Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-07
CHAPTER VII.
The Nonagenarian.

She sat upon her bed for little while
seemingly without purpose or resolution
The black muslin dress with the exquisite
lace and suspicion of Cambridge blue about
the neck. a dress in which she always went
to the theater, lay ready for her spread
out upon the back of chair. She used to
say that it was the only good dress she
had brought to London with her. Her
desire had been to deceive herself with the
pretty suppostion that her own talent
must earn luxuries or that they must not
be earned at all.
So her riches were few. She could al
most number them as she sat upon her bed,
rejecting upon this astounding encounter,
the threat of 1t, and its just consequences
When she left Derbyshire, she had no
thought of discovery, nor imagined 1t to be
possible. Not a soul knew her by sight,
she said. She had spent her days IN a con-
vent in France. and after that as a very
prisoner in her fathers house. Why, then,
should she fear recognition? None the less
did recognition stand upon the threshold
This foreigner she believed to be already
in possession OF her story. How he had
gained knowledge of 1t, and what use he
would make of 1t, she felt absolutely un-
able to say. Sufficient that malign des-
tiny had brought her face to face and
called her to decide instantly as difficult
an issue as escapade ever put before a
woman.
ne Knows my name, ne Knows my
father" she argued; "if he does not come
to our house, he has some good reason
for not doing so. In any case, 1 must not
stop here Oh, my dear Mr.. lizard, what will
you say tonight? And poor dear Di Yer
non, poor dear Di Vernon whoever will
take care of her?'
She laughed aloud at her own thoughts,
and, jumping up impulsively, she gathered
her things together though for a TOUR
ney though she had not the remotest idea
whittier she would go or how she would act
church clock striking the hour of 4 re-
minded her that the hours were brief and
that she must make the best use OF them.
Had she been a man she might have re-
membered that II this intruder knew her
fathers name he would very quickly dis
cover her fathers house, his rank and the
story of his life. But She was not even a
woman, scarcely more than a school girl
in fact, and terror of the present became an
immediate impulse without regard to the
future, She must fee the house and the
mystery without an instants loss of time
Nothing else must count against the pru-
dence of this course Ali the little things
she had collected in London, the clothes
she had bought there, these must be
abandoned. Eta, indeed. carried nothing
but her light dust-cloak and her purse when
she left the house at 80.
Il must write to dear old Mrs. wegg and
make her present" she said "she can
send my things TO ST. Pancras station to be
called for. If don't go to the theater, Mary
Jay will play my part. Perhaps the poor
girl will make her fortune. It's i'll wind
no. a horrid wind, and, oh do wish
Il would blow me home again 2"
From which II will be seen that the idea
OF 'home" crept already into her dizzy head
and attracted her strangely. There Is al
ways an aftermath OF jest, however bold
that Jest may be. Eta realize1 this dimIy,
though all the Impressions os the saeaier,
its glamour and Its triumphs. were too new
70 her 70 permit of any serious rival. She
feared discovery simply for her fathers
sake. To him the theater stood for very
pit OF all that was most evil. He had, from