breathing heavily and feeling rather foolish. lie was staring at the girl before him, who had risen at his entrance. Her expression was so full of aston-ished resentment, and so lacking In ' any olhfr emotion, that for a sicken-ing moment he believed he had made an idiot of himself, that he bad not retJIy seen what be thought he had seen In the glass. A small table sep-arated him from the girl. Still staring at her, In the long seconds that elupsed before cither spoke, he saw i hat she had swept her right hand be-hind her back. In a swift. Instinctive effort to bide what It held His returned. He had not been mistaken. H smiled at her apologet-ically. i' "I beg youi pardon,", he said. "I'm afraid I frightened you." "Yd did." She spoke tensely, the (street Of overstrained nerves reveul- - Iki Itself In her low voice. "What do yoO mean by tt? What are you doing 1 brr i Laurie's brilliant eyes were on hers v.- - ,. iPdofoOld Santa . . , . , . " " j.t GIFTS AT CHRISTMAS ft $ I V vfiMFTS at Christmas time b! i K Vt7 ere common In medieval Jj Jl times. Accounts tell of the ft j chandlers' guiltf sending out grat- - .ij x I to every one a special sort of K candles which were burned with j' the Yule log to light the hou-se- s jjj for the coming of a supernatural ,J visitor. Bakers also sent out Jf- - V "Yule cakes." Gradually the sen- - ij j u tlment of "Peace on earth, good M will to men" and the celebra-- h tlon of the spirit by general Jjj gifts seems to have spread J l through the other guilds, and J j finally to have become general. jj Officii JL AM II MA TON decided it was 3 high time he did something-someth- ing, big. Here he was on the far side of forty, no money, no so-cial position for chauffeur? were lit-tle more tliun servants, he thought and no wife or family. He was even In more desperate straits. He wan enamoured of the young widow, a woman about thirty-six- , fur whom he was working. He was alternately taken with fits of despair nud hope ubout Mrs. Allan. More frequently It was despair, however, for he couldn't Imagine anyone so charming and so rich us Mrs. Allan caring any-thing for him. But there were times when she smiled at him with special graclousness and talked to him for a longer time than was actually neces-sary for the transaction of the busi-ness In hand, and his hopes rose. After nl! many women had married their chauffeurs. He was not bad In which Heaton pursued, the other trying to flee. The womun, punlcky, was screaming for the police. Soon several polieenwin appeared nnd the man was caught. Heaton forgot that he, too, had been trying to rob the woman. To evervonn von tn i.im. self, bis case was clearly that of the righteous man pursuing the evil. At the police station, Heaton for the first time came face to face with the robbed woman. They both registered surprise. "Mrs. Allan !" "Oh, Mr. Hea-ton, It was you, then, who so nobly helped me. I'm so grateful!" She was weak from the exclt WJ. looking. In fuct he had always hud a reputation for being some-thing of a Beau B r ii m in e 1. He comforted him-self with the thought that there were worse men, certainly. CtirlstiiMig was approaching and he racked his brain to know how he could buy Mrs. Allan some-thing that would reully be worthy of her.. He care-fully gathered to-- ment of the adventure and leaned comfortably on Jleuton's arm. The thief was given a preliminary hearing. Examination showed be had a whole pocketful of articles he had taken In the crowd. Among the things found was the little watch Heaton had bought for Mrs. Allan. , "1 shall have the Jeweler who sold me that prove It Is mine," snld Heaton when he saw It, "or rather yours," he added, turning to Mrs. Allan. "It was to have been your Christmas gift" "Oh, how wonderful of you," ex-claimed Mrs. Allan, her eyes Showing clearly how much she thought of the gift, and more of the giver. p They say the gossips talked quite a - r little when some weeks later they '' learned that Mrs. Allan had married her chauffeur. But they say, too, that the couple were so completely hnppy t they didn't mind the talking a bit - , m, Weetern Newepaper Union.) J gether every cent he had in' the world sixty dolli.rs and bought a neat little watch he bad noticed In a nearby Jeweler's wliKlow. Christmas Ave he culled at the Jeweler's for his purchase, put the little package safely In his pocket, and started off Into the crowded street. At the corner some one was making a speech. There was un enormous number . of people gathered, and It was difficult to pass. Finally Heaton reached the other side of the street, and continued his walk. He put his hand Into his pocket to warm It a lit-tle nnd was shocked to find could It be possible? the little package gone! Wildly he ran back through the crowd, looking on the street for It and asking people if they had seen It. Of course it was all useless. It was merely the usual case of the Christmas time pickpocket. He was insanely angry. He must have it. It meant everything to him. Ordinarily the most honest man In the world, he was completely overcome with the desire to get back In any way the equivalent of what he had lost. Some-one hnd robbed him ; he would rob somebody else. A little ahead of him he saw a d woman, her arms full of packages. Without thinking, he went straight towards her, to slip one of them. Simultaneously another man was seized with the same Idea. Their hnnds met. The woman turned sharp-ly. The other man hnd the package. In hit htind. Heaton struck him In tJ'r ftM-- tnt a fight followed, a fight sXsXXXlsXXXXsIsIXsX'XfrXXXsXXXlsI'XXXIs Return to Normalcy After the Big Fight "Now zat you are my own good nmvver an' the big fight Is over, g'pose we go an' unpack." Little Flspeth and a friend were playing about the house nnd having seen the fire apparatus go down the street, thought It would be a lot of fun to piny fire. So they shouted "Fire! Fire!" until Elspeth's mother came rushing In from the back yard crying, "Where? Where?" Upon learning that It wus all a Joke, she sent Klspeth to her room, with the admonition never to pluy thut game again, nnd went to her own room to take a nap. The quiet was soon broken by a mo-notonous thump, thump, thump on the stairs and there was Elspeth, attired In her best cout and gloves, drugging her doll's trunk down to the front door. "I Is going to find a lady that wanta a little girl," she said determinedly, but finally was persuaded that no one wants a little girl half as much m her own motner. Cuddled at last In her mother's arms, Mlspetb sighed contentedly and then said Christmas Shotfainx "Emma, I can't see where I'm " S ' "Well, how many times have I told you to have your glasses imi. si.il?" ..'-- . No Innovations for Him , The vicar of an English parish had decided to use the revised version of the Bible Instead of the authorized version in reading the lessons. At the end of the evening service on the (lrs Sunday he had made the Innova-tion, the vicar was waylaid by a mem-ber of the congregation. "Didn't care much for them there lessons you read tonight, s'r," he exclaimed. "Oh," suld the vlcjr, "I suppose you prefer the authorize!? version. Now, why do you?" "Well, sir," was the reply. "It's like this; the authorized version was good enough for St. Paul, so It ought to be good enough for us." That's Enough Isn't It? When a cheer leader breaks train-ing, what can be do except shut up? Baltimore Evening dun i |