Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 57, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 March 1912 — THE GIRL from HIS TOWN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE GIRL from HIS TOWN

By MARIE VAN VORST

Dlastratioas by M. G. KETTNER

SYNOPSIS. Dan Blair, the 22-year-old eon of IhsJ flfty-mlllion-dollar copper king of Blalrtown, Mont., Is a guest at the English home of Lady Galorey. Dan’s father had been courteous to Lord Galorey during hta visit to the United Btates and the courtesy Is now being returned to the young man. The youth has an ideal girt 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 bo>\ a girl sang a solo at a church, and he had never forgotten her. The Galoreys, Liliuand Dan London greater wheWons Lane iPThe 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 Qalorey and a friend named Buggies determine to protect the westerner from Lily and other fortune hunters. Young Blair goes to see Lily; he can talk of nothing but Letty and this angers the Duchess. The westerner finds Letty HI from hard work, but she recovers and Ruggles and Dam invite her to supper. She asks Dan to build a home for disappointed theatrical people. Dan visits Lily, for the time forgetting Letty, and later announces his engagement to the duchess. Letty refuses to sing for an entertainment given by Lily. Galorey tells Dan that all Lily cares for is his money, and It is disclosed that he and the duchess have been mutually in love for years. -Letty sings at an aristwrcratlc function. Dan escorting heT home.

CHAPTER XlX.—Continued. j t. The "boy walked briskly back of the scopes toward the little door, behind ■wltfefc, 'as lie tapped, he hoped with all Ms fieart to hear her voice bid him come In. Bat there were other voices fa the room. He rattled the door knob 'and Letty Lane herself called to him without opening the door: '' "Will you go, please, Mr. Blair? I tanT see anyone tonight.” i He had nothing to do but to go—to grind his heel as he turned-—to sweat deeply against PoniotowSky. His late ecstasy was turned to gall. The theater seemed horrible to him: the chattering of the chorus girls, their giggles, their laughter as he passed the little groups, all seemed weird and Infernal, and everything became an object of Irritation. As he went blindly out of the theater he struck Mb arm against a piece of stage fittings and the blow was sharp and stinging, but he was glad of the hurt. Without, in the street, Dan took his* place with the other men and waited, a hitter taste In his mouth and anger fa Ms breast, waited until Letty Lane fluttered down, followed by Poniotowaky, and the two drove away. The young man could have gone after, running behind the motor, but their was a taxicab at band; he Jumped fa It, ordering the man to follow the car to the Savoy. There the hoy had the pleasure of seeing Miss Lane enter the hotel, PoniotowSky with her—had the anguish of seefag them both go up fa the lift to her apartments. When Dan came to himself he heard the chimes of St. Martin’s ring out eleven. He then remembered for the first time that he had promised to <gn« alone at home with the Duchess of Breakwater. “GoSh, Idly will be wild!” In spite of the lateness of the hour he harried to Park lane. The familiar face of the man servant who let him fa blurred before the young man’s eyes. Her grace was out at the theater? Blair would wait then, and he went Into the small drawing room, _ quiet, empty, reposeful, with a fire across the andirons, for the evening was damp and cool. Still dazed by his

jealous, passionate emotions, he glanced about the room, ehose a long leather sofa, and stretching out his £e» apleep. There in the shadow be slept profoundly, waking Suddenly to find that he was not fejgUn*. Across the room the Duchess of Breakwater stood by the table; she was in evening dress, her cloak and gloves on the chair at her side. She laughed softly and the man to whom

she laughed, on whom she smiled, was Lord Galorey. Blair raised himself up on the sofa without making any noise, and he saw Galorey take the woman In his arms. The sight didn't make the fiance angry. He realized instantly that he wanted to believe that It was true, and as there was* noCEIng tEe&trfcal in tfie young westerned, he sprang up, slang so much a part of his nature that the first words that came to his lips was a phrase in vogue. “Look who’s here!” he cried, and came blithely forward, his head clear, his lips smiling. The duchesß gave a little scream and Dan lounged up to the two people and held his hand frankly out to the lady. “That’s all right, Lily! Go right on, Gordon, please. Only I had to let you know when I waked up! Only fair., I guess I must have been asleep quite a while.” The duchess of Breakwater shrugged. "I don’t know what you dreamed,” she said acidly, “if you were asleep.” r“Well, it was a very pretty dream,” the hoy returned, “and showed what a stupid ass I’ve been to think I couldn’t have dreamed it when I was awake ” “I think you are crazy,” the duchess exclaimed. But Blair repeated; “That’s all right. I mean to say as far as I am concerned —” And, Galorey, in order to stand by his lady, murmuredi “My dear chap, you have been dreaming.” But Blair met the Englishman’s gray eyes with his blue ones. “I did have, a bottle *6l cHtimpagne, Gordon, that’s

