A Star for a Night

usement and diversion, there were a few who really came to seek health. For three months, the gay passers-by on the shaded walks near the hotel had noticed one such, an elderly lady, feeble, gra

ight and wavy. She wore no jewelry, and there was no suggestion of color about her costume. Yet there seemed a certain lightness and gayety in her face which conveyed the impression that sadness was not a compon

eekend offered the front clerk a cheap cigar and expressed curiosity a

s. Kilpatrick's companion. No, not a

um. She's Old Mrs. Ki

sappointed at the obvious impossibility of a ch

retty. I'd like to see

simply as a companion: it saved her the necessity of pretending, for other girls of her own age, guests of the hotel, made no advanc

apolis. Mrs. Kilpatrick was suffering from sciatic rheumatism, and her physician had recommended a stay at the Springs. To her objectio

years. Lives on a farm near here. Martha is the eldest girl in a family of seven, and I know she'll jump at the chance. You'll find he

rty-five dollars a month besides. Her duties were not arduous, for the hotel servants attended to most of Mrs. Kilpatrick's wants. She, however, read to the inv

k on the farm, as the eldest of a family of seven, she had worked, endured-and hoped. But in her wildest dreams she had never imagined such a beautiful escape. No one at home had had the imagination to understand her. No one, unless perhaps her father, had even sympathized with her in her dismay, when the panic t

g life. It was new to her; it frightened

touch of sadness that she stopped Martha pushing the chair up and down the veranda this sam

ou," said Mrs. Kilpatrick, suddenl

sea voyage will be beneficial. He suggests that I spend the coming wint

er pleasure and excitement at the possible thought of going. She clasped her h

nd am I to

e to take you. My sister, who is in New York, is to accompany me," she explained. "I'm afraid I sh

ver do that. And we're all so dreadfully poor. I haven't any right to

st another position for you,

r girls are doing it; I ought to be able to. I'll go to New York or Chicago or some o

iled indulgently a

my child," she said. "I'm s

station at the foot of the hill, with a part of several carloads of visitors who had come on the afternoon train from the Nort

m New York. He is a well-known collector of curios and is coming 'way out here very largely to look at my col

e, Mrs. K

ait." Then, as the boy departed, the invalid turned wearily to Martha:

d expect, and one might likewise have expressed surprise to find a slight suggestion of gray around the edges of his slightly curly hair. The athletic build of his shoulders an

en temporary, the persistent pursuit of a number of fads. Though not wealthy, his unusual success at law had produced an income more than sufficient for his needs, and the surplus had been used from time to time in

u Mr. C

case, stood before him, and, as he smiled an assen

d to see Mrs. Kilpat

t well," said Martha. "I am

and murmured somet

you the scarabs. Afterwards you ca

o do so. I shall p

tells me you are

. "I have collected almost ever

sitting in one of the easy rockers and opening

t postage stamps soon proved tiresome. Then came Indian relics, but they lost favor when I took up antique weapons of war.

-hasn't that suffe

who knew of my fads thought all the more of me because the

as one pleases," mused Marth

laughe

ing grows tiresome after a while. Now that I've exhausted my list of fads, a horrible future confronts me-thirty-t

he Salvation Army

igarette Society,"

foot of the steps. Another man, evidently a valet, followed with more luggage, and then a tall, distinguished-looking man of uncer

t are you doing here

annoyance, but, with the well-bred air o

sily. "I haven't seen you since t

eminder, but gave utte

know, Clayton, ever since you had me on the witness stand,

n, coldly. "But I don't car

do you

here there is never

ghed again

handsomely then, but like all these women, they think because I'm rich I am

" replied Cla

conversation, had never left Martha, w

ed Gordon, quietly, to Clayt

leaving t

a few

s Farnum, may I present Mr.

bowed. "Sorry I'm leaving the hotel just when I meet the only interesting person here.

coughed

mpanion of a M

showed his d

deuced good-looking." He glanced back at Martha, then turne

ed Clayton, after Gordon had driven away in the 'bus. "He's n

Sunday papers have printed lots of stories about his little attentions t

some kind of an actr

mean. Is she such

y examining another scarab, "opin

an awful lot of mon

nds an a

at the sa

to get the money bef

income, like Mrs. Ki

not quite the same. In fact-But I don't thin

I might go on the stage myself, some day,"

age?" laughed Cla

case of precious scarabs in time to save them from a fall. "I must do something, and from what I have seen of theatrica

back in his cha

York. I saw her at the station just now when my train arrived. To see her in that elaborat

dollars

's in the

rd to stay at this ho

ghed and began to s

n-er-independent source

n the stage?" inquired Martha, thoug

willing to start in the

her fists with

ttom; I'd work like anything,

the case and ro

t know you were so much in ea

imply. "She is going to Italy, and there is nothing left for me to do but ret

layton, thoughtfully. "I wouldn't advise it. Th

he stage. The department stores, the shops, the offices-why not think of them? Girls work there, hundreds and th

he was placed in the unenviable position of being obliged to argue against a course which he felt sure would be disastrous, or at least dif

began, "I should like to

e difficult to concentrate on anything so mundane as scarabs. It was s

rick is in parlor A. She said she wou

ay farewell," he said, "as I'

sinking into one of the large chairs and placing both han