Little Miss By-The-Day

s a droll larger edition of his small tubby self; perhaps you've heard him singing at St. Patrick's and smiled at the bland and childlike face from which his beautiful big round

l starchy, sweety, fatty things! Don't order another food! Or I'll

was a much better known person than her fat husband. And a good bit older, too, if you must know it, though of course she did not look so with her

rmured with the same plaintive note that makes the audi

ain of his prematurely gray hair, his fresh youthful skin and his dark eyes. He reminded one somehow of a husky widow, he was so feminine in spite of his size. He looked leisurely enough for a busy man. Y

o know him rather well, but I'm not exactly the person to introdu

ends." The fat man smiled and deliberately and deli

le!" he ta

persisted, "yo

for is partly on Edwina's account. "The Juggler" isn't going as well as it ought to-I haven't anything new in

ss agent-" gasp

vorable publicity, for anything he touches than any one I've ever watched work. Look wh

wouldn't call that being a press agent and I doubt

s for all my things-what I'm going to offer him is something big-about the biggest end of the game-but I don't w

en we were kids. Little church over in Brooklyn. He was an angel terror, regulation boy sopran'. Into everything. Nearly drove the old choir master to drink. Was always being expelled. Our families both belonged to the church so Brownly a

" asked Edwi

band ch

pring when we were rehearsing for a special oratorio. Some night!" The fat man sighed reminiscently. "All to the Romeo and Juliet! Choir forming on the outside, old Brownly having a tempermental fit as usual and Dud and I stationed over by the wall ready to split our epiglottises; on our marks, set all ready to go when Dud tosses up his cap, just as he used to when he was a little shaver and Bing! Cap lands on top of the wall. So up clambers Dud-" the raconteur smiled, "and I hope I may never see anything so pretty pulled off as what happened next! That girl's head over the top of the gate! Big dreamy eyes shining in the moonlig

h you'd meet in a lifetime. Had the recluse business down to a fine point. Summers he used to go off to the wilds of Canada or the Adirondacks or somewhere that his wife's will had specified their daughter must live and winters he used to lock the girl up in that mansion next to our church. Wouldn't touch a penny of his daughter's funds, actually paid rent to her, my grandmother said. Made his living raising dogs, lap-dogs, in an old stable back of the church. They were all the style. The fair customers used to hope always that they were going to see the fascinating recluse widower. But they never did. The only time he ever came to the surface that the public knew about was the morning after the daughter eloped with the rector's son. Grandmother says the Major smashed up a couple of reporters the Hawk sent over to interview him but he did tell 'em what he thought on the woman question. Nobody had the nerv

g for Gabriel was a paper chase compared to Dudley trying to find his lady-love. He spent months at it. Got haggard and wan, had a couple of fights with Burrel, a lawyer who was the only person who knew where Major Trenton had gone. Funny thing, it was that same Burrel who absconded with the American T

little, it was a year or so afterward and I thought he'd gotten over things-but-er-he hadn't. He-" He

ared however. She lifted her

t to us-get out if you see he's still miffed with you-Please come over

he gestured again, so imperiously that he obeyed, but with scant courtesy, and he did not look at all overjoyed at meeti

t now? He never would-" she turned to Graemer. "He always said I could

art, isn't it?" he bante

!" she

omplimenting me,

your everlasting managing. It's a peach up to the last act. Until you chuck that maudlin b

t last summer,"

ummer than he is now. The first two acts of that play-Gad, it got me up till then, but the rest of it-" he broke a bit off a crusty r

ublic what it wants," s

"You have to make the public want wha

ted to see you about," drawl

t shr

handing out things that assumed the public all had salacious minds or else no minds at all. I don't mean that I'd go in for uplift stuff-that isn't what the theater is for-it's to amuse-to thrill- to wake up our em

ce?" Graemer p

at we miss all the while-something we lack in this machine-age. Something that will come across the footlights by itself instead of having to have the

Edwina. Then he drew a long b

of angles of the game that I do not have time to touch. The thing I need is what you have aptly described-some one who will make the public want what it's going to get. Some one who will make it think it's going to get what it wants. The kind of thing you did last fall in politics-maki

be ways-if you had something to back your statements th

ve another talk with me? I don't mean immediately and

ter, coolly insisted on pay

interesting," was all the an

Graemer looked aft

Cynic-but he's p

ighed Edwina pulling on her glo

was th

w'd you like to do an ingenue part like that missing lady affair-start with your head over a

orbed his

ced, wiping a crumb from his moist lips. "It was

been sadder if she'd

e is a grouch, you ca

g briskly up the avenue

mewhere, any woods so long as it was woods. He pondered over whether he could get away Friday or would have to wait till Saturday morning, and eventually decided on Saturday, consulting a memorandum book scowlingly as he did so, jotting down appointments. He noted that he would have to be in his office at five o'clock on Friday. Somebody or other was going to telephone him about something. Which made him ref