a fact, but It couldn’t make me see what I did see.” “Dan,” the duchess of Breakwater broke in, "let Gordon take you home, like a dear. You’re really ragging in a ridiculous way.” Blair looked at her steadily, and as he did so he repeated: “That’s all right, Lily, Gordon cares a lot, and the truth of the matter is that I do not" She grew very pale. “I would have stuck to my word, of course,” he went on, “but we’d have been infernally unhappy and ended up in the divorce courts. Now, this little scene here of yours lets me out, and I don’t lay it up against either of you.” “Gordon!” she appealed to her lover, “why, In heaven’s name, don’t you speak!” - . The Englishman realized that while he was glad at heart, he regretted that he had been the m£ans of her losing the chance of her life. “What do you want me to say, Lily?” he exclaimed with a desperate gesture. “I can’t tell him I don’t love yon. I, have loved you, God help me, for tea years.” She could have killed him for it. “I can tell you, Dan, if you want me to,” Galorey went on, “that I don’t believe she cares a penny for any one on the face of the earth, for you or __ _ ♦» . me. Old Dan Blair’s son showed his business training. His one idea was to “get opt,” and as he didn’t care who the duchess of Breakwater loved or didn't love, he wanted to break away as fast as he could. He sat down at the table under the light of the lamp and drew ont his wallet with its compact, thick little check book, the millionaire’s pass to most of the things that he wants. “You’ve taught me a lot,” he said to the duchess ,of Breakwater, "and my father sent me over here for that I have been awfully fond of yon, too. I thought 1- was fonder than I am, I guess. At any rate I want to stand by one of my promises. That old place of youra—Stainer aourt —now that’s got to be fixed up."

He made a few computations on paper. lifted the pad to her with the figures on it, round, generous and full. “At home," he said, “in Blalrtown, we have what we call ‘engagement* parties, when each fellow brings a present to the girl, but this is what we might call a ‘broken engagement party.’ ’Now, I can’t,” the boy went on, "give this money to you very well; it won’t look right. We will have to fix that up some way or other. You will have to say you got an unexpected inheritance from some uncle in Australia.” He smiled at Galorey: '‘We’ll fix it up together ” His candor, his simplicity, were bo charming, he stood before the two so young, so clear, so clean, that a sudden tenderness for him, and a sense of what she had lost, what she never had had, made her exclaim: “Dan, I really don’t care a pin for the money—l don’t” —but the hand she held out was seized by the other man and held fast. Galorey said: "Very well, let it go at that. Yon don’t care for the money, but you will take it just the same. Now, don’t for God’s sake, tell him that you care foF him.” Hemiade her meet his eyes this time: stronger than she, Galorey forced her to be sincere. She set Dan free and he turned and left them standing there facing each other. He softly crossed the room, and looking back, lie saw them, tall, distinguished, both of them under the lamplight—“enemies, and yet the closest friends bound by the strongest tie in the world. As t)an went out through the cur- , items of the room and thy fqJJ Qiim the duchess of Breakwater sank

down in the chair by the side <# the table; she buried her face. Gordon Galorey bent over her and again took her in his arms, and she suffered it, CHAPTER XX. A Hand Clasp. It was one o’clock. Blair called a hansom and told the driver to take him to the Carlton, and leaning hack in the vehicle he breathed a long sigh. He looked like his father, bat he didn’t know it. He felt old. He was a man and a tired one and a free one, and the sense of this liberty began to refresh him like a breeze over parched sand. He thought over what he had left for a second, stopped longest In pitying Galprey, then went into the Carlton restaurant to order some supper, for he began to feel the need of food. He had not time to drink his wine and partake of the cold pheasant before he saw that opposite him the two people who had taken their table were Letty Lane and Ponlotowsky. The woman’s slender back was turned to Blair, and his heart gave a leap of pain at the sight of the man with her, and the cruel Buffering began again. Dan gave up the idea of eating: drank a: whole bottle of champagne, then pushed It away from him violently. "Hold up,” he told himself, “you’re getting dangerous; this drinking won’t do.” So he sat drumming on tho table booking into the air. When those two got up to go, however, he would go with them; that was sure. He could never see them go ont together again; no—no —no! As his brain grew a bit clearer he saw that they were having a heated discussion between them, and as the room emptied finally, save for/ themselves, Dan, though he could not hear what Ponlotowsky said, understood that he was urging something which the girl did not wish to grant. When they left he rose 9$ well, god at the door of the restaurant the actress anc •faer companion paused, and Dan saw ssrfiace,deadly\ale. There were tears fa her eyes. CTO BE CONTINUED.)

“Dan, I Really Don't Care a Pin for the Money—I Don’t."

Letty Lane Fluttered Down, Followed by Poniotowsky.