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Show lCingTommy j By GEORGE A. BIRMINGHAM jjjiil by Bobta-M""" Ce. W. N. U. Service ! ciq' In London the ' M.tory of the dven-K;" dven-K;" 0 , -Klne Tommy" and tjiu'u "Uncle Bill." S" . by Lord Norheys, ;'?'n old friend, that Lord J h..d of the British for-I,ir'c. for-I,ir'c. Norheys' uncle, has ft 0lm.k. him (Norheys) t,fflV?,tria. In central Eu-t:' Eu-t:' IhrouKh marriage to Ca-Igh.er Ca-Igh.er of Klntff Wladl.-nosed Wladl.-nosed monarch of that i!', A financier, Frocoplus lino! th" Is oil In pro-C,il; pro-C,il; m l ystrla, and with an l:i ; '.h king on the throne the ? fcoulde ..cured for Eng. "' Norheys, In love with a ' dsncer. Viola Temple, Is ''fln.hu6la.tlc over the propo-;, propo-;, S The patriarch, Menelaus. ,:J "cle.lastlcal dignitary X rl, Is heartily In favor of .oration of the monarchy ;'dc'ble has generously financed . Sentiment Calypso is rnak-.: rnak-.: living dancing in the Mas-Berlin Mas-Berlin cabaret. Norheys to entertain the Mea of I Up Viola Temple, to whom ?, Mecretly engaged. "Uncle ,l,ter Emily urges him to ,. passport from Lord til, for a certain Janet :;;,;ch ,trong-mlnded female rt I nts to visit Lystrla In "interests of a society for rfd peace. Janet Church leaves "Berlin. "Uncle Bill" is again ' ...led to by his sister to find ;S curafe (name not given) has left his parish in Ireland , visit to Berlin, and cannot 4. Lord Norheys and Viola :S disappear from London. Pkc p,s CabU receives in f or-Til or-Til that Norheys, with the ? ... has left there on his i "Ltrla, but Norheys ap-1 ap-1 with the former Mola I, now his wife. The ques-Who ques-Who Is the man who has , Lystrla with the Princess pr Casimir introduces S and Janet Church, vainly -J:: . .h. Rritish consu- :; ma Pron to Lystria, heels he-els acaualnted with the two a in Ih. Adlon hotel. Tommy -Wakes Casimir for a hotel 4KI and refuses him admission bli room. Casimir Insists on Tnnmr dining at the Mascotte. Toirrey again meets Janet In a :,'ephone booth, where he had In an attempt to escape !iom Casimir. Janet Church, hlnklng Casimir can be Instru-istnul Instru-istnul In securing her passport, irEts Tommy to .introduce her. Ht flnnlly agrees, she to pose as Us sunt. Tommy and Janet visit .he Mascotte that evening. CHAPTER VIII Continued 9 a small dapper man In evening ' M come up to him and bowed, my saw that thin gray hair was ire'ullj brushed across a bald patch nop of his head. He was by no js a young man. He had small tiling eyes and a rounded paunch. ..i be bore himself with a certain Even when he was bowing ilifre was no sign of servility In manner. This was the head wait-tithe wait-tithe Mascotte and he did Tom-: Tom-: high honor by granting him this 'dmi reception, 'lour lordship's table Is reserved, '- of our very best tables." Hi spoke with an excellent Eng- accent. He waved his hand in direction in which he wanted -o? to go and then walked In ' i or him. There was no mistake 1 "I the dignity of the man's bear-i bear-i It whs almost kingly, Just such ' '"ring and manner as suited the "alter of the Mascotte. "Uowing the man's lead, Tommy ''f between two lines of Inferior Jl'rs. sll bowing low. From tables ' fight and left revelers looked , "atched hi,u pass. They 4ed to each other, inquiring '.; mi e who was received so ively b, the head waiter and hi 71 Tommy came at last t a , '" le set a little, apart. The ",ter Pued back a large gilt ' mmy noticed a small card ,,ver stand In the middle of bore hls Dame. Norrevs; Rev. T. A. Norreys. He :,! ed .on the card as the Is,,. n Norreys. It seemed to , worth whlle t0 be a whatever a niurkgraf was w, , secured so much consider consid-er Z esppct- Tommy felt ad that Count Casimir had mistake. '"Itolt tWHlter mur'nured confi-. confi-. 10 his ear: :V;jr Jordship wi.i i,ow me to l iurt er nnd choose the wine tind B.'fneUtllat 1 thoroughly im- 'iliJ1RfIisl' was Perfect, fur bet- ? Caslrulr-s and he ft a 'V Intonation and ac-'iXh ac-'iXh ,lmn- Tommy fe't sure best fL ,n,sted to order the !;h?M!?. and wine obtainable fmJ ns ,hat bill for focke, Mt ffllht e startling. ',i r full of marks, ''llL m' But 11 "IBM of marks tic h dlnnef which the arls-; arls-; hesi.l, Vter W0'1 order. 1 CU,d "era" flrn. "B Z ' 8 man of quick ap- ' ""a hi. thought. Bending low he whispered into Tommy's Tom-my's ear; "I need scarcely say that your lordship lord-ship will be at no expense, none whatever." Then he turned nnd gave a series of orders In German to a subordinate who stood near. Tommy leaned back In his gilt chair nnd looked round. lie saw at once that he had been given one of the very best tables In the room. It stood at the edge of a great square) carpet which covered the center of the floor. On the carpet Itself there were no tables. But diners at tables of various var-ious sizes sat round It In parties of two or four or six. Behind the tables which stood on the edge of the carpet car-pet were others. Behind these still more and these were set on a sort of platform a step above the floor of the room. Further back among pillars and under archways In what Tommy thought of as broad side aisles, were other places for still more diners. Gazing round curiously Tommy caught sight of a woman standing up at one of the farthest tables. She was waving her hand and signaling to him. At a second glance he recognized rec-ognized her Janet Church. In a severe se-vere black dress, the only evening gown she took with her when traveling, trav-eling, she looked much out of place in the Mascotte. Having attracted Tommy's attention, she began to cross the room toward him, evidently with the Intention of sitting down at his table. But this was not