The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-08

she fired at him. Then he rose to leave
| her. You must go back to bed now;
you VIII soon be old enough to come to
Me come to a dancer" exclaimed the
glrl. The old spiders would die before
/ they would ever let US come. But steal
| out of the dormitory and come down the
back way and watch, though" James
made another effort to go, but the girl
though 1 was Chilly I4illy's sister, didn't
you? And am just -
What are you?"
Il am not going to tell you. But just
think, I am eighteen and for eight years
l haven't been out of this place except
last year when we went to the circus
here was a sound in the hall above. and,
with whispered promise that the Little
Witch would return on the occasion
of the next dance in exactly the same
place he went back to the room.
During the time which interviewed be,
fore the next dance at the Millinghams
James watched and mingled pleasure and
alarm his growing feeling of interest in
then, in the same place on the iron stair
way, she was dressed in a childish,
much-starched, blue Bingham dress. But
that was mere incident; 1t was the I'M
affected, enthusiastic joy in her manner
and the unquestionable prettiness OF her
face that completely captivated James
wasn't the Misses Millinghams sister.
Was she dependent relation or was she
sprite? On two other occasions of the
Millinghams small informal dances" he
met her again and tried to find out and
ended by knowing no more.
At that last dance at the Mililnghan1s'
he started through the familiar passage;
Lillabelle saw him and followed on tip
toes, and just as he was greeting the ire
sistible little sprite Iillabelle pounced
upon them. Lillabelle's anger was I'M
feigned; she had suspected it, she said.
for weeks. 1t was to prove it that she
had asked James to this very dance: Mar
garet chat was apparently the little charm
ers name) had been behaving badly of
late. She knew she had something on her
mind. She would be expelled at once.
With this explosion Lillabelle clicked OFF
in her high-heeled slippers to get, she
explained, the ward matron to come and
fetch Margaret back to bed where she
belonged.
She'll have me expelled" said Mar
garet, with frightened, wide-open eyes
This seemed to be the cue that James was
waiting for. He knew no more than he
had before who she was, but he knew
that he wanted to befriend her and pro-
tect her, and that he wanted to take her
away from the MillinghamS forever SO
there in the half-lit hall, with the sound
of Lillabelle's heels still clinking in the
hall above, James explained very simply
that he wanted to marry Margaret.
But what will your family say when
they know about me?"
What about you?" said James:
THAT I'm an asylum orphan" she wall
ed. you wouldn't want to marry an
asylum orphan, would you?"
James put a protecting arm around her,
feeling that more than ever she needed
his protection. 81 thought you knew at
first" she explained, land then L didn't t
tell you. This is orphan asylum and
the Millinghams get paid for keeping us
here They use our dining room to have
their dances in after we've gone off to
bed and make us wax the floor for them
and run errands for them and then expel
us when we peek through the door to see
them dance"
James tried to take it all in-that, after
ALL the aristocratic Millinghams were
not so aristocratic after all, that perhaps
they were no more aristocratic than the
little friendless girl beside him. But his
mind and heart were set, and when he
heard the returning click of Lillabelle's
French heels and the heavy tread of
the ward matron. he found no lack of
spirit to tell them that he would go
through whatever the law required in
such a case to make the orphan Margaret
his wife.-(Copyright, 1919 by the Nc
Clure Newspaper Syndicate.)