Little Miss By-The-Day

yer's room, the room that had been Grandy's and from the mantelpiece the portrait of Grandy's father looked down upon them. His faintly ironical smile seemed to mock their baffl

lways sat, but her sleek head bent itself charmingly-Felicia was knitting. She was weaving a shawl for the Wheezy, a gay red shawl. The warm glow of the wool cast a faint tinge of color upward over

hem and their potter's wheels and their kiln home to live in the glassed-in room. It was there in the autumn following that they perfected those wonderful bronze and turquoise glaze ceramics that delighted the whole art world)-from the nursery above came trailing the high sweet murmur of the Sculptor Girl and the Poetry Gi

u say what you've found out? Wh

suspense any longer. She cunningly stacked a tray with nut- bread sandwich

ough the half opened door, "I've th

wn the knitting, she m

Mr. Ralph, I know you'll like Molly O'Reilly-" Molly put down

s, "what wid the men all rarin' about the bit of garden, calling, 'Molly, isn't she coming down?' and the girls, calling down t

nsulted the Portia Person anxiously. He was biting absent-mindedly into the sandwich Molly had alm

, maybe," wh

ed, a w

f no comfort from his casual tone. She fixed an inquiring eye on the lawyer's despondent shoulders and we

," she grumbled, "I belave non

Her eyes were blurred with unshed tears. It wasn't for herself that she cared, it was for all of the rest of them. From the

ce. She's just knitting whilst they confab. Sure wid a couple o' hundred

an't, can't, can't give up their house-oh, wherever could I put them all? I couldn't take th

her from the Montrose estate; that he couldn't be found; that there was some other property and money somewhere in France; that the Portia Person had seen some of the papers concerning it when he was a young lawyer, when Felice was a little girl; that these papers had been put into Madem

that another thirty days' stay could be secured to enable Felicia to go to the House in the Woods and see if she could find anything,

ways when I seem to find what I must have, it is as though I had found

intensity, so bitterly, that the two men, pa

rtia Person inadequately, "bu

t his glib w

e's Pandora a little. I have opened the box and let out all the troubles-but perhaps I haven

thought of them always now as children, these folk who dwelt about her. P

an ever. The Majorhadn't recognized her at all. He had merely called her Louisa and forbade her to go to Paris, and

, but her whole spirit drooped. This was the end of all her high hopes and grea

They were of gay colors, those frills, like big holly-hocks, she thought as she flung the finished things into a hamper. She helped to make other costumes too, sitting with a score of seamstres

d not at all to the chatter about her. It was merely like the humming of the bees in her gard

erful days in the garden of their lives. She never let them see that she feared. Just to hear her when she came home in the late afternoon was li

ays! Molly, God bless her, would never admit defeat! Who fought out her part in the battle! She made their slender funds nourish th

shoe, she scolded them "roundly." The Sculptor Girl still laughs over a never-to-be-forgotte

are you'll have to learn to swim and so will all of us if you're going to drip tears regularly, eve

r c-c-cusses-"

eyes twinkled back through her tears-all of them were for Felice, if that despotic person had onl

before she'll be dumped in the gutte

rnoon, after they'd struggled all day

ork and talked about soul to the Cartoonist!" Sometimes it seemed to her that of all of them the Architect, with his head bent over his drawings under his evening lamp, typified the hopelessness of the whole scheme, as he wrought so

his one grating-a delightful oval affair whereon chubby Vestal Virgins lifted delicate torches, had remained intact. The reason was plain enough, it was almost impossible to dislodge it. Even with the lawyer and the Cartoonist to help him, the enthusiastic Architect, balanced dangerously on one of Janet's ladders, could scarcely pry it loos

" she wailed, "It's fair

ze to lift one of the "choonks." He dusted

playing back with some mocking pretense as she usually did when

go up-the store-room will be fun and maybe-" They were scrambling up the stairways, a laughing crew. "Bring something to break wood with you," called Felice over her shoulder, "for those shelves that Dulcie put

oor and for the next two hours they delved and delved through the forgotten treasures. The Poetry Girl cal

hey had finished mauling. Felice gave things away

tly pulled forth a sage green taffeta frock with long bel

he limped across the room to hold it agai

essed her in it while the men folk trooped down stairs to mess Molly'

the Painter Bo

of tears. They'd hoped so that the storeroom would give the house back to them! Only the Painter Boy seemed not to care. He waited, his eyes gleaming, until after the others had trooped off to their own quar

re so busy now with all of us on your mind and the sewing and posing for Dulcie that

agreed

shook

it to you, I love it so-but you shall have a really model-we'll ma

hem anything she could possibly manage, but it was rather diffi

their chance visitors were so numerous that the Matron arranged for her to do her "pretending" in the chapel hall at the front of the Home. And it was there that an enthusiastic member of the May Day committee chanced to hear her, one sunshiny April Day, an enterprising member who bluntly a

