Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Girl fro>km Ay Marie \tar\ Vorst" \\ CHAPTER IV. In the Coral Room. "Mandalay" had run at the Gaiety the aeaaon before and again opened the autumn season. Llfht and charm* tag. thoroughly musical, It had toured eueceeefjlly through Europe, hut Lon? don waa Its home, and its popularity wee chiefly owing to the girl who had starred 1q It?Letty Lane. Her face waa on every postal card, hand bill, cosmetic box and even popular drinks were named for her. The night of the Oedene boa party waa the reopening of "Mandalay," and the curtain went up after the over? ture to aa outburst of applauae. Dan Blair had never "crossed the pond" before this memorable visit, when he had gone straight out to Osdene Park. London theaters and London Itself. In? deed, were unexplored by him. He had seen what there waa to be seen of the opera bouffe In hla own coun? try, but the bri'llant, perfect perform? ance of a company at the London Oalety he had yet to enjoy. The opening scene of "Mandalay" la oriental; the burst of music and the tfakllng of the silvery temple bells and the offset of an extremely blue sea, made Dan "sit up." aa ha put It. The theatrical picture waa so perfect that he lifted hla head, pushed his ehalr back to enjoy. He waa thus close to the duchess. With lnvigorat "Shs's a Girl From Our Town." lag young enthusiasm the boy drew In hie br?*ch and waited to be amused and to hear. The tunes he already knew before the orchestra began to charm his ear. On landing at Plymouth Dan had been keen to feel that he was re^uy etef ping lido the world, and at Oe 4e*k* Park he had been daily, hourly , "eat ing life." The youngest of the ( hOMuehold, his youth nevertheless was not taken tnto consideration by any of thera No one had treated h'.m like a ienlor. He had gone neck to neck wltt their pace as fa.* as h<j liked, fan iah ed t.iem fresh amusement, and teat) their diversion. In all hla rare unapolbd youth. Hlalr had been sud? denly vir pped do vn in an effete set that bed whirled about him. and one ay ono (? of the inner circle bad call?<d hhn to join them; and one by <>ne with all of them nan had whit led Lord Oalorey had talked to him frankly, as plainly as It Dan had been hla two father, and found much of the old nan's common sense In his fine blon l head. Lady Oalorey hai come to h'm in a moment of great unxletv, aad ao one hut her young guest knew how bndly ?he needed help l*? had further made It known to the lady that he was not In the marriage mar? ket; fhat she could not have hlra for aay of her girls And as for the Duct ose of Kreak water, well?he had whirled with her until hla heat. swam. Ho tad grown years older at the Piitk la tb* few weeks of hla visit, tut now for the rim time. a? the run ale or "Mandalay" struck upon his ears, like n r1|>pl* of distant *?aa, he felt like the boy who had left Itlnlrtuwn to C?-m? abr.??o He had spent the um?' pert of the day In London with a gMl who had come over to see hint from Amrltn Den attended to his bmi aeae affairs, and the people wh > knew eeld that be had a keen head Mr Joshua Reggies his father*! mean, whon Dan this ?Tte.no-?n ban loft |S) w i it 'he ( urlt i had put hla arm with affection through the l>ov' ?Don't ook aa though It were nnv too heai'1 rt the place you're vtaKt'w* at Dai Ptumbteg all right?" And the boy. flu?hlng slightly, had aeld: "Ixm't ygej fret. Josh. I ll look after my loilfh. all right M "Therms nothing like gsOMtlll alt returned the westerner The-.. oM fogs stick k n i sjoatfil;. u ?? i " thouth I cculri amoll London eleai down to my fee* From the corner of the hot DM looked hard at the stage, at the fresh Mr. Wiggins, a noted horticulture' orllllant costumes anil the lovely cho? rus girls. "Gosh," he thought to himself, "they are the prettiest ever! Dove-gray, eyes of Irish blue, mouths like roses!" Leaning forward a little toward the duchess he whispered: "There Isn't one who Isn't a winner. I never struck such a box of dry goods!" The duchess smiled on Dan with good humor. His naive pleasure was delightful. It was like taking a child to a pantomime. She wss wearing his flowers ami displaying a Jewel that he had found and bought for her, and which she ha& not hesitated to accept. She watched his eager face and his pleasure unaffected and keen. She oould not believe that this young man was master of ten million pounds^ When Letty Lane appeared B'alr heard a light rustle like rain through the auditorium, a murmur, and tty house rose. There was a well-bred calling