The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1908-01-14
Dan Cupid
Magician.
By HARRY HoUDfN.
Copyrighted. 1907, by C. H. sutcliffe.
copyrighted, leO7, BY G. H. sutclife.

u
In agony Of apprehension Williams
started to arrange his modest conjur-
ing apparatus A few hours earlier his
debut as a parlor entertainer had been
matter of joyous and ambitious an
ticipation. Now the brocaded walls
of Senator Morgan's music room fair
ly threatened to close in and choke
him, while the fragrance of dollhouse
flowers oppressed him strangely. He
wondered how he had ever dared to
ask the vaudeville agent who supplied
Mrs Morgan and other fashionable
hostesses with talent to let him sub
stitute for Thorley, the eminent ma
gician who had fallen a victim to la
grippe. OF course he would fail, Mrs.
Morgan would be furious, the agent
would never give him another engage
ment, and his career would come to an
ignominious end. The laughter and
chatter of the children, dancing on
the other side of the folding doors,
sounded like the deathknell Of his long
cherished hopes
"Can / help you in any way? l am
Miss Morgan The servants are all
busy with supper-and / thought-per-
haps"-
Young williams had never thought
of needing help, but as he faced the
clear eyed, fower-like girl and the echo
Of her well modulated voice rang in
his ears he felt that his one hope Of
succeeding lay In her presence. Men
and women wiser in the social world
than Frank williams had fallen under
the spell of Helen Morgan's rare SYM
patty and charm and wondered how
this girl Of high ideals and gentle man
ners could be the daughter Of Senator
Morgan, ponderous with the arrogance
Of newly acquired wealth, and Mrs.
Morgan, who radiated commonplace
attributes as her recently purchased
diamonds scintillated light.
At Franks faltering thanks Helen
Morgan began quietly, but deity, to
carry out his Instructions, placing
light gilt table here, a taboret there,
and where it would be within reach Of
the conjurer's hand candle or a
cleaning revolver. And, though after
ward Frank Williams could not tell
how it had happened, before the set
tings for his act were prepared the girl
had drawn out his tale of half tragic
struggle, the prosaie, hard headed ia
Their storning over the visionary, mex
plicable nature of his youngest son, the
loyal mother secretly brooding over
and abetttng this odd chick Of her lit
tie flock, his constant endeavor to
learn the secrets of magic and then to
secure hearing, even the rented dress
suit and the gold watch which had
been pawned that very afternoon to
buy bonbons and gilded trinkets to dis
tribute among his youthful auditors.
And as he finished 1t seemed to Helen
Morgan that she stood in the presence
of struggling genius. She had read
such stories Of poets, musicians and In
ventors. The tawdriness of the cOnjuf-
ing world faded, and tenderly her hand
rested on the white satin cover of the
young mans servante. 1t was bit of
his mothers wedding dress, sacrificed
gladly to her sons art, a rich fabric
yellowed with age and finished with
strips of rare old lace
The performance was a great sue
cess The children were duly mystifed
and more than delighted with the
showers of trinkets and bonbons which
apparently came from an inexhaustible
source. Mrs. Morgan had condescend-
ed to express her appreciation. foot
man had served supper Of such rare
delicacies that Frank had longed to
pack them all up with his parapherna-
la and take them to his mother, and
now as he walked down the broad ave-
nue. leading from the house he felt as
If the house behind him was fairyland
indeed and Helen Morgan its princess.
But he was reused from his dream
by a grim faced butler, who came hur
rying after him.
You're to come back to the house."
was the brusque order, and, re-enter-
ing his fairyland, Williams faced SEN
ator Morgan, a glowering figure, in the
foreground and Mrs. Morgan. a hys-
terical one, in the background. But in
the eyes of the third he read pity, the
same tender pity which he had seen in
her eyes when Helen Morgan had
stopped to pick up his trick rabbit as
the frightened animal, escaping from
his pocket and trembling at the shouts
of the children, had run to the girl for
protection.
"It's jail for you, young man. unless
you produce my wife's rings. She left
them behind the rock crystal vase In
the music room, and we don't propose
to have them disappeared as you do
handkerchiefs and rabbits"
The scene which followed was a hor-
rible nightmare to the young magician
his own protestations Of innocence
drowned in Mrs. Morgan's mysteries,
Senator Morgan's orders for an officer,
Helen's pleading for time to search
and finally the discovery of the rings
by a maid in Mrs. Morgan's dressing
room. And when 1t was all over VIII
liams was thrust out in the night
through a side entrance, feeling more
like a thief than an acquitted man.
Then suddenly a gentle hand fell up
on his arm, and gentler voice muir
INJURED in his ear:
"Just a minute, please. want to
tell you how sorry l am. l hoped this
would be the greatest night OF your
life
For one long minute the young man
who had his own way to make and the
girl whose future had been assured SO
far as wealth could accomplish this
feat looked into each others eyes. And
the soul of the man, suddenly born,
went out to the divine tenderness OF
innate womanliness which is a great
er power than mere physical beauty.
He spoke quietly, but with new found
confidence.
at has been a wonderful, wonderful
night to me, and some day am COM
ing back to tell you why"
Under the chaperonage of a dow
ager duchess who knew how 10 turn
her title to financial account Helen
Morgan was doing the London sea
son. In a Mayfair drawing room she
sat and beside her was man with
monocle, an English accent above re-
proach and patronizing air. OF course
the Morgan millions would mean the
remaining Of his ancestral but crum-
bling castles, but then the utter indif-
ference of this girl irritated him even
while 1t commanded his admiration.
'T suppose you saw Erskine In Paris.
He's been the go over there-made by
the American set, understand. They
say it's his manners as much as his
art that got the women all going. He
never speaks during his performance
and has the most inscrutable eyes.
Never could understand why women