Show aido THE t 0 r F T E f B KATHLEEN NORRIS a lot W N U THE STORY RY SO FAR knoo charlotta cherry y st aux AI n corpian ilace 1 in even y yean old bloo h boots been t a saint er borothy i chool 1 for 1 taru ft sob she know aus it dithing on about b her early history hot I 1 ha trad AS come to beallie ion that like the trl fl at t do the school b ahe abo tad family I 1 and he q who whether other sato he bl tho the lo 10 ber 11 nono father ito name slid she d develop into very artmoo art moo airl at nd a all A flint ro for tha chool A pixy nd their tableaux no ox she li is la lie continue ot a ro indian oduis chief dono danch ohno ter to hiving d is in one of od hoo her own P play when lodl bout eiidson iff her co ra bardln tard ln with aus emm haskell trained d aarif w arra too hit chool shot she remember coo that eanos her mother before her death and jacce I 1 SA t tell her air that 1 emmat az ha on her A petition aitio with the very wealthy mr portion F porter ot san Frio clico where hl a emm li Is now nos no now continue with the isto atory n because the pl girl offered slowly and doubtfully it that way I 1 was only seven but I 1 knew that something was wrong nothing was left for me no pictures ot 11 anyone y no lelle letters or not names this thin school you it know now isn I 1 t like an ordinary acho school or we know we aren t like other girls everyone here has some torge strange history no letters no going home for holidays no presents present imd and surp surprises e N no this a regular school he coo conceded ce it ed but according to emma it was the best thing to do and you seem to have nourished flourished he added with a smile you syu ve gone along here here more as if it were a home 1 with I it a capital lett letter ert she put in as he paused he looked at her in his kindly way rod and smiled A p place 1 ace where girls are protected d so and d safe and well fed he raised questioning eyes well led fed he be asked not so oh yes all right she ocon conceded ceded not interested an impatient pa jerk of her head took him back to the point where he had interrupted himself and are taught good professions he finished dressmaking bookkeeping sti stenography no eto beau beauty y parlor work she supplied but she added those aren I 1 what they teach girls in other schools but that won t keep me from trying te terribly hard to make good you said something ga about pout a position 9 what am I 1 to do you are not to of do 0 anything n vl until you find just what you w want t to do he said his graying graying hair and it his fifty yes years making it possible for him to use a father s kindly tone but for the time being ti it is a secretarial ret arial lal position with the same old lad ladi a very rich old woman named mrs porter mrs porteous porter for whom emma works A answering edg the telephone and correspondence and readi reading rog chand that s sort a rt of thing oh that the girl said with a brightening face that I 1 think I 1 could do 1 I in sure you could A and of you would be paid seventy five dollars a month 1 be seventy enty div five dollars a month oh bhe he I 1 is knod kind when when would I 1 go she as asked ked 11 this h is lets t see e the third h rd he ahme said aid suppose e Y you c come d down m on monday mondays a good day to start you take a tra tram in at half past five in m the afternoon an and d at al a seven the next night someone will meet you at the oakland not mole ole sunday do she asked why not all 1 1 I I was thinking when you said C oakland akle d that two sisters sister are going down L to the oakland house on E sunday we re having a jubilee fr for them sunday afternoon they would take me that w would 0 uld be an excellent arrangement rang ran gement ernect you come first to my house you understand and we can go over and see emma when you ve some clothes and have had time to look about a little I 1 must see mother superior before I 1 go and make the arrangements for you md and then hen they were or walking back toward rd the conven convent t a main licul building ding through wide orderly dimly lighted c corridors orri dors 1 I must tell you about my family U Y cherry the man said my mother lives with us mrs clay judson marshbanks she sounds a little formidable and she I 1 is a little formidable then there a my pretty wife I 1 ia lost t my first wife he interrupted belf himself to explain and it fran is in almost young enough to be my daughter ive a sum son greg hes twenty four off at college in the east and als also with us is my brother a 8 daughter amy amy a moth mother r died when she was blittle a little girl hr her father was killed kille d in sm an accident a few years after that at and my mother hartince tince has had her bince making her how bow in society now and quite grown P I 1 she was going away from the only world ra d was she he knew the air was full of farewells and heartaches and strange excited happiness of anticipation it t had once e beo been a sufficiently UY baad at stark r k and comfortless am rilet reg regime do B but ut times were changed now mother superior I 1 was noted for the modernity of her views her girls she said must pred presently try face the world as it was with ith au all its it hurry ot of planes plane L she jumped when old dr oconnor oconner touched her arm rea realizing as III that as she was hungry and went with him aim through tie the swaying tram to the dining car and d cars car it its noise rod and progress old girls were twenty found employment under responsible cus tody in the unknown world and disappeared new girls came in small mail and frightened and homesick even from the most unfit and wretched ached of homes or rebellious and angry gry and full of muttered threats of escape so cherry formally discharged from the books as charlotte rawlings with due details of her admission m and her thirteen years residence at 1 the conven convent entered upon a t formidable brud able looking graph was not as entirely unprepared for entrance into the world as her custodians might have fancied her to be at lea leaving v ing cherry wore ware the cc convent v ent uniform of black serge and white collar and a round hat bat like a a small black basket turned upside dinall down own the hat dated back some same ten years but it was a hat and and that was waa all that girls from S saint aint D dorothea theas s expected of headgear mother superior had given her the ten dollars with ith a putting parting word of instruction this money was for any emergency her tickets and meals on I 1 the n e tram would be paid for far ly by the sisters sister m whose car care she was traveling this wouldn t have been my been choice of a school for you C cherry erry the rum nun had said 1 I ve been considering si in my own mind wh whether e ther I 1 ought to say this much to you she added and I 1 ve asked for guid once ance in the matter but there seems to be no harm in telling you that I 1 felt and dear mother bertrand felt thirteen years ago that you yen should