Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1912 — THE GIRL from HIS TOWN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE GIRL f rom HIS TOWN

By MARIE VAN VORST

Illustrations by M. G. KETTNER

<CoprT.«ht, 1910, by The EoLJ>»-Merrill Co.) * ) SYNOPSIS. Dan Blair, tjae 22-year-old son of the flfty-mllllon-dollar copper king of Blairtown, Mont., is a guest at the English home of Lady Oalorey. Dan’s father had been courteous to Lord Oalorey 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 Buggies determine to protect the westerner from Lily Ahdfother fortune hunters. Young Blair goes to see Lily; he can talk of nothing but Letty. and this angers the Duchess. CHAPTER Vlll.—Continued. But the cold voice of the duchess did not chill him. “Simply great,” he continued, "and I’m sorry for her down to the ground. That is what is the matter. Didn’t you notice her when she came into the Carlton that night?” “What of it, silly? I thought she looked as thin as a shad In that black dress, and the way Poniotowsky goes about with her proves what an ass he is.” “Well, I hate him,” Blair simply stated; “I would wring his neck for twenty cents. But she’s very ill; that Is what is the matter with her.” “They all look like that off the stage,” the ducheßs assured indifferently. “They are ndthing but footUght beauties; they look ghastly off the boards. I dare say that Letty Lane Is ill, though; the pace she goes would kill anybody. Have some more tea?” He held out his cup and agreed with her. “She works too hard —this playing almost every night, Binging and dancing twice at the matiness, I should think she would be dead.” “Oh, I don’t mean her professional engagements,” murmured the'duchess. A revolt such as had stung him when they criticized her at the Carlton rose In him now. “It is hard to believe,’’ he said, “when you hear her sing that dove song aid that cradle song.” : But his companion’s laugh stopped his championship short. “You defir boy, don’t be a silly, Dan. She doesn’t need your pity or your good opinion. She is perfectly satisfied. She has got a fortune In Poniotowsky, and she really Is ‘a perfect terror,’ you know.” Affected slightly by her cold dismissal of his subject, he paused for a moment. But his own point of view was too strong to be shaken by this woman’s light words. ■ “I suppose if she wasn’t from my town—” At his words the vision of Letty Lane with the coral strands on her dress, came before hlB eyes, and he said honestly: “But Ido take an interest in her just the same, and she’s going to pieces, that’s clear. Something ought to be done.” The Duchess of Breakwater was very much annoyed. .“Are you going to talk about her, all the time?” she asked with sharp sweetness. “You are not very flattering, Dan.” And he returned peacefully, “Why, 1 thought you might be able to help her in some way or another.” “Me!” She laughed aloud. “Me help Letty Lane? Really—” “Why, yon might get her to sing out vi Hv au 60' ,0 *'vU. Audi, WUUIU sort of get hold of her; women know how to do those things.” His. preposterous simplicity overwhelmed her. She stirred her tea, and said, controlling herself, “Why. what on earth would you have me to say to Letty Lane?” “Oh, just be nice to her,” he suggested. “Tell her to take care of berself and to brace up. Get some nice woman to —” . The duchess helped him. “To re-forflt-her?*' “Do her good," the bdy said gently. “You're too silly for words. If yon were not such a hopeless child I would be furious with you. Why, my dear boy, she would laugh in your face and in mine.” . :' As the duchess left the tea-table ihc repeated; “Is this what yos came up from London to talk to me about r* And at the touch of her dress as she passed him —at the look she gave him from Dan flushed and said honestly: “Why I told, you that she

.wpa the only thing that kept me from thinking about you all the time.” t —• —' ' CHAPTER IX. Disappointment. Dan Blair had'not been back of the scenes at the Gaiety since bis first call on the singer. Indeed, though he had told the duchess he pitied Miss Lane, he had not bgp able to approach her very cIomR, even in his own When she first appeared on his horizon his mind was full of the Duchess of Breakwater, and the singer round hi# more profofo for another woman. But Edtty Lane was an atmosphere mind which he was not yet able to understand. There was so little left that was connected with his old home, certainly nothing In the British Isles, excepting Ruggles, and .to the young man everything from America had Its value. Decidedly the nice girl of whom he had spoken to Gordon Galorey, the prlnt-frocked, bonneted type, the ideal girl that Dan would like to marry and to spoil, had not crossed his path. The Duchess of Breakwater did not suggest her, nor did any of the London beauties. Dan’s first Ideal was beginning to fade. He left Osdene Park on protest and returned the same night to London, and all the way back to town tried to register in his mind, unused to analysis, his experience with * the Duchess of Breakwater on this last visit. He had experienced his first disappointment in the sex, and this disappointment had been of an unusual kind. It was not that he had been turned down or given the mitten, but, he had seen one woman turn another down. A woman had been mean, so he put it, and 4be fact that the Duchess of Breakwater had refused to lend a moral hand to the singer at the Gaiety hurt Dan’s feelings. Then, as soon as his enthusiasm had calmed, he saw what a stupid ass he had been. A duchess couldn’t mix up with a comic opera singer, of course. Still, be mused, “she might have been a little nicer about it.” The education his father had given him about them was put to the test

