The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1905-02-28

banked with pillows looked out visit
fully from the one narrow window of
a third floor back at these evidences of
life and gayety, listening to the or
ehestra
Suddenly the music burst into a wild
tropical air from Carmen" very revel
of life and youth and lusty, red blood
ed joy. The invalid buried her tired
eyes in the soft pillows, and her thin
shoulders shook. Shaken by the tenn
pest of sobs, a crutch that had been
leaning against the bedside ratified to
the floor
"Oh, can bear their old ragtims
things without a shiver," she cried,
but the opera airs-they break my
heart! And now l shall never sing
them again. know / shan'tp'
The incoherent cry went straight
through the open window like a wing
ed arrow, across the alleyway In the
grand hotel, and lodged deep in the sick
heart of a listener there. Its note Of
suffering and aching longing needed no
interpreter. That is a universal Ian
guage understood alike in palace and
tenement.
John Wixton had been staring mood
fly out of the darkened shadows of his
unlighted room into the still darker
shadows of a future that looked
gloomy indeed to his usually careless,
sunny eyes. He had been hard hit
there was no doubt of that-and the
girls refusal Of him had cut deep. He
had been so sure Of her-too sure, per-
haps-but he had thought he could not
be mistaken in that warm light in her
eyes that had set his heart on fire all
these weeks.
1.-THE light that lies in woman's eyes
= and lies = and lies = and lies!' he
sneered miserably, sitting there In the
dark. Curse the whole sex, anyway,
and their deceitful wilesr And his
clinched hands thumped the window
sill fercely. He had mooned over her
like a maundering idiot, he told himself
hotly, and now she was engaged, so
her mother had told him the last time
he called, to Billy Lunders and his mil
Lordl There was that beastly chan
sonnette from Carmen" again-could he
never escape the thing ?-the song that
breathed SO horribly Of her in every
seductive note. She had worn a red
rose in her hair, too, that night he first
met her with the Van Lorns. He could
smell that rose now.
Tonight Carmen" was on the bill
again. He recalled DULY that he had
the same box for this performance, in
tending to take her and show her he
remembered that first night so long
ago. She had said men always forgot
the dates a woman remembered. He
had meant to tell her of his loving lit
tie surprise that evening. Was it only a
week ago? How could he ever bear to
hear an opera again? Curse 1t. He
would get out Of this sickening old New
York and go west-to Chicago-any
where.
''These opera airs-they break my
heart!" broke in the sobbing cry from
the window across the alley. John
raised his head to listen. Same here,
kid" he muttered heavily. Its that
lame girl-poor little beggarl She does
have a devil Of time of it, lying there
all day with hot water bags and things
around her. It's shamev'
II want to be back there on the
stage again." went on the voice, ''sing-
ing with the rest of the chorus. l
was q village maiden in Carmen you
know, Mrs Beebe" To the conscious
pride in this already well known fact
there came an indistinct murmur of
consolation from the dark interior of
the little room.
"And maybe some day might have
been a Sembrich or Melba, my own
self-the master said so-and now my
backs hurt, and I'll never sing again.
l know it! If 1 could only go just
once and hear it all again think
maybe l could bear 1t better, but to
be penned In here all the time like a
rat with the snappers Of trap caught
over his back-it's too The rest was
lost in the Unfolding pillow.
The man in the darkened window
across the way suddenly stood up,
turned on the light and squared his
shoulders like soldier ready for
marching "I'll do itr' he said grimly
''I'll not run away like coward. I'll
face this thing out I've got to &c
through it some time, and l might as
well begin now. I'll go right to that
same box and fight it out. And, what's
more, I'm going to take that child
along. She'll probably look a fright
and people will stare, but hang the
peopleP'
He took his hat and overcoat and
hurried from the room. At the Office
he stopped to give an order for an auto
cab.
Twenty minutes later he was bowling
| toward Broadway with his strange lit
tie companion, still GREATNESS over the
wondrous angel in evening clothes
whose determination had carried al
opposition before him. Even the fat
landlady had been subdued into defer
ence and helped to dress her quickly sc
as not to keep the young gentleman
waiting.
Wixton glanced down at her thin lit
tie face, sharpened by suffering; at hen
! two clutches and her simple white
frock. To his surprise, she appeared
tastefully gowned.
/ She told him quite simply, with Lit
! tie pathetic quaver in her voice, about
her ambition to be a great singer; how
she had fallen through a trapdoor left
carelessly open by the stage hands one
night after the opera was over and had
been in the charity ward of hospital
where they had not seemed able tc
cure her; how she could walk only 9
little way without hurting.
When they reached the opera house
the first act was nearly over.
| Wixton gathered up her slight form
and strobe up the wide stairway as il
his burden were baby. at the door Of
the box he halted. 1t was slightly
ajar. "Sold the other seatsY be ques
toned of the usher.
"Only one to lady," answered that
worthy and volunteered further the
whispered information that she was 9
queer one-"came with party in the
fourth box farther down and came out
i'll and went away. After a bit she
came back with ticket for a seat IN
| this one"
When Wixton ushered his charge into
the box he found, to his surprise, that
| the place was unlighted. The curtain
/ had Just closed on the first act, and the
| solitary occupant was shrinking into
the farthest corner as though seeking
! to avoid observation.
| John reached out to press the electric
button and turned in the blaze of light
to confront the woman who had re
fused him the week before. His lips
frightened, and his face went white.
"Eunice! You hereT
The woman turned lovely pale face
up to him entreatlngly without speak
| ing. This unlocked for cOntretemps