Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1909-04-08

every night, and few bills have to
be done for it in colors-I don't see
why not, especially as you say it's
more for the fun of it than any ques-
ton of salary You leave it to me;
/ know how to get round the guv'nor,
only I shall speak of you as though
we were very old pals. My recon-
mendation will carry more weight"
They had not walked to Dalebrook.
| to which Jack had walked when the
thought of going to Liverpool was still
| in his mind; and early that evening
had presented themselves to Mr.. Egg
| bert Macready Chatterton, famous
man in his own line, whose portable
| theater had been on the road a quar-
ter of a century. A little, high-shoul-
dered man, with thin legs and glossy
| locks, raven once, but now streaked
with gray, with a rhetorical manner
of speech-a perfect type of the old
vanishing school of the provincial
actor of "the legitimate.''
To Jacks surprise, Joe's recommen-
| dation and his skill with a brush had
secured him an engagement.
He had satisfied Mr.. Chatterton, an
exacting critic, by specimen poster
| he had sketched out, and there and
then he was engaged to produce the
| daily colored bills, combining small
| parts with the assisting of my bet
| ter half in the scene painting depart
| ment." 1t appeared to be a cherished
delusion on the managers part that
his wife was mainly responsible for
! the scenic triumphs of their produc
| tions. Not that she ever touched q
| brush herself; she merely supervised
brought as she herself put it, her
artistic perceptions to bear on the
work, leaving the mechanical part to
others. Which meant that she worried
! the scene painter out of his life by
impossible suggestions, which were the
| admiration of her husband and the
despair of the artist.
Jack had been presented to her
| She was lady of massive proper
tons, with a penchant for wearing
blue velvet and sequins, who had re-
tired from the stage with increasing
years and bulk. One looked at her
and found it difficult to credit that
in her day she had played sentimental
heroines doomed to wander in snow
storms through four long acts, and
had (on her own authority been con-
sidered the best spectre" on the
stage-"specter brides" having been
her speciality.
! Jack Lathom was to receive eight
cen shillings a week; the salaries
Mr.. Chatterton paid could not be
called xcessiye-especially when it
was taken into consideration that the
evening bill consisted of a five-act
drama with farce to follow, and that
it was a different play every night.
But the salary was a secondary con-
sideration with Jack. He wanted a
companionship and an occupation
whilst his friends in Wildfel were
! working to prove his innocence And
| it seemed to him that he was COM
paratively safe from the police, who
would hardly look for him in a tour
| ing theatrical company. They were
'eanving out of Dalebrook out of York
shire, in a few days, going down
| south.
On an impulse Jack Lathom crossed
over to the window and looked out at
the quiet sleeping town where his
new life was beginning. There was
something in the peaceful scene that
stirred this hunted man strangely
after the stress and trouble of the
past nightmare week.-Mrs. little, old
! fashioned country town that was
probably never really awake on six
days out of the seven.
Today, being market day, it had
been busy enough, and tie streets
! bustling and full of stir, and round
| the stone market cross in the cob
I bled square stalls where farmers
| wives sold butter and eggs; and out
side the inns carriers carts standing
and loud-voiced countrymen gossiping
in groups. But now silence had fall
en-, the stalls stood cleared and bare,
| and the last trap had driven back to
| the outlying farm houses; the lights
had died out of the windows, the town
had gone to sleep.
The broken moonlight splashed the
| fronts of the houses opposite and
touched the stone cross to carved sill
ver-the moon that away across the
width of Yorkshire was peeping
through the window of a girls room:
he thought of it touching her face as
she lay sleeping in her white bed at
the rectory, the beautiful face with
it's crown of dark hair tossed in it's
sweet, careless disorder against the
pillow only by the width Of an Eng
lish county in point of mere miles.
If it had been only that which di-
vided them!
The thought of her face was the
last image in his mind when he fell
| asleep.
The next few days passed quickly;
Jack found his hands full; there was
little time to brood. The scenery
wanted touching up; he was set to
work On one or two new seas, under
the eye of the stout lady in the blue
velvet and sequins; then presently
rehearsais began, as the company was
completed.
They were opening in a town in the
Midlands where they would stay a
fortnight, with a change of bill each
night. AS Joe Grisson had said. one
| IL To he niolr ct, I'LL