lained Felicia, "I'm n

am

ave a name to pri

been asked to appear hadn't eagerly suppl

alled Madame Folie-no, Mademoiselle Folly-will that suit? Then if it has

ll indeed, "Vaire

SEMENT-Mademoiselle

iends. That is until the hectic morning when she obeyed a summons to rehearsal in the empty, auditorium-Felicia always says that the rehearsal was worse than May Day night! So to

d her turn, "It's only for ten minu

ng audience, for two hours of Brooklyn amateur talent will wilt even the most valiant list

ts raced lik

are persons and I have to please t

air and white neck, with the coral comb and the carved bracelets making bright spots of color. Do you remember how her wide green skirts spread about her

ly believed she was talking just to him! He leaned forward. "I am going to do some songs for you but I can't exactly sing-"

led the voice

her chin

dear! How slowly I must speak!" she admonished herself in her thoughts. Her k

hope you're good at pretending-you must pretend that you are seeing the first person you heard sing these songs for you when you were little. The first

adorable way she took

how strangely fa

ked so anxiously that one sympathetic soul murmured "yes" a

ks his sweetheart's lips are lik

erry

ry R

buy my ch

e over her shoulders and her fingers touched the strings. And then suddenly t

d an unreal life of sentiment and dreams and memories and they were just a sophisticated, tired, jaded audience. Some of them twisted their lips and scoffed. Some of th

You can't beat the old

him pattered too. It

a. She

med Robin Adair. You see he went on a journey, I imagine a long journey-" Ah, Felice! he'd gone on a very long journey, that Robin Adair! A journey that a generation of rag-times and

his dull

s not

his it

made it easy for her listeners to rest until the last questioning trill had died away. The applause was louder th

!" called her exc

you'd enjoy a French one now? That is if it isn't te

k and smile. If they felt like questioning the genuineness of her feeling it could only be exp

re crying-it was a wonderful spring! You must pretend you can see Margot sitting in a gray stone doorway sorting seed in a little broken brown basket. Margot is ra-ther brown herself, but she has gray hair and black eyes and she's fat and she wears a blue dress, vairee old and clean and faded and a big white apron. Her voice isn't pretty I'm afraid, but her song is. Her song is the oldest song I've evaire heard. There was a Frenchman, Maitre Guerdon, who made it a long time ago. He was a fine gentleman with ruffles of lace o

ten minutes. But she had them completely under her spell and it suddenly seemed the most

d men or bad, should go, could have heard her, he would have bowed his admiration just to hear the tender graceful spirit that her so

r-she leaned forward to catch what a man in the side box was saying. Bolder tha

Ever of thee I am

ose to the footlight

s?" she hummed

," he nodded; "do

shru

he translated dreamily, "and he thinks he can hear her voice and that cheers him up

children. She never failed one of them-save once,

id puz

nk I don't know about it- what sort of a b

ked for "White Wings" was rew

gs they never grow weary-I'll think of my dearie-'" and she finished the "Fly away hom

cotch songs, Molly's wistful Irish ballads, Margot's naughty French and Marthy's sentimental loves, Grandy's English favorites too, it seemed as though she could never give them enough of the

m while they were still laughing over something she'd

ing the gol-_dern_est h

sing

a time I h

n in Ma

ome under hi

who once was a soldier. He fought in battle. He was hurt vairee much. His head has nevaire been quite right since then. But some one taught him to be a vairee good gardener and that made him forget how frightful war had been. But in the spring, because spring makes all of

France, aw

what myriads

wives and gra

smiling any more; her great eyes burned with excitement; she saw Piqueur singing; she h

ut her whole heart at them, gave them her whole self until her tears blinded her and she turned and r

ience get so much as even a

Mademoiselle Folly thanks you but she cannot whistle any more tonight-she says-" he clear

ge matters with the strange persons who sought her out. Mademoiselle Folly still measured the value of her services by the same standards that had governed Little Miss By-the-Day's. She couldn't understand at all why one should be paid what seemed to be fabulous sums for a brief half hour of "pretending" that one loved, when a whole day's work that one hated meant only two dollars. I think if it hadn't been for the dire necessity of those last days before the impending auction they c

er these unexpected opportunities! She was so ea

for her! It was a wonderful, wonderful month, that month of May! She whistled and sang and talked and gestured her way into thousands of hearts, she smiled naively at her audiences' delight in her. She constantly varied her methods. Some of her happiest results were merely lucky accidents-as on the d

gift, coupled with what he coerced from his friends, who made it possible for the burden of taxes and interests on that great house to be lifted. It was "vairee businesslike," the same sort of "businesslike" that Felice herself had been when she made the bargain with the Poetry Girl to pay double rent if she should ever be earning anything. The stockholders in the new corporat

hem loved knowing that their little Miss-By-the-Day was the m

rom Manhattan after a walk down the avenue and brought an amusi

edores and shuttlecocks! They're actually selling lace mits like Louisa's and coral combs like Octavia's and the hair dressers' shops have windows full of

