Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-01-01
them. to you. to the world : to my
CHAPTER VIII

Dowd's Sink, and quite visible through
the narrow slit of the alley, is Van
heuster Square, where once the solid
burners sat, of pleasant evenings, and
smoked their long clay pipes, and
commented in wide-mouthed gruff-
ness on the invasion of the verdampt
| English, who had come to disturb
the peace and order of New Amster-
dam. There still remains portions of
the squat little foundation and of
two of the stone benches which were
once the municipal glory of that old
Dutch town; and the surface of the
ground, in one corner, is still ridged
and hard from the roots of the sturdy
elm which once reared it's branches
above the tops of the highest build
ings in old New York.
Traces of it's staid old responsibility
still linger in Vanheuster Square, as
If the spirit of old Dynk Vanheuster
| still hovered austerely over it, to pro-
| tect 1t from the squalor of all those
strange black-eyed aliens who sur
rounded it on every side. Here the
OLD tenements, though sunk in pow
erty, stand stiff and prim, as if they
had defied time and decay; here there
are green shutters to all the windows,
and hard little flights of stone steps
lead down from every door; here the
| children after school wear clean white
waists or clean white pinafores, as
SQuare,
which, with its four clumps of starV-
ed grass, is their substitute for the
country and here Billy Lanes search
led him, after busy days among the
false Stuarts of the telephone book
and city directory and the tax rec
ords. The police department, applied
to with some misgiving, had been
B1lly'S last resort, and that inquiry
had sifted down, after some fruitless
calls, to OFFICER Dillon, big and pigeon
chested and puff checked, who knew
vaguely of Mrs. Harrison Stuart on
his beat.
AT the primmest and stiffest of the
Vanheuster Square tenements, the
house with the greenest shutters and
the hardest stone steps, Billy Lane
stopped, on an afternoon when the
air was soft and the sun shone bright
ly, and one optimistic robin sat on the
stunted fir tree, shivering. but trying
to pretend that it was Spring.
There ware no electric bells or
speaking ,dbes in this dark, narrow
hall. Those things are not for the
poor. One simply climbed the deeply
worn steps of the wooden stairs,
flight after flight, until one found
the right door; and it was by this
process that Billy Lane located the
apartments of Mrs. Harrison Stuart
! He knocked, and presently the door
was opened. For an instant, the us
ually self-possessed Billy was startled
into tongue-tied awkwardness. There
stood before him the most bea ,itiful
girl he had ever seen!
She was small and slight and eX-
quisitely nodded. But it was her face
which held his gaze, even to the point
of unconscious rudeness. Her oval
cheeks were pale, but her skin was of
glorious transparency, and beneath
its surface was a warm tint so deli
cate that it was like the faint trace
of pink in the heart of white rose.
Upen her head was u wealth of raven
black hair, which rippled and waved
and curled as If it possessed an inde-
pendent will of it's own. 1t was bound,
just now, with q shell-pink ribbon,
but wherever a curl had a wayward
notion it had shot itself loose, to cast
it's lustrous ringlets about that per-
feet face. 1t was the eyes, however,
which caught and held Billy, spell
bound! They were large, luminous
and what color? Dark gray? Brown?
No; violet! Or were they a deep,
evasive blue?
The girl smiled at his hesitation
and, as her delicately chiselled lips
curved, those remarkable eyes spark
led, and a certain trace of impishness
seemed to fit, for moment, upon
her countenance. Even the daintily
formed nose and the piquant chin and
the broad, smooth forehead seemed
to share in the flash of merriment,
and the countless wayward curls of
jet fairly twinkled.
"TaVyn called a voice from with
in an adjoining room.
Yes, mother" The voice on those
syllables was of wonderfully sweet
modulation. II am at the door"
"Oh." The inner voice was nearer.
"Is - does Mrs. Harrison Stuart
live here?" stammered Billy, feeling
remarkably big and clumsy.
Still twinkle in the big eyes.
They were violet!
yes"
"May I ask if it is the Mrs. Har-
rison Stuart whose husband was the
famous engineering architect?'
Yes" The twinkle had gone from
the luminous eyes. They were re-
garding him steadily. They were dark
gray
A second figure came to the door
and appeared beside the girl. 1t was
a woman in whose face was that
sweetness which can only come
through bravely endured suffering.
She said nothing. She only looked
ed a half hope, half fear in her.
She seemed almost to tremble.
THANK you. May 1 come in and
talk with you" This to the gray-
haired woman; and it was she who
opened the door wider for him to
enter.
Billy Lane took hasty survey of
the room as he stepped in. 1t was
large, n grace which it owed to its
age; and it was very simply furnish
ed, though there were such evidences
of neatness and dainty cleanliness,
and of such homelike occupancy, that
| it seemed a very comfortable room
indeed. There were three incon-
gruities, however In one corner was
mahogany drawing-case, exquisitely
carved and with gold knobs to the
drawers. There was q gold inscrip-
tion plate on 1t, showing that it had
been. some stately gift; and it's cost
would have bought, many times over.
the entire poor furnishings of Mrs.
Harrison Stuart's three-room apart
ment. on the mantel, amid such
modest bric-a-brac as people in most
humble circumstances might afford,
stood a highly chased gold frame. in
which was the portrait of man in
his prime, man with strong, force
full face and dark gray eyes. Could
John Doe have looked like that =
or could Bow-Wowi
| The other incongruity was a long
table over by the windows. on which