dissertation on the etiquette of travel, given one summer afternoon by Mademoiselle D'Ormy, Felicia aged twenty-seven, embarked upon her first journey alone, found herself musing with

pment in fives to avoid the confusion caused by losing one's belon

ated traveling coat sat primly in the Pullman section that the doctor's thoughtfulness had provided for her

er heart under the stiff bodice of a frock that had onc

spaniel hidden in the capacious slee

Trenton, now containing bills and coins placed there by Margot, said reticule held fir

a faded India dressing-gown belonging to whom even Margot couldn't remember, on top of which was tucked a flat wicker basket containing small cakes and sandwiches

ill need thinning out when they're through blossoming-I'm stupid about narcissi. I've been living so long where there we

Felicia nodding, "I must be

he enumerated, proved to be the

ture, one should keep clearly in mind the exact or

ay find the Portia Person who long ago prom

y handbill that announced "To be sold at auction for un

lly! Eighteen C

wait. I know another lawyer, he's in Temple Bar. He will attend to everything.' Oh no! First I'll go find the Portia Person and while he is attending to everything I will send a letter to

roar of the train she

rtia Person-t

and shaken from her day and night of travel, poked her snubby nose from under the traveling coat and sniffed and squeakingly yawned. Louisa's bonnet had worked itself askew, the sharp wind from the river was flapping the heavy clothing about her slender ankles and displaying the o

he congested traffic watched the grotes

terine!" He ploughed through the river of travel and caught at her arm and felt her slight weight sag against him. "Annybody as turned her loose-" he continued his soliloquy after he'd jollied a newsboy into escorting her across to the Temple Bar Building, "Ought to be sent up-" He vente

scores and scores of lawyers, looking searchingly into their faces, asking her question firmly and sweetly. She had asked it of busy lawyers, lazy lawyers, suave lawyers, thin lawyers, fat lawyers, rude lawyers, young lawyers, old lawyers; she had talked to dozens of clerks and stenographers, appealed to elevator men, janitors, scrub women, any one who would listen-she wanted to find t

hem off with an over-manicured finger as she tried to suggest. She had taken charge of Felicia's bag, h

o get myself a bite to eat. It's noon

lso that the patient n

ourself 'a bite'?"

o'clock," si

icken and baked potatoes and a caramel custard and that we could go and sit by the Bowling Green

ed after her

ber the name of the man she's looking for-but gee, I forget names myself-and the next minute she's asking me to lunch on Bowling Green, as pleasant as you please! Can you beat it? And I can't for t

greed that she did and

the news-stand girl gig

both of them commente

re

itted the girl, "But sh

the lawyer for her ju

ome back-or some

d the Portia Person. He had spied her, standing undecided outside th

what you wer

anner and his uni

onfided, "so I think I'll just have to se

she know what judg

id taxes" that Zeb had brought to her. He read it slowly t

ght now and put you next to a fellow who works there. He'll slip y

gent clerks, and late afternoon found her sitting primly cuddling her restless doggie, waiting for some one to bring the tax records. She was a little tireder, a little hun

udge then I'll go

those that had been painted in the background of the portrait of Grandy's father. Nor did she understand

with fat beribboned seals in this Judge's hands. Instead, alert slender fingers riffled their way rapidly through a mass of papers that a

stared at her curiously. He noted the traveling bag at her feet, the

daguerreotype-old and youthful all at once, fad

entioned here?" he asked g

t so far as her eyes were concerned b

wyer than Mr. Burrel-the l

lto, her clear enunciation, her perfect poise of manner, startled him

ortia Person i

?" he was very

nk of his name but he is in Temple Bar and he came to see Maman and he told me if t

the meantime, while you're finding him, don't you think you'd bett

nly had

nderstand. But somehow or other he did it, talking slow

f your property has paid neither the taxes on it, nor the interest on some mortgages that he arranged on it, for about seven years back. Can you understand that? And the house has been rented in the meantime to a great many families, it is technically a tenement house. The present trouble is

about money. Grandy paid for things until he fell and now Margot pays for them. But you see Margot gets our money from Mr. Burrel, he has all of our money so I

rel has been missing for over three years. This Margot you sp

, "I can't ask her for anything more. I think

ingly absurd suggesti

aid taxes have piled up so alarmingly that the mortgager refused to agree to that. The only way I can see just now to help you at all is to arrange for a stay of thirty days in this matter of the proceedings against you for the violation of the Tenement House Law t

lted the

hundred and forty-two dollar

se, she let the money and bills therein slide into

irty days more," she concluded, "I'm quite sure I can get the rest for you, I'll find the Portia Person, I know, evaire so many lawyers weren't in Temple Bar today. He might be there tomorrow, you know." She nodded confidently. "But that's all I can give you no