from the stalls, a call from the pit, and generous applause?"Letty Lano?Letty Lane!" and as though she were royalty, there was a flutter? ing of handkerchiefs like flags. The young fellow with the others stood In the back of the box. his hands In Ms pockets, looking st the stage. There wasn't a girl In the chorus a3 pretty as this gftOM uj'ina! Letty Lane came on Ig "Mandalay" in the first act In the dress of a fashionable princess. She was modish and worldly. For tbc only time in the play she was modern and conventional and whatever breed? ing she might have been able to claim, from whatever class she was born, as rue stood there In her beautiful gown she was grace Itself, and charm. She was distinctly a star, and showei' her sppreclation of her audience's admira? tion. At the end of the tenor solo Princess Oltary runs Into the pavilion and there changes her dress and ap? pears once more to dance before the rajah and to prove herself the dancer he has known and loved In a cafe In Paris. Letty Lane's dress In his dance was the classic ballet dancer's, white as the leaves of a lily. She seemed to swim and float; actually to be breathed and exhaled from out her film gown; and the only ray of color in her cos? tume mas her own golden hair, sur? mounted by a small coral-colored cap. embroidered In pearls. The actress bowed to the right and left, ran to the right, ran to loft; glanced toward the Duchess of Breakwater's box; ac? knowledged the burst of applause; be? gan to dance and finished her pas eeul, and with folded hands sang her song. Her beautiful voice came out clef.r as crystal water from a crystal rock, and her words were cradled like doves, like boats on the boundless seas. . . . "From India's coral strand. . . ." But there was no hymn tune to this song of Letty Lane's in "Mandalay!" I To the boy in the box, however, the words, the tune, the droning of the files on the window pane, the strong odor of the hymn books and panama fans, came back, and the clear sun? light of Montana seemed to steal Into the Gaiety as Letty Lane saag. The Duchess of Breakwater clapped with frank enthusiasm, and said: "She Is a perfect wonder Isn't she? Oh, she is too bewitching!'* And she turned for sympathy to her friend, who stood behind her, his face illumined He was amazed; his blu'4 eyes ablaze, his head bent forward he was staring, staring at the Gaiety curtain, gone down on the first act. He laughed softly, and the duchess heard him say: "Good! Well, I should say she was! She's a girl from our town!" When the duchess tried to share her enthusiasm with Dan he had disap? peared. He left the box and with no difficulty made his way as far as the first wing. * "Fan you get me an entrance?" he asked a man ho bad met once at r dene, and *hn was evidently gU habitue. "I dare say Rip] In1 show, Isn't It?" I ?an put bis bands 00 ducal bhoul d< ri and followed tiie nobleman thrdigh :v i labyrinth <>r Bias, "Which ol 'an ?i<? you want to sc? old man?" DM Without replying, went forward to a small cluster of lights in one of the nlngi He went forward Intuitive ly, an! his companion naught his arm: Oh, 1 |T, for God'fl sake, don't K<? on like tliis'" But Without response Dan continued his direction. A cull page stoou be fore the door, and Dan. on a card 0YCT tin' SUtranCC read Miss Lane" The smell of calcium and paint and per futno and the auxiliary hung heavy 01 the air. The other man saw Dan knot U. knock Igaln and tin n go In. Unannounced Dan itiair opened tho door of the drssslng room of tho actress. Miss Lane's dressing-rooms were worth displaying to her intitnau friends. They w< re dons uith great taste la COral tint She might have be SI mid tO be In a coral rave under the sea. as far as young Blulf was concerned. As he came In he felt his tiring mar ?umter, has returned ears deaden, and rhe smoke or ciga? rettes grew bo thick that he looked as through a veil. The dancer was standing In the center of the room, one hand on her hip. and in the other hand a cigarette. Her short skirt stood out around h<*r like a bell, and over tho bell fell a rain of pinkish coral strands. She wore a thin slip, from which her neck :ind arms came shining out, and her woman knelt at her feet strapping on a little coral shoe. Blair shut the door behind him. and began to realize how rude, how imper? tinent his entrance would be consid? ered. But he came boldly forward and would have introduced himself as "Dan Blah- from Blnirtown," but Miss Lane, who stood at tho entrance through the smoke, burst into a laugh so bright, so