Putnam patriot., 1914-02-06
CHAPTER 1.
The Panel of Liqht.

TNHE lids of the girls eyes lifted
 slowly, and she stared at the
 panel of light in the wall Just
 at the outset the act Of seeing made not the least impression on her nHmbed brain. For a long time she continued to regard the dim illumina- ton in the wall with the same passive txity of gaze Apathy still lay upon her crushed spirit. Fn q vague way she realized her own inertness and rest ed in it gratefully, subtly fearful lest she again arouse to the full horror of her plight. In q curious subconscious fashion she was striving to hold on to this deadness of sensation. thus to win a iit:le respite from the torture that had exhausted her soul.
 Of sudden her eyes noted the black lines that lay across the panel of light, and in that instant her spirit was quIekened once again. The clouds lift cd from her brain. Vision was clear now. Understanding seized the full Import of this hideous thing on which she looked. For the panel of light was a window set high within a wall of stone. The rigid lines of black that crossed it were bars-prison bars. It was still true, then She was in celi of the Tombs.
 Crouching miserably on the narrow bed, she maintained her fixed watching ot the window-that window which was a symbol of her utter despair. Again agony wrenched within her.
 The girl was appalled, by the merci- iessness of a destiny that had so out ragged right. She was wholly innocent or having done any wrong. She had struggled through years of privation to keep herself clean and wholesome. wor- tAy of those gentlefolk from whom she drew her blood. And earnest effort had ended at last under an oyerwhelm- Ing accusation, false, yet none the less tatal to her. This accusation after soul "earying delays had eliminated today ID conviction. The sentence of the court had been imposed upon her-that Tor three years she should be impris- oued.
 here had been nothing in the life ot Mary Turner before the catastrophe cane 10 distinguish it from many an- other. Its most significant details were ot sordid kind, familiar to poverty. Tier father had been an unsuccessful man as success is esteemed by this gen eiation of Mammon worshipers. He was a gentleman, but the trivial fact Is of small avail today. He was of good nifth. and he was the possessor of an inherited competence He had as well intelligence, but it was not of finan- cial sort.
 So little by little. his fortune be- came shrunken toward nothingness oy reason of injudicious investments lie married charming woman. who, sfter a brief period of welded happi- ness gave her life to the birth of the single child of the union. Mary. As the years passed the daughter grew toward maturity in an experience of ever increasing penury The girl was ID the high school when her father nnally gave over his rather feeble ef Tort of living. At his death the father left her character well instructed in the excellent principles that had been nss own Of worldly goods. not the value of pin.
 let, measured according to the stern standards of diversity. Mary was for tunate. Almost at once she procured humble employment in the Empori uIh, the great department store own- ca by Edward Glider. To be sure. the Wage was inhnitesmal, while the toii was body breaking, soul breaking.
 Mary nevertheless avoided the worst perlis of her lot She did not finch under privation. but were her way through it, if not serenely. at least