have been one of the victor street girls our school here is for cases that are underprivileged lebed for girls who or are definitely unfortunate perhaps through no fault of their own however the servant your moth ers er s servant who brought you here was very de definite deglint flint that it had ben been her r wish to put you u with us M mrs its amayo ha haskell s kel 1 E emma Y you a r remember cle rober he her r y you 0 u w will 1 I see h her r now a had known a fine woman who became one of saint dorothea a sisters and through her she knew exactly the character of a our work 1 11 I remember emma cherry had stammered almost ia faint with in this final excitement there had out not been bee any espel especial stigma attached to h her er name then she might have hae beert been one of the victor street III girls I 1 sia sister te r fabian rod and sister gervase gervaas w were ere both indisposed on the tram the they y did out not want any supper they had the three berths made up im mediately and it cher cherry lc left it t them hem to the little I 1 e room fad found a w window seat e t in the h e empty length of the car suit and d sat fascinated watching the landscape flying by she jumped when old dr OC touched her or arm realized that she was hungry went with him through the swaying tram to the timing dining car and was so rapt on er its light and warmth and th the e bawo bewildering ider obligation of ordering something from a menu tor for the first it t el time me in her life that tea and lot biscuits to t and honey were all 11 she could murmur when tier her companion poised his per pen cil 1 I over the order blank both little nuns were tucked up in bed when she cautiously entered the drawing room cherry had the lounge red and slept the sleep of youth and fatigue within its narrow boun boom daries danes breakfast was another ad venture such smoking coffee such buttered battered wast toast and the long day that dragged for almost everyone else on an board was wait too short tor for her but at a quarter past seven for the tram was late when they descended somewhat grimy and jail jad ed at the a oakland it more mole she sheer ner e r excitement and expectation hatm had bad eh exhausted sted her she was pale to too much absorbed in her own em emotions temotio otio to notice the effect of her chauff chauffeur eia he was quickly identified by the wearied sisters and not r cherry h era in be her turn identified th the race nice middle aged maid who had accompanied him may the housemaid who had been sent to meet her was really cherry discovered a mrs mix mott molt who had wo two almost gru grown buy boys but she was may to whole bole hohe household she said an and od miss cherry had better call her so 1 I in not going to live at the marshbanks f cherry berry told her er im going to take lake a position th the edg budge said d be with 11 us only a low few ida days Y he t is going to play bridge so somewhere tonight and hes having his dinner at seven mrs marshbanks and miss amy are going out to dinner before a party and hes bes to bring them home dear knows when it a a coming out party for miss patsy randall 1 I didn I 1 mind that my dear she said here we are may added as the car stopped at the foot of an mo imposing posing flight of stone steps 1 I in going to slip upstairs and III out not see you again unless you need me Moll dollyu show you your room mom I 1 in usually with the old lady after dinner but ashes away and I 1 in going to a movie to tonight you ask molly for adyth anything ng you want C cherry berry and her patent leather be bag mg were abandoned for just a few moments in the big entrance hall she had time only for a breath taking g impression of such spaciousness ru and g beauty and color as she had never seen before of soft rugs beneath her feet and dimly lighted arches arche leading to great dimly lighted ro rooms on all sides of potted palms palm rod and bursts of winter flowers bafo before a judge marshbanks came forward to take possession p of her and confide condid her to the care of molly a pretty maid with very black eyes and a very white skin by this time the g girl I 1 r was too in much h of dazed aed to believe her senses ca she followed molly upstairs to an incredibly luxurious big room with a an unbelievably believably complete bathroom next to it brushed her hair and washed her face in a a condition d on of complete bewilderment and da descended again still under molly s escort to the dining room where it appeared d that she and her host were to appease be the only persons at dinner ile he was halfway through I 1 hr u I 1 h his in S meal me al hers her was served to her fresh and an hot but she was unable to eat the it 2 quality of the italian lace that was spread on the I 1 polished wood the beauty be of I 1 china h n and crystal the wit soft light tf of candles c d lea were such as cherry had never seen in her life before b nor ever dreamed could exist and the numbing sense of being only in a dream made it impossible for her to tests taste or swallow allow anything even the food was beyond what had been her most fantastic imaginings gongs don t you like that the judge asked looking over his paper its it wonderful she made a valiant attack upon it know what it is no sir air chicken I 1 guess that a partridge if you don t hii like a it martin will get you an oh no please p I 1 ease t its delicious to her own disgust and surprise her voice thickened but he did not seem to notice it and when he returned to his bis paper she made herself finish her dinner and felt her nerves more steady A sudden sense that she did not belong in this scene that it had nothing to do with her that she never should have entered it had almost wrecked li her er self control conter 1 for a moment with the to londing blinding force of a revolution revelation she knew that her rumpled pled childish dress was absurd zt that the dowdy hat she had left upstairs the bulging shabby patent leather bag the ugly school shoes and cotton gloves and stockings stocking had no place in this house and were like nothing that had ever been here before she knew inexperienced as she wes was tolie she had read it in her hosts first look that her shabbiness ness and homeliness had shocked him bun he had bad see seen her only once before flushed with triumph after the school play made up into her handsomest self as a brown skinned indian an air girl gay ry in lea feathers and it fringes the knowledge that came to her on in this fl flash h of 1 shame and pam pain made ads the big dining room nn chair in w which h she sat at a seat of to torture arture to he her but she did her best to conquer the feeling and was quite calm lm when a Y young yng ng man came in unannounced announce of an and d dra drew chair to judge marshbanks Marsh banka side the re judge adge after a casual frustol gr greeting a glanced ce bover over at her and said mr coates ae t a cherry a and oil the then this I 1 is miss rawlings kelly TO BE COINTIN VED |