The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-11

to see the little man beaming with
 pride upon. her.
 At last. it was her cue! Into view of the great audience she swept as burst of applause welcomed her as the
 new prima donna whose voice was to
 be compared with other nightingales
 of the stage. She bowed slightly in acknowledgement of the compliment
 and spoke the few predatory lines to her song In as easy, graceful manner
 as if she hal been accustomed to do
 such things for years. As the chorus
 crowded around her with the usual
 chatter, the orchestra struck the first bars of her number and she pressed the little bottle to her nose.
 Something seemed to take her breath for an instant as the chorus backed
 away from her and left, her the center
 of the stage. Her nose tickled strange
 ly. She caught her breath, bit her lip
 and then-sneezedi It came so quick
 ly and unexpectedly that it embarrass-
 ed her and a litter of amusement came
 from the galleries She felt her cour- age falter for an instant and the blood
 surge to her cheeks. Worse still the tickling sensation in her nose contin-
 ued and she wanted to sneeze again. | "Kerchewk!" she sneezed. and the au-
 dience, all over the house. began to giggle. The chorus shifted nervously in their positions and the orchestra leader began the introduction over again. Again, she sneezed--this time
 louder than before and the audience
 laughed outright while the chorus girls giggled at the embarrassing situ-
 ation. Then Edith burst out in an un- controllable fit of laughter, and the
 audience thought she had caught the hI,p, nf stfnaffnn and 1anRhad with her. t- The moisture in her eyes blurred her vision and she laughed-for what she
 did not know only that it was all so funny--and she broke out anew in a l fit of laughter that made her gasp for | breath as she hushed up bit. Her | body shook with merriment and tears rolled down her cheeks-thus serving | to increase the ludicrous scene. All grew dark before her and she wondered
 if she had tainted as the big curtain
 rolled down in front of her and shut
 off the bright glare of the auditorium flights.
 1 The broken hearted professor and George Hannis reached the hysterical girl at the same time and led her, still { laughing, from the stage Francis was
 before the curtain making an explana- | tory speech andz four minutes later, Janet Cabell, transformed from pale. sick creature into a picture of health and happiness, her eyes sparkling with | delight and her face beaming with I pleasure, was singing with divine ex- | pression the first primma donna solo l of the program. No one had ever heard her sing like this before and 1t was the chorus more than the audi ence who wondered at the change. By the time that she had bowed and smi1- ed sweetly to the audience after sing ing the third encore. Edith. still hys- terical. but now crying instead of laughing, was being taken up the front steps of her home. She said nothing and George closed the door on her without saying good night. He press
 ed her hand for moment but she did not notice 1t.
 As the critic reached the sidewalk. the cabman jumped down from his box and held open the cab door, for him. T will not ride" he said. But wait, I have note for you, to take to The Herald office"
 By the light of the cab lamps. he
 scratched on a piece of copy paper his resignation to the city editor and handed 1t to the man with instructions
 where to deliver 1t in the building. As he strode off down the street towards his room, two miles across town. he felt sorry and he felt glad. He tried to analyze his feelings but he could not.
 Melton, the city editor of The Her. | aid, almost jumped from his chair In astonishment as he read the note from | Hannis. He threw 1t to Carren, the 1 police reporter, as he uttered another gasp of surprise. Well" he exclaim- ed T guess he will drop up/ to see me l tomorrow and explain the queer way | of quitting his job. but at the present. I'll be hanged If ! can make 1t out |. We'll just have to explain it to the
 manager of the theatre that we had a
 man there last night and he fell down | on us in this way" He stared at the l note as If 1t might have a cipher code | hid between it's lines.
 When George Hannis returned to the | city a week later from Washington