delightful, that he was carried high up on the coral strands to the very beach. She crossed her white arms over her breast and leaned forward as a saleswoman might lean forward over a counter, and with her beautifully trained voice, all sweetly she asked him: "Hello, little boy, what will you take?" Blair giggled, quick to catch her meaning, and answered: "Oh, choco? late, I guess!" And Letty Lane laughed, put out her white hand, the one without the cigarette, and sakl: "Haven't got that brand on board?so sorry! Will a cocktail do? All .sorts in bottles. Hig^ns, fix Mr. Blair a Martini." As the dresser rose from her stoop? ing position, the rest of Letty Lane's dressingvroom unfolded out of tha mist and smoke. On a sofa covered with lace pillows Blair saw a man sit? ting, smoking as well. He was tall, and had a dark mustache. It was Prince Ponlotowsky, whom Dan had already met at the Galorey shoot. "Prince Ponlotowsky," Miss Lane presented him, "Mr. Blair of Blair town, Mont. Say, Frederick, give me my cap, will you? It is over by your side. I've got to hustle." The man. without moving, picked up a small red cap with a single plume, from the sofa at his side. In another second Letty Lane had placed it on her head of yellow hair, real yellow hair and not a doubt of it, like sun? shine?not the color one gets from in? side bottles. Her arms, her hands flashed with rings, priceless flashes, and the little spears pricked Dan like sharp needles. "It's the nicest ever!" she was say? ing. "How on earth d<d you get in here, though? Have you bought the Gaiety theater? I'm the most exclu? sive girl on the stage. Who let you in?" Her accent was English, and even that put her from him. As he looked at her he couldn't understand how he aad ever recognized her. If he had waited for another act he wouldn't have believed the likeness real. The girl he remembered had both softened and hardened; the rounded features were gone, but all the angles were gone as well. Her eyes were a? gray ae the seas; she was painted and her lids were darkened. Seen close, she was not bo divine as on the stage, but there was still a more thrilling charm about the fact that she was real. "To think of any one from Montana being here tonight! Staying very long, Mr. Blair?" Between each sentence she directed Hif.rgins, who was getting her into her bodice. "And how do you like "Mandalay?" Isn't it great?" She addressed herself to Dan, but she smiled on both the men with ex? treme brilliance. "You bet your life," he responded. -I should think It w as great." Ponlotowsky rose indolently. He had not looked toward the new? comer, but had, on the other hand, fol? lowed every detail of Miss Lane's dressing. "Better take your scarf, Letty. i Hand it to Miss Lane," he directed Higglns. "It Is so damned drafty in these beastly wings." He drew his watch out, gathered up his long coat, flung it over his arm and picked up his opera hat which lay folded on Letty Lane's dressing table. The call page for the third time summoned "Miss La?ne, Miss La?no," and she took the scarf Big? gins handed her and ran it through her hands, still beaming on Dan. "Come in to aee mo at tho Savoy on any day, at two-thirty except on mat? inee days." "Put on your acarf." Ponlotowsky, taking it from her hands, laid it across her white shoulders, and she passed out between the two men, light as a bird, smiling,, nodding, followed by the prince and the boy from Montana. The 1 crowds began to fill the lately empty wings?dancers, chorus girls with their rustling gowns. Lett? Lane said to Dan: "Guess jrou'11 like my sola in this RCl all right It's tho best thing in 'Mandalay.* Now go along, and clap me hard." It gave him a new pleasure, for she had spoken to him in real American fashion with 'he swift mimicry that showed her talent, Dan went slowly back to his party. As he took his seat by the duchess she said to him: "You wer? in to see Letty Lane. I1?? you know her?'' "Know her!' And as Dan answered, tho sound of his own voice was queer to him, ami his face flushed hotly. "Lord, yes. Bhe used t<? be in tho drug store In lilatrtown. Bold soda water to me when wo wen both kids. Whoever would have thought that she had that in her?" n<? nodded toward the stage, for Lfdty Lane had eotno on. She sang i'i our church, too, but not for long " "Who was With i*'f In her dressing room?" the duchess asked Blair didn't snswer He was looking at Letty Lane Bhe had come to dance home after spending a few days in for the rajah, and In "her arms she held four white doves; each