now; the girl he had dreamed of, "the nice girl/’ well, she would Jiave had a tenderer way with her in a case such as this! Back of Dan’s hurt feelings, there was a great deal on the Duchess of Breakwater’s side. She had not done for herself yet. She hadn’t” fetched him nearly up to the altar for nothing, and badk of his disapproval, there was ‘a long list of admirations and looks, memories of many tete-a-teteß and of more fervent kisses which scored a good deal in the /evTAti Hnn'ri A rc s nrnmon DllCtless of Breakwater had on with Dap’s unfinished edpffpoij. and he ‘really thought he kxyen* her, and th»t he was in honor bound to see the thing through. That evening, once more in the box he bad taken all to himself, he listened to "Mandalay," carried away with the charm of the music and carried away by the He was in the box nearest the stage'hhd seemed close to her. and he Imagined that under hoc paint he could see her pallor and bow thin she was. Nothing, however, in her acting or in her voice revealed the leant fatigue. Blair had obtained a card of entrance to the theater, which permitted- him to circulate freely behind the scenes, and alth4ugh as yet the run of his visits had not been Clear, this night he bad a purpose. Dbn stood not far from the corridor that led to Letty Lane’s room, and saw her after her act hurriedly cross the stage, a big white shawl wrapping her slender

lona closely. She was as thin as ■ candle. Her woman Higgins followed closely after her, and as they passed Dan, Letty Lane called to him gaily: “Hello, yog! What are yon hanging around here for?" And Dan returned: , “Don’t stand here in the draft, ft.-te- beastly cold.“Yes. Miss.” her woman urged, “don’t stand hejre.” But the actress waited nevertheless and said to Dan: “Who’s the girl?" “What girl?" “Why, the girl you come here every night to see and are too shy to speak to. Everybody is crazy to know.” Letty Lane looked like a little girl herself In the crocheted garment her small hands held across her breast. Dan put his arm on her shoulder without realizing the familiarity of his gesture: “Get but of this draft—get qut of it quick, I say,” and pushed her toward her room. “Gracious, but you are strong.” She felt the muscular touch, and his hand flat against her shoulder was warm through the wool. “I wish you were strong. You work too darned hard.” Her head was covered with the coral cap and feather. Dan saw her billowy skirt, her silken hose, her little coral shoes. She fluttered at the door which Higgins opened. “Why haven’t you-been to see me?” she asked him. “You are not very polite.” “I am coming In now.” “Not a bit of It. I’m too busy, and it Is a short entr’acte. Go and see the girl you came here to see.” Dan thought that the reason she forbade him to come in was because Prince Poniotowsky waited for Tier in her dressing-room. It was his first jealous moment, and the feeling fell on him with a swoop, and its fangs fastened in him with a stinging pain. He stammered: “I didn’t come to see any girl here but you. I came to see you.” “Come tomorrow at two, at the Savoy.” Before Dan realized his own precipitation, he had seized the doorhandle as Letty Lane went within and

was about to close her room against him, and said quickly: Tm coming right in now.” “Why, I never heard of such a thing, ” she answered sharply, angrily; “you must be crazy! Take away your hand!’’ And hers, as well as his, seized the handle of the door. Her small ice-cold hand brought him to his senses. “I beg your pardon,” he murmured confusedly. “Do and get warm if you can.” • • the rude young man withdrew his importuning, Miss Lane’s hands fell from the knob, and dose to his eyes she swayed before him, and Dan caught her in his arms—-went Into her room, carrying her. He had been wrong about Prince Poniotowsky; save for Higgins, the room was empty.. The woman, though she exclaimed, showed no great surprise and seemed prepared for such a fainting spell. Dan laid the actress on the sofa and then the dresser said to him: “Please go, sir; T can quite manage. She has these turns often. I’ll give her brandy. She will be quite right” (TO BE CONTINUED.)

“Hello, You! What Are You Hanging Around Here For?”