allowed. al-lowed. The head waiter caught sight of her and gave an order to one of his men. Janet Church was stopped, turned round and conducted to the obscure nnd distant table which she had left It would Interest me, though perhaps per-haps no one else, to know what Tommy Tom-my had to eat and drink that night. ft 'I! 11 The Princess' Turn Was Evidently the Chief Performance of the Evening. Eve-ning. Unfortunately, he can give me no account ac-count at all of his meal and does not know the name of the champagne he drank. Shortly after eleven o'clock Tommy Tom-my discovered what the stretch of carpet In the middle of the room was for. The band, which had been playing play-ing some of the music of Tosca suddenly" sud-denly" struck up a dance tune. Two girls" appeared from a curtained recess re-cess at the far end of the room, ran down among the tables, pirouetted in the middle of the carpet, and began to dance. Tommy had seen dancing before, on the stage nt the Gayety theater In Dublin at the time of the Christmas Christ-mas pantomime. But this was a very different thing. There he viewed the dancers from a distance, with an orchestra and a row of footlights between be-tween him and them. They were remote re-mote creatures, unreal, scarcely flesh and blood. Here they came close to him so close that the whirling of their skirts as they passed him fanned the air against his face. He could smell the scent from their clothes and see the heaving of their throats as they caught their breath. And the music was far more exciting excit-ing than nny he had ever heard. The 'waiter who attended him tilled m Hnss with champagne. Tommy sipped It as he watched the dancers. Others took the places of the first two, dancing wildly, sometimes dancing danc-ing well Ihe music grew louder. Te whole scene began to grow dim before Tommy's eyes, as a man might watch the figures In a dream. He was awakened to the reality of his surroundings by the sound of Casimir's voice in his ear. The count had slipped over quietly from some other part of the room and had sat down at Tommy's table. Please," he said, "the Trincess Cnlypso now." Tommy was scarcely surprised at the announcement. A princes, a queen, an empress, any kind of exalted ex-alted lady, except perhaps ne of Fn Angelas ungelr,, mi,h. 'V1""0"' before him there on i!..- lvrs.an ,ar- pet without surprising him very much. The princess' turn was evidently the chief performance of the evening. eve-ning. Conversation ceased. Men sat down their glasses and leaned forward for-ward In their chairs. The music of the band sank to a soft rhythmical throbbing. A drum muttered softly. A girl In a dress Bhlnlng with sequins se-quins stepped daintily down among the tables, stood In the middle of the carpet and curtsied low to Tommy. He could have sworn that It was to him alone that she curtsied, that she took no notice of any one else In the room. He also had an unpleasant Impression that she disliked, or perhaps per-haps despised him, and only curtsied to him because she was forced to do it. The managers of the Mascotte, having secured the services of a real princess, made the most of her, and gave her every chance of making the most of herself. The higher lights were extinguished all over the room. Only the small shaded lamps on the diners' tables still burned. A bright beam from some hidden lamp fell on the princess and followed her wherever wher-ever she moved. The twitching of the violin strings grew faster. The players drew their bows across the strings and the music came loud and tempestuous. The girl on the carpet with the light on her looked younger, fresher, more beautiful than any of the others who had danced before her. Unfortunately she could not dance. Her performance would scarcely have won applause In a second-rate theater. Her steps and attitudes were graceful enough but were easy of accomplishment. There was no kind of spirit or any delight In her dancing. Even Tommy, who knew nothing about the art, realized that this girl was greatly th Inferior of those who had goni before her. Her dancing meant noth Ing, conveyed nothing except a feel ing that she disliked doing it and de splsed the people she was doing 11 for. It seemed to Tommy that she was dancing specially for him and that she disliked and despised him more than she did the others. The music rose to a climax of sound. The dance came suddenly to an end. ,The lights blazed out again. The girl sank to the ground in a low curtsey with her skirts spread out round her, right in front of Tommy's table, within a couple of feet from him. There was a burst of applause. Men stood up and shouted. It was not the dancing they approved. Not a Jewess among them, not a slant-eyed slant-eyed Russian lady, not a profiteer, or even an American but knew perfectly per-fectly well that the girl could not dance. Their applause was for themselves, them-selves, not for her. It was the new rich proclaiming their triumph over the old aristocracy, over royalty Itself. It-self. Risen from the slime of the war period, they acclaimed themselves masters of the old order which wal there, like Samson among the rnn-Istines, rnn-Istines, to make sport for them. The band blared into a noisy march The girl remained crouched at Tom my's feet, flushed and panting, thi fingers of her right hand twitching at the bodice of her dress. Suddenly Sudden-ly she rose. With a quick nod and a little motion of her hand she flicked a note across to Tommy. It fell od the plate in front of him. The girl, without glancing at him again, looking look-ing neither to the right nor to the left, walked through the applauding people and disappeared. (TO BE CONTINUED.) |