Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Carlo and Mentone and big places like that, but they never think of the ones up in the moun tains. Angel said how nice it would be, if we were rich, to buy toys-baskets and baskets full-and give them away to the children of Eze. Perhaps you are rich. Are you ?" "Richer than I thought, a few years ago, that I ever should be. I used to be poor until I dug and found some gold lying about in the ground." "How splendid! I suppose the fairies showed you where to look. Jane says there are no fairies, but I do hope she's mistaken. I wish you would send up some presents to the little children at Eze." "I will, lots, if you'll take them." "Perhaps we could all go together." "I'm afraid your mother wouldn't care for that." "Yes, sihe would, because, if you were never unkind to her, like nurse said you were, she'll be most awfully glad to see you again. I shouldn't wonder if she'd cry for joy to have you with us always and take care of us. Oh, do let's go back now, and I'll take you to her ! She will be surprised !" "I should think she would," said Hugh. "But, look here, you said she wouldn't get back till dark. We've come to Mentone now. See how pretty the shops are for Christmas. Can't you stop and have some nice hot chocolate and cakes with me and afterward choose a doll for yourself as a Christmas present from your old friend ?" As he put this temptation before her he slowed down the car in front of a shop with big glass windows full of sparkling cakes and ribbon tied baskets of crystallized fruits. Through the windows Rose mary could see a great many well dressed people sitting at little mar ble tables, and it would have been delightful to go in, but she .shook her head. The sun was setting over the sea. The sky was flooded with pink and gold, while all the air was rosy with a wonderful glow which painted the mountains, even the dappled gray plane trees, and the' fronts of the gayly decorated shops. The donkey women were leading their patient little animals away from the stand on the sea promenade up to Sorbio for the night, and their dark faces under the queer mushroom hats were ruddy and beau tiful in the rose light. "As soon as the sun goes down it gets dark here," said Rosemary regretfully. "Thank you very much, but I'd rather go home now. You see, I do so want you to be there already, waiting to surprise Angel when she comes in." "No time even to buy a doll ?" "I'd rather go home, thank you. Besides, though I should like to have a new doll, perhaps darling Evie would be sad if I played with another." Hugh was obediently turning the car's bonnet toward Monte Carlo, and for the fraction of a second he was foolish enough almost to lose control of it on account of a start he gave. "Evie !" he echoed. It was years since he, had spoken that name. - "She's my dollr" explained Rosemary. "Oh !" said Hugh. "But I don't think she'd mind or be sad if you gave me a doll's house," went on the child, "if you should have time to get it for me by and by-that is, if you really mat- to give me something for Christmas, you know." -'- -b_ "Of course I do. But, tell me, He put the question in a low ,oice, as if he were half ashamed' of asking it, and as at that instant | a tram boomed by Rn.emay heard only the first words. "I s'posed .you would," she re plied. "Fathers do like to give their little girls Christmas presents, Jane says. Maybe that's why they're obliged to come back al ways on Christmas eve if they've been lost.' Do you know, even if there aren't any fairies, it's just like a fairy story having my father come back and take me to Angel in a~ motor car on Christmas eve." "Good gracious!I" exclaimed Hugh Egerton. "Did you say lather ?" "Yes," replied Rosemary. "You're almost like a fairy father, I usaid." 'So be was her father-her long lost father! Poor little lamb I He. began to guess at the story now. There was a scamp of a father who 'Nhad "not been very kind" to Angel and had been lost or had thought fully lost himself. For some extraordinary reason the child imagined that he-well, if it were not pathetic it would be funny. But some how he did not feel much inclined to laugh. Poor little thing! His heart yearned over her, but the situation was becoming strained. Unless he could think of some good way out of it he might have s scene when he was obliged to rob the child of her father on reaching the door of her house. "That's it," said he, calling all his tact to the rescue. "I am a fairy father, just as you thought. It's a mistake of Jane's about there being no fairies, only the trouble is fairies aren't so. powerful as they used to be in the old days. Now, I should love to be able to stay with you for a long, long time, but because I'm only a poor fairy father I can't. We've been very happy together, and I'm tremendously glad you found me. I shall think of you and of this day often, but the cruel part is that when I bring you to your door I'm afraid I shall have to vanish." "Oh, how dreadful!1" cried Rosemary, her voice quivering. "Must I lose you again ?" 