"pretending" these busy days when the carpenters and painters and masons and plumbers descended

ence with her little fists clinched and when she made Molly come sit and hold her hand. That was the night when in Maman's room the architect's feeble wife fought out her battle; a night that seemed intermin

the stairway with her gift under her arms, the gift she had found that night when they ransacked the treasures

and took a thin hand in hers. She

ther little myself." She talked softly, her slender fingers busied themselves with the old leather case. She held up the beautifu

them away-they're so

hem. They were Josepha's first clothes, I

n't tak

laughe

Isn't she-little-" she touched the tiny cheek longingly, "Oh, Mary, I wish she was mine-she makes me understand something. It's this. About the Poe

after he was gone and she had spread out the opened case before her Felicia Day reverently unfolded the papers that had been hidden. They were such yellowed, faded papers with their ancient seals! Those papers that Louisa had found

Dau

will be able to make him forgive Louisa for going to France. He would never let me tell him; I tried to but he wouldn't listen becau

tunate habit, Felice! W

the men we loved! The

who ran away with an ol

get the miserable tro

ed she took just one of his names and came back to America with her daughter Louisa and built this house in Montrose Place. She did not think it was time for Louisa to marry. She meant to arrange things carefully when it was-but Louisa was like the rest of us-she fell in love when she was still very young and she ran away with her man-(that was Grandy) and she promised him that she'd always like to be poor with him. She would have, of course, only after her mother died she learned there was a great deal of money that belonged to us and when she knew that I was coming she wanted things for me. So she made a silly mistake. She kept everything a s

little while at least in that house. I loved it so-sometimes I think

t us marry. You see Louisa, my mother, did leave me these houses and a great deal of money, some of it in France, and Grandy thought your f

dy too much. I know tha

as much to

, many mistakes. They look so silly now that we are

and I'd no way to get at what I owned without going back to Grandy. Besides it seemed to me that what I owned had made all of us unhappy. So we used to say all we'd give you

find some way to be happier than the rest of us have been, for you have something that none of us had, something that was your legacy from your father. He was very poor, Felice, but everyone loved him because he never let himself be morose or unhappy. He taugh

ng he hated to do. Toward the end he had to do many things he hated, that he wasn't st

that men call-self. It is made up of all the loves and hates and good and bad of the men and women who went before us. It does not really belong to us. It belongs to all of the people who will come after us. There happened to be only

MA

er or the thick old parchments that told her that

sagreeable Walnut would tell you that she'd gone away without leaving an address. If you

merely knew that there would be enough to take away the irritating fight for bread and butter and that each one of them would be taken care of until each one of them had taught his or her particular art to provide, and they knew, too, that each one was expected to repay in a "vairee"

ared her secret-it was to the Portia Pers

coat-they were such vairee ugly things-and so-he just didn't know me.-But now! I-I want to pretend something! This man-I asked it in the telephone-has been gone away for many weeks in the west on business and he is coming back soon-and I want you to make a way-to bring him to the little rectory yard some evening. It is only a 'pretend' of mine-" she blushed adorably, "perhaps, I can't do it. But I will try. I will be by th

wiped his eyeglasses and coughed and di

ouse in the Woods. She rushed back to settle a thousand details about the house in Montrose Street- joyous de

ir hung her demure traveling coat and veil. But tucked away out of sight in the walnut bureau were a scarf and a carved Spanish comb. The very thoughts of them gave her stage f

e looked down into the back yard. She reached for The theory and

sulk because it was late afternoon before Felice would come to sit for him for the last time. He was really quite through with his painting. It was only because they were all longing to

when she stood look

ll you a secret? I do wish you could take all your brushes and make me

hat you got worrying about us!" he touched the

her sleeve awkwardly.

eased her. "I guess you o

mper that he completely forgot that Felicia was to be kep

-it's a nice sweet philanthropic idea! But they're absolutely ruining everything! It would cheaper to pay 'em for their time and let 'em sit outside while

She gathered up her green skirts dai

itically as they passed the pantry door, "that Molly would know that anybody could guess there was a party with celestial smells like that." She had soothed him somewhat even before they reached the back yard and of course the lattices weren't really so bad as they had seemed to

e ridiculous patterns. She waved her shears slowly t

fectly silly, but the old ducks did seem to take

up at him

echoed an

mmered, "I just meant, well, I just

ith such delicious anxiety that he laughed. "I m

a perfectly satisfactor

and we wouldn't have you changed for wor

o the back of the bench

something

agement that I had him make for me this evening. That I won't be here at nine o'clock, that I have to go out.

