Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-08-16
In Bishops l Carriage By MIRyAM MIcHELSoN l
Copyright, ieo4. by Tn. Bobbs-Merrill Col


 with the little bibs, and the oily sweet ness of the matron, and how our faces shone and tingled from the soap and the rubbing? Remember it all? We'll, who'd a thought then that Nance Olden ever would make use of | it-on the level, too!
 Drop the Cruelty, and tell you about the stage? Why, it's bare boards back | there, bare as the Cruelty. but oh, | there's something that you don't see. but you feel something magic that makes you want to pinch yourself to be sure you're awake. I go round | there just doped with it; my face. if you could see it, must look like Molly's | kids when she is telling him fairy stories.
 love it, Mag! 1 love it! And what do I do? That's what I was trying to tell you about the Cruel ty for. It's in a little act that was made for Lady Gray, that there are four Charity girls on the stage, and Pm one of 'em.
 Lady Gray? Why, Mag, how can you ever hope to get on if you don't know who's who? How can you ex- pect me to associate with you if you re SO ignorant? Yes-a real Lady, as real as the wife of a Lord can be. Lord Harold Grays a sure enough Lord, and she's his wife. but-but a chippy, just the same; that's what she is, in spite of the Gray emeralds and that great Gray rose diamond she wears on the tiniest chain around her scraggy neck. Do you know. Mag Monahan, that this Lady Harold Gray was just . chorus girl-and a sweet chorus it must have been if she sang there!- when she nabbed Lord Harold?
 You'd better keep your eye on Nancy Olden, or first thing you know she'll marry the czar of Russia-or Tom Dorgan, poor fellow, when he gets out! . We'll, just the same. Mag if that white-faced. scrawny lit tie creature can be lady, girl with ten times her brains, and at least half dozen times her good looks-oh, we're not shy on the stage, Mag, about throwing bouquets at ourselves!
 Can she act? Don't be silly. Mag! Can't you see that Obermuller's just hiring her title and playing it in big letters on the bills for all it's worth? She acts the Lady Patroness, come to look at us Charity girls. She comes on, though, looking like fairy prin- cess. Her dress is just blazing with diamonds. There's the lady's coronet in ffer hair. Her thin little arms are banded with gold and diamonds, and on her neck-O. Mag. Mag, that rose diamond is the color of rose leaves in a fountains jet through which the sun is shining. It's long-long as my thumb-I swear 1t Is. Mag-nearly, and it blazes. oh. it blazes-
 We'll. it blazes dollars into Ober- muller's box all right, for the Gray jewels are advertised in the bill with this one at the head of the list, the star of them all.
 You see it's this way: Lord Harold Gray's bankrupt He's poor as-as Nance Olden. Isn't that funny? But he's got the family jewels all right, to have as long as he lives. Nary one can he sell, though. for after his death they go to the next Lord Gray. So he makes 'em make living for him. and as they can't go on and exhibit themselves, Lady Gray sports 'em- and draws down s200 a week.
 Yep-two hundred.
 But do you know 1t isn't the two hundred dollars week that makes me envy her till I'm sick; it's that rose diamond. If you could only see it. Mag. you'd sympathize with me. and understand why my fingers just itched for it the first night saw her come on.
 'Pon my soul. Mag the sight of 1t blazing on her neck dazzled me so that it shut out all the staring audi ence that first night. and 1 even for got to have stage fright.
 What's doped you. olden?" ober- muller asked when the curtain went down. and we all hurried to the wings.
 was in the black dress with the white-bibbed apron. and I looked up at him still dazed by the shine of that diamond and my longing for it. You'd almost kill with your own hands for a diamond like that. Mag,
 ~Doped. why-vhat didn't I dol" I asked him
 That's just it." he said. looking at me curiously. but could feel his dis appointment in me. You didn't do snything-not a blasted thing more than YOU were told to do. The worlds full of supers that can do that"
 For just q minute forgot the dia- mond.
 -Then-its a mistske7 You were wrong snd-and can't be an actressg
 He tErev back his head before he answered. pufing mouthful of smoke up at the ceiling. ss he did the night he caught me. The gesture itself seemed to remind him of what had made him think in the first place he could make su actress of me For he laughed down al me. and I ssv be 
 wen he said. ~veu vsit and see
 was mistaken. though. sure enough. about one thing that night"
 looked up al him
 ~You're . darn sight prsttisr than I though, you were ID. gold brick