Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1893-12-22

brute! Oh. | seem still to see his red. sod
den face so ncar-his Surly curses ring an,
ring i'll my brain. Baby. do YOU thiul
they've found him yet? 1t wasn't our fault
was it. that he stumbled and went over tn,
stars: Six flights down-ugh! He is "
ing there in the shadow can see him
can see him-still-so% still-alone. Hemus
be dead. Yes. he must be-"
She laughed and the sound was strange
a mournful cooingthat seemed to rise from
the ruins of a soul.
Terror enlarged her eyes as through til,
falling snow she saw Il police officer an
proach-a man she knew.
Hello. Nance! What are you dom on,
in the storm, hey:" he asked kindly.
Nance? Yes, it was she-three years old
er, three years sadder.
Its Christmas eve" she faltered, fore
ing a smile, and wanted to show Teddy
the shops, the crowds
Got a bruise on your face again?' Rad.
ley's at his old tricks, eli? ltd be good for
you if he died.
de did not guess what horror his words
had aroused, but she bent her pinched,
tremulous mouth down to the pale child's
face, nodded and hurried past him.
See that girl:" the officer asked of a
TREND who strolled up to him. 1--WE been
watcning her go down, step by step. This
New 1ork's a queer place, a terrible place.
l sometimes stand Oh my beat here and
watch the people pass. know lots of
them, and more about them than they
think. Well, that girl just gone by has
made a bad job of her life, a bad mess of
it,"
She's pretty still. only a bit hungry look
ing and scared. The baby hers:' asked
the listener.
Yes, the poor kid. | heard her tell her
story once to a police Judge when her
scamp OF q husband was up for street fight
ing and she tried to get him off. 1t was
like this: Three years ago she wa singing
On the stage, and as pretty as a rose her
face was. | remember seeing her in The
Mikado.' Pretty? Well, that isn't the
word for it. She had such a baby look in
her eyes and round her lips you'd never
thought a man could have had the heart to
scold her, much less beat her. Well, she
fell sick and lost her voice. She was all
alone i'll the world and poor into the lar
gain. When she was hard up and des-
perate. she somehow met that fellow Rad
ley, who was mixed up with so many racing
swindles a few years ago. He was flush
with money, initiated the swells, lied to
her, l guess. and persuaded her to marry
him. Luck was against her. He lost ev-
cry penny when Lady Betty went under in
the Suburban, and then he became like a
fiend. went from bad to worse, and now he
has hardly a sober momen They live in
a terrible hole down by the bridge. He
beats that poor little wife of his. Some
night he'll kill her."
BY the time this brief recital of her sad
history was finished Nance had gone some
distance up Broadway-a strange, hopeless
figure among the busy crowd.
In the shelter Of q doorway she counted
her last coins There were just Is cents.
When they were gone, what was left? All,
what? Nance knew. She was taking her
farewell Of life today, and she would take
it grandly, lavishly, spending all.
1t was this feeling of reckless fnality
that made her hail a car and sink into u
corner. AT another time she would have
suffered much before spending the money
required for fare. but it seemed a small
consideration in view of this being the last
time.
1he familiar streets were coming. Soon
they would pass the theater where she sang
three years before. An uncomfortable mag
netlsm to the spot made her alight and
stand looking up at the brilliant crystal
lantern in the lobby. How long ago the
life there seemed! Was it only years since
she had seen Mark Torrance? Not centuries
since That white, winter night? Not anoth-