f those dying pansies. She sat very still. She thought that she had come to the very end. There was nothing more in the world that she wanted to pretend. Except perhaps that she was hearing Dudley Hamilt's voice singing, very woodenly, "But my heart's grown numb and my soul is dumb-" Like Dudley Hamilt, she couldn't bear to think of the res

almost shook her t

l looking person. I've a hunch it's that beast Gra

a stif

sent. I told the little lawyer man that I thought his wicked Mr. Graemer was afraid to come to see us-so that's why he's come now, I suppose. I don't want to see him half so much as I did. I

assumed that she was merely one of the proteges of the mysterious wealthy backers of that unusual enterprise. He thought it very good business indeed that the clever young woman had known enough to disappear for a brief time that she might whet her audiences' appetite while she let her agents lift her prices. It didn't at all occur to him that she was actually abandoning such a career as her extraordinary success seemed to foretell. He had in mind a romantic play in which she should make her bow as a legitimate actress and he had a flattering mountain-to-Mahomet speech r

s of a wall stood tiptoe with her arms upstretched and her blonde head shone in the light

ressed firmly upon the blonde lady's. The placard further announced that he was embracing "America's foremost romantic actress Edwina Ely" and though there was nothin

d paused before a side wall at a theater entrance to gape sceptically at a paste-glistening sheet. That particular poster was not yet in place.

n all to onct he hit me and threw me paste in the street and grabbed me brush and trew it after me paste and just as I was going to lam him one he ups and shoves some

y actress and the acquisitive manager. The intensity of his manner when he pulled open the manager's door frightened the manager's stenographer into an unwilling admission that Mr. Graemer had just left for Brooklyn. And a dazed taxi starter, who

The last time he had seen the little street it had looked as desolate and forlorn as on the day when Felicia had come back to it. He assumed with that rapidity with which an angry mind makes decisions, that Graemer was proceeding to Montros

al, that he hadn't a reasonable argument to present against the play, that there was no possible way in which he could prevent any man from

my getting my hands on him, but, oh, if

ry good one, since he was able to direct his driver exp

dy made in her quaint frock against the crumbling garden wall. He spoke a very pretty speech about her appearance. But he found her haughty indeed considering that she was noth

best thing for you to do before you go off for your vacation is to have a contract, signed and sealed, in your inside pocket. Frankly, I'm charmed with your-er- personality. I saw you a couple of months ago at the Palace and I like the way you

e had admirable repose. Her wide eyes looked straight int

ve a friend whose play you 'picked up'-" she gestured toward the house. Her deliberate reiteration of his chance phrase was irritating to say the least. He turned uncomfortably to look at the s

tepped cl

he hardly grasped what she was saying, so intent was he upon her extraordinary manner of speaking. It made him feel somehow like a child. It irritated and soothed him at the same time. "I did not want you to come here at all." She stamped her foot for emphasis. "It is insulting for you to be in Maman's garden! But now th

s are utterly

irectness of manner! "Whenever you are counting how vairee much money you did have from 'The Juggl

totally dissimilar

ust wasting your breath! It's no use talking to him!

er play and that some of it is her moneys and then he can give you the money. Oh, you couldn't have understood how bad, bad, bad you made things for h

oid that clear gaze, but whatever the faint stirrings of his conscience might have prompted him to s

are anticipating bringing another and much stronger action against you. But if you should h

caught h

tupidity had trapped him into such an annoying situation. He was moving blindly toward

him. She put her

at the memory. "It did not seem like stealing because it was just a little food. It just seemed like something I wanted and that I must have and so I took it. Maybe that was the way it was with you about 'The Magician.' It was something that you wanted and must have! Perhaps it

haps he would have actually gotten away from her only that that was the moment that Dulcie Dierckt opened the long Frenc

s some one to see you," she called wick

ry Girl nor the lawyer could tell how it happened. Dulcie

ich to defend himself. And then he proceeded with a most satisfying thoroughness to pummel and pound and thump. Their struggling figures shoved to and fro in the pebbled

them!" shrieked

he had come to the defense of her Blythe. She only knew that he was doing exactly what she had been longing to do ever since she had first heard about the acquisitive Mr. Graemer. And

striking him!

d with her new found joy in her heart she shouted stil

lly stepped across his fallen antagonist as he strode toward her. His blonde hair was ru

tammered, "tell me q

she answered breathl

er perch on the little iron bench. Her slender figure in the sage gree

hrough the rear gate, the stable gate-it happened to be open and he took an immense satisfac

olly O'Reilly adroitly pushed them through it and for the next

ears slipped back as though they ha

dley Hamilt! You are hu

o-it's only that I am afraid you are

tood tiptoe to put her

r adorable he

e murmured with

E