'Perhaps I can write to you." Hugh tried to console her, feeling horribly guilty and helpless. "That won't be the same. I do love you so much. Please don't "I shall send you things-a doll's house for Evie. By the way, you didn't tell me why you named her that." "After Angel, of course," returned the child absentmindedly. b "But when you've vanished I" "Is your mother's name Evie ?" a "Evelyn. But that's too long for a doll." "Evelyn-what? You-you haven't told me your name yet." s "Rosemary Evelyn Clifford." "Great heavens !" t "How strange your voice sounds !" said Rosemary. "Are you ill ?" "No-no! I feel a little odd; that's all." "Oh, it isn't the vanishing coming on already I We're a long way from our hotel yet." Hugh drove mechanically, though sky and sea and mountains seemed to be seething together, as if in the convulsions of an earth quake. Her child! And her husband-what of him? The little one said he was lost; that he had not been kind. Hugh gritted his teeth to gether and heard only the singing of his blood in his ears. Was the man dead, or had he but disappeared? In any case she was here, alone in \Ionte Carlo, with her child, poor, unhappy, working by day, cry ing by night. He must see her at once-at once! Yet-what if it were not she, after all, if the name were a coin cidence? There. might be other Evelyn Cliffords in the world. It I must b^ that this was another. His Evelyn had married a rich and titled Englishman. She was Lady Clifford. The things that bad hap pened to .Rosemary's Angel could not have a happened to her. Still, he must know, and - -- know quickly. "Where do you live, little Rosemary ?" he asked, grimly schooling his voice, when he felt d ..thatde..could trust himself to speak. . "Tie 3otel Pensior Beau Soleil, Rue Gira- 1 sole; in the Condamine, Monte Carlo," an swered' the child, as if she were repeating a esson e had been taught to rattle off by g s he was to most external things, Hugh roused hinself toeso urprise at the name of the hotel. a "Why, that: is whe aM11e 5 de Lavalette and her mother live 1" he exclaimed. s "They'-e tll ladies Angel lent the money to because she was so a sorry for then,'a.said osemary: "I've heard them talking about it "1 with her and ..sayig they can't pay it back. They're angry with her t for asking, b. s'he had to, you see. When they go past us in the dining room they turn their backs" Hugh's attention was arresed 'ow. "Do they dine, "he ask ; evry night I" "Oh, yes-always." Madeexiielle has lovely dresses. She is a pretty, but the comtesse is su~ an ugly old lady-like Red Riding Hood's grandmother, I thij4r I'm afraid of her. Jane says:her madame a.nd mxonsieur don't l'eie she's really a comtesse. I had to a knock at her door with a lettr4om.,Angel today, for Angel doep't ~ know I'm afrai4 I eouldn't be(ig glad madaniei wouldn't let-ine in, for it seemel as if she mI&eatSiie up.' I knocked and knocked, and when I was going away4 saw mademoiselle coming in in'a& pink1 dress with a rosy hat."t "I think she'll pay your mother back tomorrow,"' said Hugh, re membering the fatness of the pink bag. "She didn't say she would. She was so cross with me that she called me a listit bete and snatched the letter out of my hand." At this Hugh's face grew suddenly hot and red, and he muttered something under his breath. But it was not a word which Rosemary I would have understood, even if she had heard. J ut 0"se se, chkn bahasb4sh liftedherp+etheSround Vanish OSeMR had tegtenalarsu vnishing.esTo vaieshn ta h attighe airyed he t o ppdhs.ra h oro "Somethingtelshe htl HI shad drven oquity quickl sanyhow he saidhasheld.b"I-nt i t er thathe must sheattin roo whreculdcal'uon, he ouai to vsh omes ve ymin "We.avent' te forn" s aed nar, chkig bakt soe-b' as e lid ady who lies gonxdoo ou r o loi n svr odt Anelansh e hd forgten aie aotndhing. or vapesh nw Age tpes thine seto.Whnsesayseltsuuete Soting ttellths mevng tht Iht hav betime,uand yet, anhow," he sidhhastiflyou Iwill. oI' sehnu youhr Has' sed itngh oom itl whe !"l aluo hro attl hecmsi ". * "We het ondin of itx ohad not oedfor,i hers a nore old since whoelives went dorhe adgonte op or tars is vner good tonsel and Eve.ynHh write ste anditing fro the paprsild. Ange tpes them someidors. wen sihe awyslet.sOne ethe ittin elrom wihrthts and he's awayl things Anboel pnIon,e going tohe pries re "from evn5 tillants my dtyime andyoucancom Hi-,. harpondng asi do ot pourthedfoor, adfr a morent e twilight on the other side was shot for Hugh with red