, 1897-09-02
A MERRY LAUGH.

NY ili' 10 !auLh Ike the GallsuI III tbs
box. Cad! What is there in those
lu~ount'l.nfs to put such lev in a
laugh?'
''Bandy,'' chuckled his COMPANION,
you've lived too long. The dam, ri in
the tox has just begun Th.1c'n ne get
ting round it. my boy, it does make Il
diff crence.'
But the girl in the box. forgctful ii
play and playhouse, laughed on. She
was levoling III an elysium III which
rarrlrious EDITORS. inIpur;unatr lat Il.
ladies and disappointed ambitions lad
10 part. Suddenly conscious that her
mcr1imcut did not fit in with the nl"v
on the boards, she turned IL fur,ive
glance To tie CrthCstra. Tie curtains
of the box Iarted.
IF this il not Miss Madeline Lycette,
formerly Of Tcrrc Iiautc. later of PA
Rue 81. Jacqucs, Paris. kOiston Cham
herlain Of 1.Incoln's Inn court, LONDON,
begs Il thousand ~parGcns."
You heard:' gasrod the girl.
~ did, said the young man.
"Do you krNw the last act recalled
the night YOU and Thorndyke, disguised
as g'ndaImss, knocked ut the madanc's
door and demanded in The name of the
prefecture Of the police my immediate
arrest as al anarchist spy, giving tie
number of the cab ard the name of the
place from which l had driven that
day TO interview Michel"
Curious, +" said the young man. Il
was thinking Of the very same ~crisoGc,
when two old fellows down there in
the orchestra called my attention to
your laugh"
Mental telCcrapby!'
Royal good luck!"
And it WAS aCcs ago." sighed Miss
Lycette.
Fully Il century," acquiesccd Mr..
Chamberlain.
And you're not yet lord chancellor"
"Aud you have yet to write the long
expected American novel?'
They had drawn their chairs within
the sec!usion Of the box, while ten years
were thus gIihly stricken off the cal,n-
dar.
"Do tell ne Of the ThcrIdykes."
1.-The madaDc's dead"
"DcaG? Poor soul!"
boh I say Nual. "tTt sie ullNt, 1 III
all probability would not he hero"
"Nonscnsc! Everything drifts here
sooner or later"
Its in the interest Of her estate
''OiI. ] sec. the Heir married an Amer
lean wife. He always said lie intended
to-
And he did intend to until he fell
in love with YOU
THAT settled it," smiled the girl.
"You see. you were the first Amcri-
can he met, and he ~Conc!udcG-se con.
cluded''-
"Aftcr the CGtacomb tiascO'-
"Exactly-that if all les bellies Amer.
icaircs were like Machine Ly cctte he
Wuuld have zone Ct t.cn."
~ isdcm one would never have cred
tied him.
Again their laughter failed to fit in
with the play.
1t was II raGinntly sunsl.iry day in
early spring-the spring that crgcn-
ders dissatisfaction, revolt, Indptnahle
ycarniug. Miss LyCCttC had sped along,
jostled bithCr and thither, unmiudfui
whittier she was going. Anything, any
where, for Il brief forgetting. A reject.
ed manuscript upon the acceptance of
which literally depended for the rorcc
her bodily susteEancc weighed her
pocket.
"Too sad! Our rca 1crs won't have
it," was tho verdict of the optimistic
editor of Every Day In the Year. Give
us the gay, the spliehtly. You can do
it."
"Too sad! Too sad!' 1t seemed to
the girls overweight, self questioning
soul that tie editors of Gotham had
Conspired Of late to execute every of.
spring OF her fancy CD the same verdict
-"Too sad!' How could one write
o,horwi sc in the face of continued fail.
ure-failure that forced one to question
the raisOn d'Ctre of the gaycty, the
sprigftliucss Ct which the old world
never wcaries. ''Thcrc's lots of lomance
nd adventure il Tie hsrl oor&ahay
Worli.' Had not the et,lior SAID it:
Its II grand mistake concluded
Miss Lycette. catching the reflex of Sat
urGay afternoon Broadway testivity,
''to take oneself-tle world-anything
too seriously. To creep into ones
jjolc and nope when the gods cease to
smile is arrant cowurdice. If romance,
adventure, cease to come ones way.
aud they are still the elixir the world
Graves, then it beilooves one, i'll behalf
of bread, if not art, to sally forth to
meet them on their own happy bunting
ground
beg pardon, madame, it's my tu1n.
Lost in the phantasmagoria of sTrine
millinery, the rustic of silk and the
cdor of violets surginR into an mp town
theater. Miss Lyce:t tie was swept along,
until unwittingIy she usurped the Place
of uu irnte dame ut the box Office.
1t was too late to retreat.
What will you have!"
"What have you got?'
Lower box"
Nothing else?'
STANDING room."
With rscklessness born Of desperation
Mis-. Lycet,e, rcputed u successful
woman of Ietters-Miss Lycette, the
.rvy Of scores of women with fat bank
deposits, counted out the last penny che
had in the world.
To the choicest toX i'll II OF tn"
most fashionable tfeaters, an eSttava-
ounce of which size liud rarely il ever
been guilty whtn fortune smiled, 'he
suffered tn. usher 10 |, I'D her. Rrcln-
inn in IL lr.uiiUrs chair, sbt yielded.
with the II oEci alance Of MI fatltre. TO