Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 February 1912 — THE GIRL from HIS TOWN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE GIRL from HIS TOWN

B y MARIE VAN VORST

OhutratMßi by M. G. KETTNER

(Copyright, IUO, by The Bobbs-MarrUl Go.) f SYNOPSIS. - Dan Blair, the 22-year-old aon of the flfty-million-doii&r copper king of Blalrtowii, Mont., Is a guest 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 young man. The youth has an ideal girl In his mind. He 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 Galoreys, Lily and Dan attend a London theater where one Letty Lane is the star. Dan recognizes her as the girl from his town, and going behind the scenes Introduces himself and she remembers him. He learns that Prince Poniotowsky Is suitor and escort to Letty. Lord Galorey and a friend named Ruggles determine to protect the westerner from Lily and other fortune hunters. CHAPTER Vl.—Continued. A page boy knocked at tbe door and came In holding out on a salver a card for Mr. Ruggles, and at the Interruption Galorey rose and invited Ruggles to go out with him that night to Osdene. “Lady Galorey will be delighted.” But Haggles 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 he la 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 tickets for the Gaiety. Ruggles examined it. “I have got some writing to do,” he told Galorey, “and I’m going to see a show tonight, and I think I’ll just stay here and watch my hole.” As soon as Galorey had left the Carlton. Mr. Ruggles despatched his letters and his visitor, made a very eareful toilet, and after waiting until past eight o'clock for Dan to return to dinner, dined alone on roast beef and a tart, and with perfect digestion, If somewhat thoughtful mind, left the hotel and walked down the dim street to the 1 brilliant Strand, and on foot to the Gaiety.

CHAPTER VII. At the Btage Entrance. Ruggles, from his Bt&ll, for the fourth time sew tte 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. He was a large man and filled his stall comfortably. He sat through the performance peacefully, his hands In his pockets, his big face thought* ful, his shirt front ruffled. To look at him, one must have wondered why he had come to “Mandalay." He scarcely lost any of the threads of his own reflections, though when Miss Lane in response to a call from the house, sang 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 purity, her grace and sweetness, and her cooing, gentle tone, to judge by the softening of the Westerner’s face, touched very much the big fellow who listened like a child. At the end he drew his handkerchief slpwly across his eyes, but the tears, or rather moisture, that rose there was not all due to Miss Lane’s song, for 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 after by a couple of policemen. Close to the curb a gleaming motor waited, the footman at its , docs’. Ruggles buttoned his coat up to his chin and took his place close to the door, over the electric light showed the words “Stage Entrance.” A poor woman elbowed him, her shabby hat adorned by a scraggly plume, a gray shawl propped round her shoulders. A girl or two, who might have been flower sellers in Piccadilly In die daytime, a couple of toughs, a handful of other vagrants smelling of fin, a decent in working clothes, a child in bis anus, formed the human hedge Letty was to pass between —a singular group of people to spend 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 workingman spoke to his child, holding her well up. “When she comes hout she’ll pass close to yer, and you sing hout, *God bless yer.’" “Yes, Dad, Invill,” shrilled the child. The woman in the gray shawl drew It close about her. “Aw she’s a true lldy, all right, ain’t she? *■--1 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 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, none of us, has seen her or spoken to Miss Lane. She doesn’t know our names.” And the woman 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 said: “She gives It nearly all to the poor." Ruggles was evidently on the poor side of the waiting crowd; the handful of riffraff around him with Its stench of dirt and gin. A better looking set collected opposite and there was the gleam of white shirt fronts. “Now, there she comes,” the father saw her first. “Sing out, Cissy.”., The door opened and a figure quickly Hoated 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. A white cloak entirely covered the actress. Her head was hidden by a white scarf, and she almost ran the short gantlet to her motor, between 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 to see a man from home, and when after four days he still lingered in town, she found his absence unbearable, and sent him a wire so worded that if he had a spark of interest in her her must immediately return to the Park. She had never been more lovely than when Dan found her waiting for hkn. She had ordered tea in her sittingroom. She told him that he - looked frightfully seedy, asked him what he had been doing and why he had sfOpped so Jons away, and Blair told her that old Ruggles, hla. father’s friend, had run over to see him 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 giuch about business.”

’I only know the horrid thing* ot business —debts, and loans, and bills, and fusßing.” "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 3flSbldher he couldn’t have done a stroke of work with the old boy down here at the Park. Stirring his tea, he appreciated tlie duchess. The agreeable picture she made 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!” And as he met her eyes with his clear ones, with a simplicity she could never hope to reach, he put his tea-cup down; and as he did so the duchess observed his strong hands, their vigor, well-kept and muscular, but not the dandified hands of the man who goes often to, the manicure. the boy went on, “I would have thought of nothing else but you, every minute I’ve been away.” “Mr. Ruggles?” suggested the duchess; “No, the Gaiety girl, Letty Lane. You know I told you In the box that she was from my town.’’ The young man, who had flown back to Osdene Park In answer to a telegram, began to* take his companion into bis 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 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

don’t think I over spoke three words to her, just said ‘sarsaparilla’ or ‘chocolate’ or whatever it might happen to be. Ever since that day, ever since that jag,” he said with feeling, “I 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 ardor. He didn’t refer to the hymn, however, but went on with his narrative. “Sh» disappeared from Blairtown. I never had a peep at her again until the other night Qosb!” 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 to her now. “Heavens,'* she drawled, "you are really too dreadful!” He didp’t seem to hear her. “She’s turned out a perfect wonder, hasn’t she? A world-beater! Why, everybody tells me there isn’t anothel like her in her specialty. Of course I have heard of Letty Lane, but 1 haven’t been out to things since 1 went in mourning, and I’ve never run upi 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. I think she’s great; don’t your’ “Hardly.” > (TO BS CONTINUED^

“Gosh I When I Saw Her There on the Stage, Why-”