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Show $"serFaT? I STORY J i! THE GIRL HIS TOWN I! By MARIE VAN VORST ' tHmtritioni by M. G. KETTNER lif" ": zf-ll llP) ruiliv. 1'jUJ. bj Trie JJubLit-MoiriU Co.) 'SYNOPSIS. i F)n I'.lnir. the 'JL'-yenr-olil son of the fifly-ntiiliiin-iliillur coppir k!ni of Bt.llr-Mi.iu.. Bt.llr-Mi.iu.. I a uest al Iho Kn'lish ki.im- It.ly Jnlon-y Dun's fulhtT 1 1 fi cj Ai-.f, r,ui k.'.uun to I.urd Galorey during ;rn i-:-iit lu t I'fiitpil Stales and tilt; rnrl'Hy is iibw 'hr'ui retllrniu to tile ytmnu mini. Tho youth has an ideal girl fir his rtdnd. lie nu-c-13 I.llv. IHiciiess of Btvakwslt'v, n lif-antiful v.-iilow. who 13 itj-ai-il tiv ids imim-nse fortune and CrtJ--; u liking to her. When ;I0an was a tioy, n Ktri sang a solo at a church, and In- hail never forgotten :her. The Ga-firv3 Ga-firv3 l.ily inii Dan attend a London theatlt-r win re one Lelty l.ano is t lie nr. ?hi rv"ogut'es her as tiie girl from his tfwfc. ainti going behind the scenes lntro--ri .timim-lf and siie remembers him. 9i- V sens mat I'rlnce Pfiniotowsky Is :iu'-ii- and escort to 'Letty. Lord Ga-tifri'V Ga-tifri'V and -l friend named Ruggles deter-iiftr- in . protect the -westerner from Lily ami other fortune hunters. Young Ulalr .Tg'i-. i.i n-e Lily; he can talk of nothing ic. it "ur uy and this angers the Duchess. Th."-.vi-s!iTiifT Hnds l.elty 111 from hard u;i.rk Ut she recovers. CHAPTER X. Continued. TKm altered his indo'.ent pose and srat forward. "Uut I am thinking of .;-;; tiiig married," he said. "S hope it's to the right girl. Dan." with young assurance Blair an-swred: an-swred: "It will be if I marry her. 1 know what I want all right." "I hope she knows what she wants, "How do you mean?" T;)!i or your money. You have the 3jsrralLst handicap, my boy." IBaJr flushed. "I'll get to hate the whote thing," he said ferociously. "It enema iur everywhere bonds stocks tsr.2;-es 'dividends coupons deeds Ii'jb too much!" he said suddenly, 1 5j3& reseJUment. "It's too much tor ' lrne. Why, sometimes I reel a hun- t'lrvdi years old, and like a hunk of i RsifiSles, In answer to this, said: i "M.tiy, that reminds me of what a ' ci.ii.7i. remarked about your father once. ! St nns the -same English chap your fa- ! afcr-r bought the claim of. Speaking j -JC Blair, he said to1 me: 'You know tthero'B all kinds of metal bars, and ! wb-ii yiu cut into them some is bul- i 'Hon and some's coated with alum- 1 anum, and there's others that when you cut down, cut a clean yellow all ssJosg the line.' If, as you say, you Jfeel Kkp a hunk of metal, it ain't bad 5tf it is that kind." "It's .got to stop coming in between nie anfl the -woman 1 marry, all right, though." Dan did net pursue his subvert sub-vert further, for his feelings about the Juthess were, too unreal to give him 1 the sincere heartiness with which he 1 would have liked to answer Ruggles. "fle went over to the window, and, with his hands in his pockets, stood looking out at the fog. Ruggles, at the tahle, opened the cover of the jtoofe. ol "Mandalay" and took out the iottr checks made out to Lady Galorey sunt which he had forgotten. He hur-iriedly hur-iriedly thrust them into his pocket. "Come away. Dannie," he said cheer-5illy. cheer-5illy. "let's do something wild. I feel ipt to do most anything with this mis-eraljte mis-eraljte fog down on me. If it had any nerte it would take some form or .tthapo, so a man could choke it back." 'Ruggles blew his nose violently. -There's nothing to do," said Dan in a bored tone. "Why don't you see who your tele-rgraru tele-rgraru is from?" Ruggles asked. It proved to be a suggestion from Gordon Gor-don Galorey that Dan should meet bixa nt Five o'clock at the club. "Wlial will you do. Rug?" -Sleep." said the Westerner serenely; serene-ly; "I'm nearly as happy in London as t am in Philadelphia. It's four o'clock now and 1 can't sleep more r.han four hours anyway. Let's have jj rrai wild time, Dannie." run looked at him doubtfully, but 2iu?s'es' eyes were keen. -What kind of a time do you rcan?" -tt's ask the Gaiety girl for din-rfor din-rfor supper after the theater." I.elty Lane? She wouldn't go." "Y'hy not?" -She is awfully delicate: It Is all i-ie'can ilo to keep her contracts." He knows that. Ruggles thought. lt's ask her and see." He went er 10 the table and drew out the paper. "Come on and write anc ask ier to go out with us to supper." -See here. Rug. what's this for?" -What's strange in it? She is from oux state, and if you don't hustle and ask ber I am going to ask her all .a 'one " IJan was puzzled as he sat down to tie tiiLle reflecting that it was per-IcctW per-IcctW possible that old Rugg:es had lal'en a prey to the charms or an -,'..re's She wouldn't come, of course. wrote a formal: invitation without ticking very much of what he said I- how lo'decl and addressed his note. -Whilom you .s:iy?'v Ruggles asked iMKEPrlV "Why, that two boys from home I wanted to give her a supper." I "Well," said Ruggles, "if the answer an-swer comes while you are at the club I'll open it and give the orders. Think she'll come?" "I do not," responded Dan rather brutally. "She's got others to take her out to supper, you bet your life." "Well, there's none of them as rich as you are. I reckon, Dan." And the hoy turned on him violently. vio-lently. V "See here, Josh, If you speak to me again of my money, when there's a woman In the question " He did not finish hia threat, but snatched up his coat and hat and gloves and went out of the door, slamming slam-ming it after him. -Mr. Ruggles' profound and happy snore was cut short by the page boy, who fetched in