Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-06

D PLACE TO CO." SAID BINNIE
ST LIKE MY HEART"
at is said" Mr.. L'Allemond told
her gently, that we shall do So"
The entire board expressed its vehe-
ment disbelief.
Because how should we do SOP" Mr..
Malcolm flercely propounded. Ex-
plain the process!"
Mr.. L'Allemond smiled. "How," said
| he, do our cells rebuild themselves
during sleep? Explain the process"
| THAT" said Mr.. Malcolm with dig
nifty, "is an entirely different matter"
The residents table was listening as
well as it could.
whats Miss Branchett got up her
sleeve?" Binnie murmured
| Something to do with a Christmas
party for the baby" Morley hazarded.
"And I'll wager 1t works"
well, they can't have her." said Ann
| fiercely, "if it does"
The baby behaved excellently. She
had slept all the afternoon and was
now in wide-eyed absorption, engaged
in examining space.
Dear little thingp' said Mrs. NAL
trevor. IT woke and worried about her
| in the night"
$50 did we," the board assured her.
| While coffee was being served, the
| tables were drawn away and the chairs
disposed to face the curtains over long
windows. Then the lights were lowered
as Mr.. L'Allenmond slipped away.
who's got the baby?" Binnie muir
INJURED. "She hasn't any father but
me-"
Miss Branchett took her through
that door," Ann said, land she made me
promise not to follow"
''She couldn't have made me promise
that" said Morley.
X \ X X
WITHOUT warning the curtains
w were swept aside, and net of
theatrical gauze covered a strange
depth Of green and many colored lights.
And on dais, in her blue bassinet,
| was the baby. There was no doubt
about her, her wide eyes examining
space, and there was about her an oval
of lovely light. The murmur ran
round that is always provoked by a
baby on stage, but the murmur
changed to a gasp. Before their eyes
the baby seemed to change expression,
to look up with attention; then she
~@SS
and step over the edge of the. baSSinet
"a child of or 4, who wandered about
the stage. She was barefoot, dressed
in a cotton frock; her curly hair was
tangled, her face was far from clean,
and she held a broken toy, but about
her still hung the clear light.
THAT looks like our baby grown
up" murmured Binnie, but how'd she
get that way?"
1T is our baby" said Ann tensely.
A little play began in a dull room
that formed about the child, they could
not tell how. She moved there, little,
exquisite, still In her area Of light, and
an irritated woman worked and shouted
at her:
Get up there and behave yourself.
I'll kill you yet"
The child scrambled to chair and
sat through a Sordid scene following
the home coming OF worn man, and,
at its screaming climax, shadow fell,
and the little girl, now 2 or 8, still
ragged, still charming, still like the
baby, appeared in the midst of rabble
of Misunderstanding in incredible
confusion. There was welter OF
coarse language and blows, dimming
into a street picture, where the same
little girl now on the threshold Of her
teens, went her way with burden of
clothes in a cart, and a short, harsh
scene unrolled itself, from which she
escaped. shaken and Sobbing. Fifteen,
and In factory, 16, and pursued by
men and listening to them-the living
pictures unrolled with terrible tacl-
lily, a terrible validity.
"And she still looks like the baby"
Binnie murmured. How on earth does
the fellow do it?"
"It is the baby" said Ann passion
ately.
Dance hall, cabaret, sordid places of
employment, police court, reformatory
yard-through them all the little figure
moved, pathetically small and ques-
tioning, seeming always to carry that
faint air of examining space. Only
now the clear light in which she had
moved was muddy and thick, so that
1t Swallowed and sometimes obScured
her, and she would emerge older,
little more haggard, little more hard.
Released, and without a place to go,
harbored in Squalor, bound to a man
whom she feared-the terrible pictures
swept on with sickening rapidity, and
always with that appalling likeness to
the baby of the baSsinet. With few
properties, with figures whose change
was instant, the years lived before
them and took their toll of the deep
being of the little thing buffeted like
q petal in a Winter wind.
Middle age, old age-and she stood
before them bent, beaten, her voice
and look still questioning, sharp and
fearful picture of abandonment. Last,
alone, she lay on poor bed in a
dirty room, and family the oval OF
early light began to shine about her,
grew, spread, deepened. turned to blue
and there was the blue baSSinet, and
in it the settlement baby. staring at
them with wide eyes, examining space.
Ladies and gentlemen" said Mr..
L'Allemond's soft voice, II have shown
you what may be the future Of this
child. But, of course, not necessarily,
ladies and gentlemen"
X X X X
THE curtains drew together, the lights
came on, and, after the breath of
silence, every one talked at once.
Upon my word" said Mr.. Malcolm,
ct shall never be able to sleep again.
How did you do 1t, sir?" he demanded
of Mr.. L'Allemond. WAS that hypno-
tism? I ask you'
IT see that little baby alone in life
I see her live her life." said Mr.. L,Alle- |
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