dove had a coral thread around Its throat. It was a number that made her famous, Dan Stood Motionless, His Eyes Fast? ened on Her. "The Dove Song." Set free, the birds flew about her, circling her blond head, surmounted by the small coral colored cap. The doves settled on her shoulders, pecked at her lips. "Was it Poniotowsky ?" the duchess repeated. And Dan told her a meaningless He. "I didn't meet any one '.here." And with satisfaction the duchess said: "Then Bhe has thrown him over, too. He was the latest and the richest. She is horribly extravagant. No man is rich enough for her, they say. Poni? otowsky isn't a gold mine." The doves had flown away to the wings and been gathered up by the Indian servants. The actress on too stage began her Indian cradle song. She came, distinctly turning toward the box party. She had never sung like this In Ixmdon before. There was a freshness in her voice, a quality in her gesture, a pathos and a sweetness that delighted her audience. They fairly clamored for her, waved and called and recalled. Dan stood mo? tionless, his eyes fastened on her, his heart rocked by the song. He didn't want anyone to speak to him. He I wished that none of them would breathe, and nearly as absorbed as 7as be, no one did speak. CHAPTER V. | At the Carlton. 1 There are certain natures to whon. ?ach appearance of evil, each form of delinquency is a fresh surprise. They are born simple, in the sweet sense of the word, and they go down to obi age never of the world, although In a sense wordly. If Dan Blalr's eyes were somewhat opened at twenty-two. he had yet the bloom on his soul. He was no fool, but his Ideals stood up each on its pedestal and ready to ap? pear one by one to him as the scenes of his life shifted and the different curtains rose. He had been trained in finance from his boyhood and he was a born financier. Money was his natural element; he could go far in "She Knows How to Make Herself Conspicuous/' Said the Duchess. it. Hut woman! He was one of those manly creatures?a knight?to whom each woman is a sacred thing: a dove, a crystal-clear soul, made to cherish and to protect, made to be 1 spoiled. And In Dan were all tho qualities that go to make up the un? selfish, tender, foolish, and often tin happy American husband. These wero some of the other things lie had in? herited from nil father. Blair, senior, bad married his fltat love, and where as hii boy had been trained to know money and its value, how to keep it ami spend It, to save it and to make it, he had been taught nothing at all about woi..;,n. He had never been taught to distrust women, never been warned against them; he had been taught nothing but his father's mem? ory ol Ills mother, and the result was thai be worshiped the sex and won? dered at the mystt iy. With Qordon Galorey and the oth? ers he had ridden, shot better than they, and had played, but with Lady Galorey and the Duchess of Break watt r be was nothing but a child. As far as his hostess was concerned, several occasions she had put to him certain Btates of affaire, well, touch lngly. Dan hi I been moved by the stories of sore need among tho ten? ants, had bee! Impressed by the no* cesslty of reforms and rebuilding! and on each I ? caslon had given his hostess a theek. She had asked him to say nothing at lUt it to Gordon, and Charleston with Mr and Mrs. W. H. ?e naa Hept nis sTlence. Dan llkea Lady Oalorey extremely: she was Jolly, witty and friendly. She treated him as a member of the family and made no demands on him, save the ones mentioned. In the time that he had come to know the Duchess of Breakwater she, on her part, had lilled him full of oth? er confidences. Into his young ears she poured the story ot l:or disap? pointment, her disjointed life, from her worldly girlhood to her disillusion In marriage. She was beautiful when she talked and more- lovely when she wept. Dan thought himself in love with the Duchess of Breakwater. Ills conversations with her had brought him to this conclusion. They had motored from Osdene Park together, ( and he had been extremely taken with I the pleasure of it, and with the fact of their real companionship. Two or three times the words had been on his Hps, which were fated not to be spoken then, however, and Dan reached the Gaiety still unfettered, his duchess by his side. And then the orchestra had begun to play "Manda lay," the curtain had gone up and Letty Lane had come out on tho boards. But her apparition did not strike off his chains immediately, nor did he renounce his plan to tell