Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1914-07-31
CHAPTER XXI.
From the Top Gallery.

On the same night that Zilla Paget took up her residence in the Went worth home Grant Oswald sat beside his desk, dictating letters to his sec retary. He listened while the tinkle vs the overture ceased.
 "Flas MT. Wentworth come in yet?" he asked when an usher entered with telegram.
 No. sir; we're watching for him. Nobody has seen him."
 Ask him to come here as soon as he arrives D
 None of the employees of the Gotham recognized man beside the stair of the upper gallery, where steep iron railing fjutted out upon the side street. The rain fell softly and he was untitled to the chin in drab overcoat. A felt hat was drawn over his eyes. He emerged suddenly from the shadow to lay his hand upon the arm of a boy who went springing up the grated stair.
 Here, do you want to sell your ticket for dollar?" he asked
 Sure cried the boy emphatically Say, mister, why don't ye buy one fer yerself? They're fifty cents. if yet git in line at the window"
 II don't want to stand in line"
 The boy thrust the slip of paste board into Wentworth's hand, seized the money, and fled to take his place at the end of the line which struggled round the corner from Broadway.
 Enoch waited until throng began to press it's way up the steps. He pulled his hat down close about his forehead and the rim fell to his eyes. When he reached out his hand to the attendant at the door, the man did not look at him; he was trying to stem a tide of human beings and make cer- tain that each one had paid his way.
 Wentworth moved inside the door and glanced at the gray coupon. then he passed to an end seat in the third row. He laid his hat upon the floor pulled of his damp coat. and waited for the curtain to rise. Although the chatter of voices about him was insist ent. he heard them like dull jargon. Once he rose to allow two girls with their escorts to pass, then seated him. self again with his body hunched for ward, watching the musicians chamber through a low door below the stage. The leader lifted his baton and the overture began. A man who pushed unceremoniously past aroused Enoch from his listless mood. He turned and stared at a girl who sat beside him. The lines on her wan face were etched, not by the years. she had lived, but. by girlhood spent in airless places amid the roar Of machinery.
 He sat watching her with an impas- sive stare. A dreamy look crept into her face. The orchestra began to play an inconsequential thing in which. there was the trip of dancing feet and a sway of 1.-the bodies. He could see the lines smoothing out in her care worn face. Her ungloved fingers beat time to the music with perfect rhythm. Then her hand went out in an uncon- SCIOuc CdIcSS tO tu0 tulIl, SudUUy ldu who sat beside her. He clasped it and turned to her with an eager smile. Wentworth sighed.
 The curtain rose People who sat close under the roof listened with $ tense stiffness, which was never dis tnrbed by the rustic that occasionally ran through the orchestra. The story Of the play had grown old. threadbare and uninteresting to Wentworth. but it moved these men and women to the quick. During the first act the girl beside him turned to her sweetheart and spoke in a tremulous whisper: She's a cruel devil!"
 Her eyes were bent with hatred and kcorn upon Zilla Paget, who stood looking down at Merry. His guilt had been discovered. He sat beside table with his face hidden in his out stretched arms, while the wife hurled upon him torrent of bitter contume- ly. Once his body shook with half