A Lover's Quarrel, or Marion Marlowe's Deceitful Friend — page 5: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

2 | “MY QUEEN. like that!’ cried the young girl, hotly, as she raised her head with a flash of spirit. “T thought that would bring you to your senses,’ laughed Mrs. Burnside, as she went back to her chair! “All any one has ‘to do to get you out of your mopes is just to roast your lover a little, but, seriously now, girlie, you must be sensible. You surely wish your husband to have an education!” “Oh, yes, I suppose I do,”’ was the dejected answer, “but just think of having to wait four years, perhaps, before we can be mar- ried! Oh, you must admit that it is abomi- ~ nably cruel!” “T suppose it does seem so,’ murmured Mrs. Burnside, and, just then, the door flew epen and a young woman with fluffy golden hair and a babyish face fairly bounced into their presencé. a ed couldn’t stop to rap, I was in such a . hurry, and the chambermaid said you were in,” she began, almost breathlessly. “Oh, what do you think has happened? My room has gone up in a blaze and I’m utterly ruined!” | She sank upon the sofa in an apparent state of collapse as she spoke, and, in less than a second, the two ladies were bending over her. “Faith it’s the truth she’s tellin’ vez,” ex- claimed the chambermaid, from the doorway. ‘“An’ it’s the porter an’ mesilf as put it out, bad cess to it! (Come in an’ look, if yez wants to see the rooins; sure, the firemen do be gone, as they wasn’t needed at all, at all.” Miss Ellis followed the maid while Mrs. Burnside remained to comfort the hysterical girl, and they reached the door of the badly- scorched apartment she peered in curiously. “ft wonder how it happened. Did some one step ona match ?” she asked, as she took « few cautious steps into the room. The chambermaid was sniffing in a ward- robe and did not answer her, and just at that second Miss Ellis saw something lying on the floor that made her face turn as white as a sheet, as she stared at it. “What can it mean?” she whispered under her breath. “Why, I only introduced Bert to Miss Fredericks last week, and if there isn’t a letter to her in his handwriting !” She turned slowly from the room; she had seen enough... As she started down the hall she was doing a lot of thinking. The chambermaid closed and locked the door and | went off about her work, but Miss Ellis still lingered outside of her own doorway, trying to get the upper hand of her indignation be- fore she again confronted her fellow boarder. Miss Fredericks had been a stranger to her until about two weeks ago, when they made each other’s acquaintance in the dining-room of the hotel. “ She was a jolly girl and seemed refined and ladylike. If she had not thought her new acquaintance a desirable person to know Miss Ellis would never have introduced her to her lover. ? “Tt seems I was mistaken,” she muttered, as she turned into an alcove in the corndor and stared blankly out of a window. “Tt seems that she is a treacherous little minx, and that she is already trying to steal my lover.” | She was so angry that even a call from Mrs. Burnside failed to arouse her, but a moment later, when a door was opened softly just across from where she was standing and a silvery voice spoke her name softly the clouds left her brow as if by magic, and she actually smiled as she responded promptly : “Yes, Marion! I’m here! Do you want . me, girlie?” Marion Marlowe opened wide the door of the handsome suite which she was occupying uf eee s in the hotel and made a mysterious sign, which bound Miss Ellis to silence. EOMIEHOOKS.com