er small pile of bills and silver into his hand and r

urt to attend to things, and you would have to make your payments through him. In the meantime-" he put the purse in he

hout scorn. "You must be sorry a great deal of the time, aren't you? You couldn't be really happy m

ss of her rebuke wa

some of them hap

ook he

happy one," she

d, bankrupt little creature thought he did not fathom, perhaps it was just that she looked so helpless and so ol

but I believe you said you arrived from out of town this morning a

her pallor accentuated the dark circles under her drooping eyelids. Yet

y Hamilt"! It took all her reserve to finish her

myself, but my car is waiting for me. Suppose we have one of these boys take your bag down for you and that yo

oor for her. When she looked up at him he wa

t thinking how delightful it would be if I did for I'm afraid-as afraid as Margot is of a bat-of all of the things in the street-you

his papers posit

ed the papers to the clerk. The whole case seemed a hopeless tangle. And now that she was gone

tired eyes and let her head sink against the cushions. Her heart was racing fa

house, from which were tramping forth the home-going laborers. The smell of the wet lime as they tracked ac

She was overwhelmed, she could think nothing whatever to say to him. He came to the resc

udley H

appeared within its door and it was several minutes b

am. He says he understands that the elder Mr. Hamilt is dead but that the younger one h

Her face glowed

him, putting Babiche carefully on the cushioned s

r at the marble counter two giggling young things ordered soda water from a white-coated clerk. They were garbed in the triggest and gayest of spring clothing, they were as impeccably immaculate as the smiling ladies on the perfume bottles in the window. Back of the telephone was a long mirror that reflected their pretty smartness and Felicia's impossible dowdiness. But Felicia did not see anything at all save the round black hole through which she was to speak

he demanded

ghter purred over

dley Hamilt, but it's gone, they are building a vairee big house there. I didn't have your letter, that letter tha

ement in his voice frightened

eyes to the mirror before her. She caught a swift glimpse of laughing faces, the impishness of their mischievous eyes made

her tired eyes, into her own eyes, and saw the whole drab mirrored ghost of the woman who had been the young Felicia. And

ds as though I'd not lost you at all-" he laughed nervously like

nk of only one thing and that was

retend that I'm somewhere you can't see me-I only wanted-to tell you that I had y

her away. She shook her head weakly when the drug clerk hurried with a glass of water. She w

ully ill-" she hea

ling herself together again, she even managed to

ile the clerk was hastily calling back the judge's chauf

d the clerk, mechanically replacing the da

anted to go?" the man's r

gnity, "I think I'd like to go to my own ho

ess hand, she felt the whir of the motor. It vibrated through every janglin

now I'm just old-like Grandy-like Piqueur-" After a million years-or was it after one little minute?-the car stopped easily. Like the dream that Felicia had h

's chauffeur dubiously

ly under her arm. The man lifted out her bag a

tor, some of them fingered her coat, one bolder than the rest sat down upon her bag. It seemed to her as though more children than she had known there were in the whole world were crowding against her. Wherever she looked there were children. They hung from the once lovely old windows, they slid down the once bea

SELLA COA

en inserted a board, the legs flapped dispiritedly in the gusty wind from the ri

ressing 25 a

h a channel-coal fire glowing in the grate and a tidy white cloth on the table and neat rows of geraniums in the windows-a cheery sort of place. Not at all like this stuffy

owled at her thro

ped, "Vat do y

to sta

m? I calls mine missus-

room for three do

sy head protruded, "Four we should get," whined a nasal voice "it

slatternly woman "-is my house. H

eathen," she thought of Mademoiselle D'Ormy scolding a housemaid who left so much as a speck of dust on the hall balustra

at her. "We pays out rent by a receiver since the Mister Burrel goes avay-

house, of cou

hree dollars a veek-

azed in Feli

t at once," she announced with dig

ng her new lodger with ill concealed temper, her

y bright with reflected light a dingy ill-painted wall made the passage so gloomy that one could scarcely see above the first landing. Silently Felicia's weary feet carried her along behind her untidy conductor. Unconsciously she tiptoed as she passed the closed door of her mother's room, tiptoed as gently as though that frail

ing-" she smiled as she caught herself thinking it on the stairway-"perhaps there will be

sewing machines. The frowsy woman opened the door at the head of the stairs. The-three-dollar-a-week-room was the hall bedroom. The small room where Made

st have kissed the dingy walls for they were covered with exactly the same droll paper that had always decorated them-the paper on which the oft repeated group of fat faced shepherdesses danced about their innumerable May

and a command-that completely dominated the shrewish wife of the hump- shouldered tailor, something that made the slatternly creatur

and tugs were signaling; across the water the glamour of a million lights shone toward her. It was quite dark now; she stumbled to the window and looked down into the back yard. The dusk had mercifully blurred out for her the

ndow sill, then groped for the wee doggie as she heard the fain

red, "Babiche, how happy-