and p pots. But the colors faded when the childish voice said: Wt here. If you'll come in, I'll go and see if she's in our room." "Don't tell her-don't say-anything about a fairy father," tammered. "Oh, no! That's to be the surprise," Rosemary reassured him be pattered away. It was deep twilight in the room and rather cold, for the euc&l as and olive logs in the fireplace still awaited the match. Hugh co see the blurred outlines of a few pieces of cheap furniture--a sofa, three or four chairs, a table and a clumsy writ ing desk. But the window was still a square of pale bluish light, cut out of " . the violet dusk, and as the young man's eyes accustomed themselves to the dim ness of the room the room did not seem dark. He was not left alone for long. In two or three minutes Rosemary ap peared once more, without her hat and coat, to say that Angel had not yet come back. "But she'll soon be here now," went on the child. "Do you 'mind waiting in the twilight, fairy father The electric light doesn't come on fter 5, and I've just heard the clock downstairs strike 5." "I shall like it," answered Hugh, glad that his face should . idden by the dusk in these moments of waiting. "Angel tells me stories in the twilight," said Rosemary as she. sat .own on the sofa by the cold fireplace, and she let him lift her .light ittle body to his knee. "Would you tell me one about when you were 'l try," Hugh said. "Let me think-what story shall I tell?" "i won't speak while you're remembering," Rosemary promised.. :aning her head confidingly against his shoulder. "I always keopg uiet while Angel.puts on her thinking cap." Hugh laughed and was silent. But his head was too hot to wear thinking cap, and no story would .comie at his half hearted dall. Rosemary waited in patience for him to begin. "One, two three,". he counted under her breath, for she had learned to count up' tdifty, nd it was good practice when one wished to make the time pass.. She ad just come to forty-nine and was wondering if she might remind he fairy father of his duty when the door opened. It was Angel, of course. B-:t Angel did not come in. She stopped n the threshold, talking to somebody, or, 'ather, somebody was talking to her. Rose- - nary could not see the person, but she recog ized the voice. It was that of Mle. de La "You are not to. write my mother letters rid trouble us about that moneys miadame,". aid the voice, as shrill now- as it could be .. ' weet. "Onder for all, I will not have it. I '. 1ave followed you to tell you this. You will e paid soon-that is enough. I am engaged o be married to a -rich man, an Amernean. I1 Je will be glad to pay all our debts by and >y, but meantime, madame, you are to let us Ione." "I have done nothing except to write and ay that I needed the money, which you promised to return weeks ago, or I couldn't possibly have spared it" irotested a voice which Hugh had heard in dreams three nights out of very six in as many years. "Well, if you write any mo>re letters we shall burn them unread, o it is no use to trouble us, and we will pay when we choose." *With the last words the other voice died into distance. Mademoi elle had said what she came to say and. was retreating with dignity. [own the corridor..* Now the figure of a slender woman was silhouetted in the door vay. hugh lieard a sigh and liw 'a hand tgliniinrd white in th~j Lusk against the dark papfer N the wall as it groped for the button of he electric light. Then suddenly the'room- was aIled with a white adiance, and she stood in the midst of it, young and beautiful, the r'oman he had loved for seven years. Putting Rosemary away, he sprang up, and her eyes, dazzled at rst by the sudden flood of light, opened wide in start:led recognition. 'Hugh-Hugh Egerton!I" she stammered, whispering as one whispers n a dream... . She was pale as a lily, but the whiteness of her face was like light, hining from within, and there was a light in her great eyes, too, such as had never shone for Hugh on r)sea or land. Once, a long time I VAIW go, he had hoped that she cared orwould come to care, but she Hugh hd gone away. That had been the end. Yet now - what - stars her eyes were! One might almost think that she had not for gotten; that sometimes she had .1 I wished for him; that she was glad to see him now. U"Lady Clifford," he stammer ed, "I-will you forgive my being here - my frightening you like this ?" The brightness died out of her face. "Lady Clifford !" she echoed. 'Don't call me that unless-I'm to call you Mr. Egerton! And, esides, I'm only Mine. Clifford here. It is better. The other would eem like ostentation in a woman who works." "Evelyn," he said. "Thank you for letting it be Evelyn." Then, i voice breaking a little, "Oh, say you're a tiny bit glad to see me (To Be Continued).