the duchess tho very next day that he I loved her. I When with sparkling eyes Lady I Galorey raved about "Mandalay." Dan ? listened with eagerness. Everybody i seemed to know all about Letty Lane, I bat he alone knew from what town she had come! They went for supper at the Carl ton after the theater. ?'Letty," Lady Galorey said, "tells it herself how the Impresario heard her i sing In some country church?picked her up then and there and brought her over here, and they say she mar? ried him." Dan Blair could have told them how she had sung in that little church that day. Dan was eating his caviare sandwich. "Her name then was Sally Towney," he murmured. How little I h? had guessed that she was singing * herself right out of that church and i Into the I>ondon Gaiety Theater! Any j way, she had made him "sit up!" It was a far cry from Montana to the London Gaiety. And so she mar I ried the greasy Jew who had dlscov , ered her! j Dan glanced over at the Duchees of j Breakwater. She was looking well, j exquisitely high bred, and she im? pressed him. She leaned slightly over to him, laughing. He had hardly dared to meet her eve3 that day. fearing that she mlgnt read Ills secret. 'She had told him that in her own right ! she was a countess?the Countess of l Stalner. Titles didn't cut any ice j with him. At any rate, she would be able to "buy back the old farm"?that , Is the way Dan put it She had told him of the beautiful old Stalner Court, mortgaged and hung up with debts, as d'-ep In ruins as the ivy was thick on the walls. As Dan looked over at the duchess he saw the other people staring and looking about at a table near. It was spread a little to their left for four people, a great bouquet of orchids in the center. "There," Galorey said, "there's Let? ty Lane." And the singer came In, followed by three men, the first of them the Prince Poniotowsky, indo? lent, bored, haughty, his eye-glass dangling. Miss Lane was dressed in black, a superb costume of faultless cut, and it enfolded her like a shad? ow; as a shadow might enfold a spec? ter, for the dancer was as pale aa the dead. She had neither painted nor rougod. she hn 1 evidently employed no coquetry to dbguise her fag; rath? er she seemed to be on the verge of a serious illness, and presented a ?triking contrast to the brilliant crea? ture, who had shone before their eyes not an hour before. Her dress was a challenge to the more gay and deli? cate affairs the other women in the restaurant wore. The gown came severely up to her chin. Its high col? lar closed around with a pear1, neck? lace; from her ears fell pearls, long, creamy and priceless. She wore a great feathered hat, which, drooping, almost hid her small, pale face and her golden hair. She drew off her gloves as she came in and her white, jeweled hands flashed. She looked infinitely tired and extremely bored. As soon as she took her seat at the table intended for her party, Poni? otowsky poured her out a glass of champagne, which she drank off as though it were water. "Gad," Lord Galorey said, "she is a stunner! What a figure, and what a head, and what daring to diess like that!" "Sho knows how to make herself conspicuous," said the Duchess of Breakwater. "She looks extremely ill," said Lady Galorey. "The pace she goes will do her up In a year or two." Dan Blair had his back to her. and When they ros< to leave he was the last to pass out. Letty Lnno saw him, and a light broke over her pallid face. She nodded and smiled and shook her hand in a pretty little salute If her face was palo. her lips w? i? red, and her smilo was like sunlight: and it her recognition a wave of friendly fel? lowship swept over tho young man- a sort of loyal kinship to her which he hadn't fell for any other women thi re, and which he could not have ca? ptained, lu warm approval of the nctress* distinction, ho said softly to himself: "That's all ri^lii she makes the test of them look like thirty cents." CHAPTER VI. Galorey Seeks Advice. Blair did not go back at once to Os? dene Park. He stopped over In Lon I ley ward.?Charleston Post. don for a few days to see josnua nug gles, and so remarked for the first time the difference between the speech of the old and the new workl. Mr. Ruggles spoke broadly, with com* plete disregard of the frills and adorn? ments of the King's English. He spoke United States of the pure, broad, western brrfhd, and it rang out, It vibrated and swelled and rolled, and as Ruggles didn't care who heard him, nothing of what he had to say was lost. Old Mr. Blair had left behind