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Show TSErTaT I STORY j j THE GIRL 1 J'rorr, I HIS TOWN ji S II By MARIE VAN VORST Dlnjtratiom by M. G. KETTNER j j h .,,r I Copyright., UtlO, by Thj Bo bbs-Merrill Co.) SYNOPSIS. Dan Blair, the 22-ycar-old son of the fifty-milllon-dolliir copper kins of Blair- . town, Mont:, is a- Ruest at the English ' home of Lady Galorey. Dan's father had been courteous to Lord Galorey during his visit to the United States and the courtesy Is now being returned to the youns man. The youth has an ideal girl in his mind. lie meets Lily. Duchess of Breakwater, a beautiful' widow, who is attracted by his immense fortune and takes a liking to her. When Dan was a boy, a girl sang a solo at a church, and he had never forgotten -her. The Ga-loreys. Ga-loreys. Lily and Dan attend a London iljeater where one Letty Lane is the star. Dan recognizes her as the girJ from his town, and going behind the scenes intro-' intro-' duces himself and she remembers him. lie learns that I'rince Poniotowsky is suitor and escort to Letty. Lord Galorey Ga-lorey .and a friend named Ituggles determine deter-mine to project the westerner from Lily and other fortune hunters. " CHAPTER VI Continued. A page boy knocked at tte door and came in holding out on a salver a card for Mr. Ruggles, and at the interruption interrup-tion Galorey rose and invited Ruggles to go out with him that night to Os-dene. Os-dene. "Lady Galorey will be delighted." de-lighted." But Ruggles shook his head. "The boy is coming back here tonight," and Galorey laughed. "'Don't you believe it! You don't know how deep in he is. You don't know the Duchess of Breakwater. Once be is with her " At the same time that the page boy handed Mr. Ruggles the card of the caller, he gave him as well a small envelope, which contained box ticketB for the Gaiety. Ruggles examined it. "I have got some writing to do," he told JGialorey, "and I'ni going to see a show tonight, and I think I'll just Btay here and watch my hole." -' As soon as Galorey had left the Carlton, Mr. Ruggles despatched, his letters and his visitor, made a very careful toilet, and after waiting until past eight o'clock for Dan to return to dinner, dined alone on roast bee! and a tart, and with perfect digestion, If somewhat thoughtful mind, left th hotel and walked down the dim street to the brilliant Strand, and on foot to the Gaiety. CHAPTER VII. ' . At the Stage Entrance. Ruggles, from his stall, for the fourth time saw the curtain go up on "Mandalay" and heard the temple bells ring. One of the stage boxes was not occupied until after the first act and then the son of his friend came in alone and sat far back out of sight of any eyes but the keenest, and those eyes were Ruggles'. Letty Lane, delicious, fantastic, languishing, sang to Dan; that was evident to Ruggles. Rug-gles. He was a large man and tilled his stall comfortably. He sat through the performance peacefully, his hands In his pockets, his big face thought-rul, thought-rul, his shirt front ruffled. To look at him, one must have wondered why he had come to "Mandalay." He scarcely scarce-ly lost any of the threads of his own reflections, though when Miss Lane in response to a call from the house, pang her cradle song three times, he seemed moved. The tones of her pure voice, the cradling in her arms of an Imaginary child, her apparent dovelike dove-like purity, her grace and sweetness, nnd her cooing, gentle tone, to judge ' by the softening of the Westerner's lace, touched very much the big tel-low tel-low who listened like a child. At the eud he drew his handkerchief slowly across his eyes, but the tears, or rather moisture that rose there was not all due to Miss Lane's song, lor Ruggles was extremely warm. He could see that in his box the boy sat transfixed and absorbed. Dan went out in the second entr'acte and was absent when the curtain went down. Ruggles, as well, left before the performance was over, to make his way outside the theater to the stage exit, where there was already gathered a little group, looked alter by a couple of policemen. Close to the curb a gleaming motor waited, the footman at Its door. Ruggles buttoned but-toned his coat up to his chin and took li is place close to tho door, over which the electric light Ehowed the words "Stage Entrance." A poor woman 'elbowed 'el-bowed him, her shabby hat adorned by a scraggly plume, a gray shawl wrapped round her shoulders. A girl , or two. who might have been flower " ' "DoUers In Piccadilly In the daytime, a couple cf toughs, a handful of other vagrants smelling of gin, a decent man In working clothes, a child in his arms, formed the human hedge Letty Lane was to pass between a singular group of people to spencj an hour .banging about the streets at the exit of a theater well toward midnight. So the naive Ruggles thought, and better understood the appearance of the young fellows In evening clothes who hovered on the extreme edge of the little crowd. Dan, however, was not of these. "Look sharp. Cissy," the working-man working-man spoke to his child, holding Oer well up. "When she comes hout she'll pass close to yer. and you sing hout, 'God bless yer.' " "Yes, Dad, I will," shrilled the child. The woman In the gray shawl drew it close about her. "Aw she's a true lidy, all right, ain't she? I expect you've had some kindness off her as well?" The man nodded over the child's shoulder. "Used to be a scene shifter, and Miss Lane found out about my little lit-tle girl last year not this lass, not Cissy, Cissy's sister and she sent 'er to a place where it costs the eyes out of yer head. She's gettin' well fast, and we, nSne of us, has seen her or spoken to Miss Lane. She doesn't know our names." ADd the wenan answered: "She does a lot like that. She's got a heart bigger'n her little