a note, with the Savoy stamping on the back. Ruggles opened it not without emotion. "Dear boy," It ran, "I haven't yet thanked you for the primroses; they were perfectly sweet There is not one of them in any of my rooms, and I'll tell you why tonight. I am crazy to accept for supper" here she had evidently struck out her Intended refusal, re-fusal, and closed with, "I'm coming, but don't come after me at the Gaiety, please. I'll meet you at the Carlton after the theater. Who's the other boy? L. L.". The "other boy" read the note with much difficulty, for it was badly written. writ-ten. "He'll have to stop sending her flowers and going every night to the theater unless he wants a row with the duchess," he said dryly. And with a certain interest in his role, Ruggles rang for the head waiter, and with the man's help ordered his first midnight supper for an actress. CHAPTER XI. Rugglfe Gives a Dinner. The bright tide of worldly London flows after and around midnight into the various restaurants and supper rooms, and as well through the corridors corri-dors and halls of the Carlton. At one of the small tables bearing a great expensive ex-pensive bunch of orchids and soft ferns, Josh Ruggles, in a new evening dress, sat waiting for his party. Dan had dined with Lord Galorey, and the two men had gone out together afterward, after-ward, and Ruggles had not seen the boy to give him Letty Lane's note. "Got it with you?" Blair asked when he came in, and Ruggles responded that he didn't carry love letters around in his dress clothes. They could tell by the interest In the room when the actress was coming, com-ing, and both men rose as Letty Lane floated in at flood tide with a crowd of. last arrivals. She was not dressed this evening with the intention that her dark simplicity sim-plicity of attire should be conspicuous. conspicu-ous. The cloak which Dan took from her shed the perfume of orris and revealed re-vealed the woman in a blaze of sparkling spark-ling paillettes. She seemed made out of sparkle, and her blond head, from which a bright ornament shook, was the most brilliant thing about her. though her dress from hem to throat glistened with discs of gold like moonshine on a starry sea. The actress' ac-tress' look of surprise when she saw Ruggles indicated that she had not expected a boy of his age. "The other boy?" she asked. "Well, this is the nicest supper party ever! And you are awfully good to invite me." Ruggles patted his shirt front and adjusted his cravat. "My idea," he told ber, "all the blame on me. Miss Lane. Charge it up to me! Dan here had cold feet from the first He said you wouldn't come." She laughed deliciously. "He did? Hasn't much faith, has he?" Miss Lane drew her long gloves oft, touched the orchids with her little hands, on wtfich the ever present rings flashed, and went on talking to i Ruggles, to whom she seemed to want to address her conversation. "I'm simply crazy over these flowers." flow-ers." The older man showed his pleasure. pleas-ure. "My choice again! Waked up myself and chose the bunch, blame me again; ditto dinner; mine from start to finish hope you'll like it- 1 would have added some Montana peas and some chocolate soda water, only I thought you might not understand the joke." Miss Lane beamed on him. Although Al-though he was unconscious of it, she j was not fully at ease: he was not the ! kind of man she had expected to see. I Accustomed to young rellows like the j boy and their mad devotion, accus- j tomed to men with whom she could be herself, the big, bluff, middle-aged gentleman with his painfully correct tie, his rumpled iron-gray hair, and his ! deference to her, though an unusual diversion, was a little embarrassing. "Oh, I know your dinner is ripping, Mr. Ruggles. I'm on a diet of milk j and eggs myself, and I expect your ; order didn't take in those." But at his ' fallen countenance she hurried to say j "Oh, I wouldn't have told you that if 1 hadn't been intending to break through." And with childlike anticipation she clapped her hands and said: "We're going to have 'lots of fun." Just think, they don't know what that means here In London. They say 'heaps of sport, you know.' " She imitated the accent maliciously. "It's just we Americans IrTHFBIHlVi TitMrmy'THWir iwr" M"a "But I Am Thinking of Getting Married." who know what Tots of fun' is, isn'1 it?" Near her Dan Blair's young eyes ' were drinking in the spectacle oi delicate beauty beautifully gowned, ol soft skin, glorious hair, and he gazed; like a child at a pantomime. Undei his breath he exclaimed now, with effusion, ef-fusion, "You bet your life we are going go-ing to have lots of fun!" And turning to him. Miss Lane said: I "Six chocolate sodas running?" I "Oh, don't," he begged, "not that kind of jag." I She shook with laughter. "Are you from Blalrtown, Mr. Ruggles? Rug-gles? I don't think I ever saw you there." And the Westerner returned; "Well from what Dan tells me, you're not much of a fixture yourself. Miss Lane. You were just about born and then . kidnaped." Her gay expression faded. And she repeated his word, "Kidnaped? That's a good word for It, Mr. Ruggles." She picked up between her fingers a strand of the green fern, and looked at its delicate tracery as it lay on the Valm of her hand. XT sang one day after a missionary sermon in the Presbyterian Church." She interrupted herself with a short laugh: "But I guess you're not thinking think-ing of writing my biography, are you?" And it was Dan's voice that urged her. "Say, do go on. I was there that day with my father, and you sang simply out. of sight." (TO BE CONTINUED.) |