him a comrade, and as far as advice could go the old man knew that his Dan would not be bankrupt "Advice." Dan Blair senior once said to his boy, "is the kind of thing we want some fellow to give us when' we ain't going to do the thing we ought to do, or are a little ashamed of something we have done, it's an aw? ful good way to get cured of asking advice just to do what the fellow tells you to at once." During Ruggles' stay In London the young fellow looked to it that Rug? gles saw the sights, and the two did the principal features of the big town, to the rich enjoyment of the Western? er. Dan took his friend every night to the play, and on the fourth evening Ruggles said: "Let's go to the circus or a vawdeville, Dan. I have learned this show by heart!" They had been every night to see "Mandalay." "Oh, you go on where you like, Josh," the boy answered. "I'm going to see how she looks from the pit." Ruggles was not a Blairtown man. He had come from farther west, and had never heard anything of Sarah Towney or Letty Lane. He applauded the actress vigorously at the Gaiety at first and after the third night slept , through most of the performance. When he waked up he tried to dis? cover what attraction Letty Lane had for Dan. For the young man never left Ruggles' side, never went behind the scenes, though he seemed ab? sorbed, as a man usual!v ?? abso-hed for one reason onty. In response to ft telegram from Os dene Pat*, Dan motored otu there cue afternoon, and during his absence Ruggles was surprised at his hotel by a cali. "My dear Mr. Ruggles," Lord Ga lorey said, for he it was the page boy fetched up, "why don't you come out to see us? All friends of old Mr. Blair's are welcome at Oadene." Ruggles thanked Galorey ard said he was not a \!sfting man, that be only had a short time in London, and was going to Ireland to look up "his family tree. ' "There are one hundred acres of ' trees in Osdene," aughed Galorey; "you can climb them all." And Rug? bies r<v!led: I guess I wouldn't find any O'Shaughnessy Ruggles at the top of any of 'em, my lord. The boy has gone out to see you all today." Galorey nodded. "That is just why I toddled in to see you!" Ruggles' caller had been shown to the sitting room, where he and Dan hobnobbed and smoked during the Westerner's visit. There was a pile of papers on the table, in one corner a typewriter covered by a black cloth. Galorey took a chair and, refusing a cigarette, lit his pipe. "I didn't have the pleasure of meet? ing you in the West when I was out there with Blair. I knew Dan's fa? ther rather well." Ruggles responded: "I knew him rather well, too, for thirty years. If," he went on, "Blair hadn't known you pretty well he wouldn't have sent the boy out to you as he has done. He was keen on every trail. I might say that he had been over every one of 'em like a hound before he set the boy loose." I Galorey answered, "Quite so," grave- 4 ly. "I know lt. I knew it when Dan turned up at Osdene?" Holding his pipe bowl in the palm of his slender hand, be smoked meditatively. He hadn't thought about things, as he had been doing lately, for many years. His sense of honor was the strongest thing in Gordon Galorey, the only thing in him, perhaps, that had been left unemirched by the touch or' the world. He was unquestionably a gen? tleman. "Blair, however," he 6aid, "wasn't as keen on this scent as you'd expect. His Intuition was wrong." Ruggles raised his eyebrows slight? ly. "I mean to say," Lord Galorey went on, "that he knew me In the West when I had cut loose for ft few blessed months from just these things into which he has sent his boy?from what, if I had a son, God knows I'd throw him as far as I could." "Blair wanted Dan to see the world." "Of course, that is right enough. We all have to see it, I fancy, but this boy isn't ready to look f.t It." "He is twenty-two," Ruggles re? turned. "When 1 was his age I was supporting four people.'' Galorey went on: "Osde ne Park at present isn't the window for Blair's boy to see life through, and that is what I have come up to London to talk to you about, Mr. Ruggles. 1 should like to have you take him ft way." "What's Dan been up to down there?" "Nothing as yet, but ho is in the pocket of a woman?he Is in a nest of w omen." I TO BE CONTINUED) The h von Ilepubllcan Governor* who \ ? i persuaded '.he Colonel have the goods. They must have them, fot thej haven't delivered them yet. Wilmington star. A largo number of people went over from Sumter today to attend the funeral of Mr. G. (!. Cooper at m ayesvllle.