The Press., 1911-02-01
CHAPTER VIII.

CHAPTER VIII.
 VY LAWN continued: "The trou-
 W ble with you, judge, the trou- lSz=SzzS ble with all of you puritani- ksaSEaD cal folks, as far as l have been able to find out, is that you are afraid to let yourselves enjoy any thing. I am an individualist, l am also a Frenchman, and if Miss Dora is going to be happy I should hate to think in the years that are to come that hesitated to enter into the spirit of her happiness merely because her fathers legal adviser had an over developed bump of caution"
 The girl sat down and faced the three men calmly and with set jaws. This was not the first conference of this kind which she had attended, and she was more than inured to them.
 eve want to talk this thing over with you, Dora," began Professor Full lerton. vers -e
 "Of what use will it be2" asked the girl. Haven't we talked 1t over enough? Hasn't Aunt Cornelia told you that am so much like my moth CT I never will be any good? Hasn't she said to you as well as to me that even if I do give up this great Oppor- tunity I will be doing something just as evil in short timeP
 "But I have told you," said Profes- sor Fullerton, that I have reproved Aunt Cornelia for talking that way"
 'YesI'' cried the girl. "But have you been able to stop her? She sat in my room last night until o'clock and told me what a devilish being I was-just like my mother. Mother, too, rau away. she says, to go on the stage. So what is the useP'
 "But you wish to do as your father asks you, DoraY' said Fullerton, with as much gentleness as he could put into his voice.
 'FUnder ordinary circumstances 1 should not think of doing anything else but what he asks me, but am weary of being told that have noth- Ing but the most despicable traits, and want to live my life as I see it.'
 vavin moved over to where the girl sat and took her hand soothingly. Her father, he explained, had asked Judge Elliott and himself to spend the week end with him that they might help her by their advice and suggestion. The girls eyes filled with tears as he gently endeavered to show her that there was not the opposition b her plans that she believed *
 q am here, my dear child, as much as your friend as I am here as a friend of your father. Let us talk the matter over"
 The girl declared that she was weary. Let me go,". she said, "and you fight it out among yourselves. 'FYou." and she took Vavin's hand be- tween her own-"you, know, are my friend, and if you decide that should not take this part in MT. Holcomb's play then I won't do it." s@@
 Spoken like a sensible girl" said Elliott, and even Fullerton felt that with that attitude the matter was practically disposed of.
 "It is very fortunate," said Judge Elliott when Dora had left the room, "that you have thls influence over her, as I am afraid she has come to feel that the rest of us are not sympa- thetic"
 "Are you?' asked VaVin.
 Fullerton and Elliott looked at him with surprise.
 You are both aff1ctionate, but are you sympathetic to her mood? Do you put yourself inside of the young girls mind? Are you once again young yourselves, with the wide world be- fore you as a wonder book"
 "Then you sympathize with this er ratio desire?'
 "Erratic for a judge" replied Vavin, ''erratic for professor, cratic, may be, for an author with a gray mus tache. But for a young girl with beauty, with heart, with imagina- tion. with fire, with sensibility, that is not necessarily cratic"
 You encourage her, thenT' said Full lerton, beginning to doubt the provi- dential quality of Vavin's interposi. ton. t-....+a
 'I don't know. What is betterP'
 The judge tried to explain to him that in America persons connected with the theater did not receive the social recognition accorded them in France and went over much the same ground as they had covered the night before at the dinner table
 "I am afraid" said Fullerton, who had walked up to the closet in the library and taken therefrom an oak box, that we are wasting great deal of time. I had hoped when you came here, NJ Vayin, that you would give Dora the advice that had suggested. You are apparently in sympathy with her. and this makes 1t necessary for me to tell you something which not even you. judge. had suspected. The money that enables us to live here"- with a sweep of his hand he indicated the comfortable surroundings-"a pro- eessOrship, as you can imagine, would hardly support us-is the interest upon a fund in trust. I mention this be- cause if the property were my own my first thought In this situation would not be of that But must pro- tect what hold in trust, and only my proper heirs can inherit it. This leads me to tell you something that is known only to myself and my sister. Dora Is not my daughter"
 Elliott stared blankly at him, while Vavin, whose ironic calm had once been referred to as institutional, turn ed first white, then red, while his hands twitched nervously.
 ''Ceci eet absolutement vraiT' he ex- claimed.
 ''I knew it would surprise you both," said Fullerton, 'and hated to tell 1t, because I love the girl as much for her mothers sake as for her own. Her mother left me because of my opposi- kfo,, ko har o.oIDo fO TrouNo fn afnHu