Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1921-01-25

Sand crash" finished Bobby.
''Thats the very word" said Madge.
eff you'll only keep on the way you've
started, I'd love to talk to you all
night"
"No chance of that" said Bobby,
straight-lipped. I'm through, and I'm
going" He turned toward the door.
mot without kissing me good-by,
Bobby" cried Madge.
He looked over his shoulder with
polite but impersonal smile.
I'm not much on kissing strange
women" he said lightly. at would
take me years to learn to kiss you
again"
He left the room and the house.
With his top-hat pushed back on his
head, the ends of his muller flying
loose, his overcoat half unbuttoned,
he swung up the deserted lower
reaches Of the Avenue punctuating
his thoughts with the solid rap Of his
stick on the pavement. 1t might be
supposed that he was thinking and
mourning over the sudden demise OF
the Miss Van Teller he had thought
he had known for many years, but
such was not the case.
Mr.. Randolph was not built on
mourning lines; at the moment under
review, he was thinking about himself
and the strange fate that had made
him foster-child of fortune. He pro-
ceeded to look back ten years. Just
decade ago he had had his one meet
ing with the young lady whose disap-
pearance had brought him an unstable
afluence. 1t had taken place on this
very avenue and less than forty short
blocks away. He had reason to re-
member the encounter, for it had
brought into sudden conjunction a
lovely Persian cat, a lovely wire-haired
terrier, q lovely child, and himself
The cat had dashed from a proud
front door to cross FOrty-somethng
street under the nose of taxi-cab;
the dog had flown in yapping pursuit
and, in the act, yanked his young mis-
tress off her pins. He, Mr.. Randolph,
had seized one Of her flying feet,
hauled her and the terrier back to
safety, and no sooner placed her up
right and smoothed down her absurdly
short skirts than he, she, and especial
ly 1t, the dog became the center and
circumference of an animated pin.
wheel.
Her mistaken determination to hold
to the leash, whatever happened,
brought disaster. The said leash
wound three times round her ankles
and those of Mr.. Randolph, bringing
them both down kerplunk and facing
each other. "My, what a bump!" she
had cried In startled tones, and then
thrown back her curly head and
laughed
1t was 70 that he remembered her
a child off ten or eleven summers and
no winteFs, merry as a sunny day,
dark-hairdal, dark-eyed pink-cheeked
pamperedE but unspoiled. She had
risen andy taken his hand, told him
her nameA thanked him, ordered a
Hurried nj use to thank him, shaken
her fnger at the terrier, and said
"Good-by" and Come on, Maggie" all
while he Fas still rubbing the seat of
his first long trousers.
On that lday she had been Miss Jmo-
gene Pamela Thornton, petted darling
of the GODS and Mr. Brewster Thorn.
ton, banked and widower two months
later had come Thorntons financial
smash and Immediately afterward. his
spiritual, moral and bodily collapse.
Everything that had made for life in
him having been swept away, he died
as matter of course, and was buried,
For sole Inheritance, little Genie
Thornton found herself possessor. and
possessed of one Maggie ORourke a
nurse Of long standing, of earnest and
faithful face, and a monster heart i'm.
prisoned in pitifully thin chest.
It had taken Genies great-uncle.
Asa Thornton, six more months to for.
get quarrel of sixteen years stand.
ing with his nephew. and by that time
child and nurse had been seeped into
that lower world which can't afford