The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1890-07-18

fell at the feet OF Lutte Sterl1lg.
James took the boys head between his
hands. Cry, my little oneta he said,
tenderly. "Dost fear to show me thy
tears. And what sorrow shall touch thea
that I may not share:'
The lad, unable to keep back the tears,
flung himself ON his fathers breast.
Then his face flushed.
what have I done:' he questioned,
fiercely. What right has she to cast me
off like a glove, to be thrown aside as
soon as worn? Did she not seek me OF
her own accord: Dost thou not remem-
ber?:'
And Mamma Sterling listened patient
II, for the hundredth time, to the story
of the first smile, the flowers. the hand
kerchief, which the boy still wore over
his heart, the dainty. perfumed note tell
ing his raYished eyes that the carriage
her carriage waited for him, Then the
short drive beside her, the enchanted
wines he drank. the delicate plats, the
happy after meetings.
And it was all SO young, 50 innocent,
so pathetic Units simplicity, that Mamma
Sterling could only keep back the tears
because it was necessary to be brave and
gay to comfort the lad. What could he
| say. the older man, who knew the world
50 well, who, in the heyday OF his own
youth, had seen a duchess OF the Eau
bourg St. German make a goose of her
self for the space of week because Of
his handsome eyes: And he had reeoy-
cred from that what he had then believed
70 be the tragedy Of his life,
$50 viii the dear child" he thought.
But he forgot the mothers gypsy blood.
Two weeks crept by and all the while
the box at the cirque was empty. Once
Little Sterling dared to seek entrance at
the gates Of a certain hotel in the aristo-
cratic quarter, but while he waited, like
q lackey, in the court. the concierge re-
turned, and giving him back his card,
said. with an i~nsolent smile:
Monsieur has doubtless made a mis-
take
Then indeed he gave up hope. Each
night he went through his part with per-
haps more Of reckless daring than before,
but the smile was no longer ON his lips,
and Tommy Pears, the clown, ventured
TO tell Mamma Sterling that his hand
some chick was going off on his looks.
James struck the fellow a blow full on
his painted lips. But that highs he
watched beside the boy, tossing restless
" on his bed. watched with Gching,
sleepless eyes and adnll pain at his heart.
At last she came again. Not alone,
but with q gay crowd Of men and
women, and among them the gray haired
aastocrat, who hung deyotedly about
her chair. Still not w this could stifle
the joy in the boys heart.
HShe Is here.!7 he whispered excitedly
to his father.
The woman in the box turned an in
different glance on Little Sterling as he
sprang into the ring; then, as indiffer-
eutly passing him over. she raised her
lorgnette and studied some face in the
audience beyond. The boy ahrank as
from a sudden blow, then the blood
tingled hotly in his cheek, and raising
his handsome, naughty head. he leaped
lightly forward and seized the ropes.
But as he swung upward and reached
his trapeze he watched that one face
steadily. Not once did he surprise her
glance, Again and again, as he accom-
plished some perilous feat, he sent down
from his eyrie under the great dome that
shrill, sweet cry Of triumph. Not once
did her eyes respond. What mattered it,
then, that all the house shrieked ''Braya.
Bravissina:"
Nov-ah, impossible.-Yes. she was
rising, her companion wa gathering the
folds of her long cloak tenderly about
her graceful shoulders-she was leaving
the cirque, And in the midst of his
scene,
With that shrill cry, still sweet on the
air, with his lips curved in that smile,
half tender, half disdainful, Little Sterl-
ing rose to his full height on the sway
ing bar of his trapeze. Balancing him
| self surely, with his arms folded over
his chest, his slim body erect, as if in the
proud consciousness Of some new VIC
tory TO be achieved, he swept the house
with one electric glance. Then swift,
straight as an arrow sent by an unerring
hand, the tinsel of his dress cleaning in
the air ike a single ray Of vivid light, he
shot downward from that immense
height and lay prone in the dust of the
ring.
\ cry Of horror as from a single throat
rose from the great audience, but ere a
single hand could be outstretched to
raise the poor, crushed form in all its
blood stained bravery Of silk and tinsel
a figure clad in the gay scarlet Of a pos
tillion Of the Eighteenth century dashed
into the ring, a white, desperate face
bent over the lifeless body Of the lad,
and fercely, hungrily, jealousy spurn-
ing the aid Of a hundred willing hands,
Mamma Sterling gathered to his breast
all that was left him Of his boy, and,
never swerving beneath his burden, car
ried him away in his arms.
Half the house, men and women, were
in tears, and for a moment there was not
a sound. Everything seemed silenced,
hushed, in the presence of that grief.
There was a movement in n of the
boxes. A beautiful, dark woman had
risen. She shivered q little as she chung
to the arm of her gray haired escort and
her lips were white, very white and set,
but she only said:
"Ah bah! One co:nes to The cirque to
be amusedr'-Adapted from the French
Of Rene Maizeroy, for Current Litera-
ture, by Alice Ballard Macdonald