body." And a big boy in the front row said back to the others: "Well, she makes a mint of money." And the woman who had spoken before be-fore said: "She gives it nearly all to the poor.' Rttgg!es was evidently on the poor side of the waiting crowd; the handful hand-ful of riffraff around him with its stench of dirt and gin. A better looking look-ing set collected opposite and there cwas the gleam of while shirt fronts. "Now. there she comes," the father saw her first. "Sing out, Cissy." The door opened and a figure quickly quick-ly floated from it, like a white rose blown out into the foggy darkness. It floated down the few steps to the street between the double row of spectators. spec-tators. A white cloak entirely covered cov-ered the actress. Her head was hidden hid-den by a white scarf, and she almost ran the short gantlet to her motor, between be-tween the cries of "God bless you!" "Three cheers for Letty Lane" "God bless you, lady!". She didn't speak or heed, however, or turn her head, but held her scarf against her face, and the man who slowly lounged behind her to the car, and put her in and got in after her, was not the man Joshua Ruggles had waited there to see. He hung about until the footman had sprung up and the car moved softly away, the stage entrance door shut, then he followed along with the crowd, with the few faithful who had waited an hour in the cold mist to cry out their applause, not to a singer in "Mandalay," but to a woman's heart. CHAPTER VIII. Dan's Simplicity. The Duchess of Breakwater was not sure how close Dan Blair's thoughts were to marriage, but the boy from Montana was the easiest prey that had come across the beautiful and unscrupulous woman's range. He had told her that he stayed on up in London Lon-don to see a man from home, and when after four days he still lingered in town, she found his absence unbearable, un-bearable, and sent him a wire so worded that if he had a spark of interest in-terest In her he must immediately return re-turn to the Park. She had never been more lovely than when Dan found her waiting for him. She' had ordered tea in her sitting-room. sitting-room. She told kirn that he looked frightfully seedy, asked him what he had been doing and why be had stopped so long away, and Blair told her that old Ruggles, his father's friend, had run over to see bim with a lot of papers for Dan to read and sign and closed with a smile, telling her that he guessed she "didn't know much about bus'.ness." N 1 "1 only know the horrid things of business debts, and loans, and bills, and fussing." "Those things are not business," Dan answered wisely; "they are just common or garden carelessness." She asked him why he had not brought Ruggles out to Osdene. and he told her he couldn't have done a stroke of work with the old boy down here at the Park. Stirring his tea, he appreciated the duchess. The agreeable picture sb msde impressed him mightily. "Do you know," he asked suddenly, "what you make me think of?" And she responded softly: "No, dear." "A box of candy. This room with its stuffed walls, and you In it are good enough " "To eat?" she laughed aloud. "Oh, you perfectly killing creature, what an idea!" w And as he met her eyes with his clear ones, with a simplicity she could never hope to reach, he put his i tea-cup down; and as he did so the duchess observed his. strong hands, their vigor, well-kept and muscular, but Dot the dandified hands of the man who goes often to the manicure. I "If it hadn't been for one thing," i the boy went on. "I would, have j thought of nothing else but you, every minute I'vebeen away." "Mr. Ruggles?" suggested, the duch-i duch-i ess. 1 ,. "No, the Gaiety, girl, Letty Lane. I You know-1 told you in the box that she was from my town." The young man, who had flown I back to Osdene Park in answer to a telegram, began to take his companion compan-ion into his confidence. "I knew that girl," Dan said, "when she wasn't more than fourteen. She sold me sodawater over the drug store counter. I always thought she was bully, bright as a button and pretty pret-ty as a peach. Once, I remember, 1 took six chocolate sodas in one day just to go in and see her. I had an awful time. I most died of that jag, and yet," he said meditatively, "I "Goshl When I Saw Her There on the Stage, Why " don't think 1 ever spoke three words to her, just said 'sarsaparilla' or 'chocolate' or whatever It might happen hap-pen to be. Ever since that day, ever since that jag," he said with feeling, "1 couldn't see a stick of chocolate and keep my head up! Well." went on the boy. "Sarah Towney sang In our church for a missionary meeting, and I was there. I can remember the song she sang." He spoke with unconscious un-conscious ardor. He didn't refer to the hymn, however, but went on with his narrative. "She disappeared from Blairtown. I never had a peep at her again until the other night. Gosh!" he said fervently, "when I saw her there on the stage, why, I felt as though cold water was running up and down my spine. The duchess, as a rule, was amused by his slang. It seemed vulgar lo her now. "Heavens," she drawled, "you are really too dreadful!" He didn't seem to hear her. "She's turned out a perfect wonder, hasn't she? A world-beater! Wny, everybody tells me there Isn't another like her in her specialty. Of course 1 have heard of Letty Lane, but I haven't been out to things since I went in mourning, and I've never run up against her." "Really," drawled the duchess again, 'now that you have 'run up against her' what are you going to do with her? Marry her?" His honest stare was the greatest relief she had ever experienced. He repeated bluntly: "Marry her? Why the dickens should I?" "You seem absorbed In her." He agreed with her. "I am. ) think she's j-reat, don't you?" "Hardly." iTO BE CONTINUED.) |