Marion Marlowe in Chicago, or, Trapped by a Lunatic — page 6: what you’re looking at

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

MY QUEEN. 3 “Hold on, Jack Hart! I can go you one better’n that, you fool! Here’s to Marion Marlowe, prettiest girl in world! be ones to sully her beauty and wreck zhe hope and ambitions every man who loves her !” A hoarse laugh from Preston followed the May we dreadful toast. Then both men gulped down - their whisky~and staggered out of the bar-_ room. Two more vindictive natures could not have been created! A drop of whisky turned Bill Jones into a vicious sneak, but it fired Percy Preston’s brain tothe verge of madness—a madness which rivaled the evil one in cunning, and which would stop at nothing to accomplish its purpose. CHAPTER II. THE TEMPLE THEATRICAL COMPANY. Three days after the bar-room conversa- tion between these two desperate fellows, a merry party of young people occupied an end of one of the handsome “sleepers” on- the Illinois Central, speeding northward. They laughed and chatted gayly as the train rushed on, little dreaming that any one in the world could be so wicked as to~deliber- ately plot to do them injury. - “How long before we reach Chicago, Bert? I’m anxious to see something besides prairie.” It was Marion Marlowe, the beautiful] star of the Temple Theatrical Company, who made the inquiry, as she gazed from the win- dow a little wearily. Bert Jackson, the youthful comedian of the company, glanced out a minute before he an- swered. “At least a couple of hours, I should judge,” he said, disgustedly; “and I am getting hungry again. I wonder if T could bribe the darky in the dining-car to give me another breakfast.” “I doubt if you could,” observed Dr. Brookes, the leading man, from across the aisle; “I think we ate almost everything he had.” “He did offer me some more tooth-picks,” said Bert, regretfully; “I wish I hadn’t re- fused them.” “Oh, Mr. Jackson! Won’t you please help me shut this window,” cried a coquettish voice; “I can’t manage it at all,” anda pretty young woman in the seat ahead of Miss Mar- lowe looked at Bert, beseechingly. , “I fly to your rescue, fair maiden!” ex- claimed Bert, melodramatically, as he closed the obstreperous sash, sat down beside the young’ woman and entered into conversation with her. “T don’t like that, Miss Watson one bit,” said Miss Ellis, the ingénue, to Miss Alma Allyn; “she’s just making a dead set at Bert and he don’t seem to understand it!” * “Bert is not at all foolish that way, dear; especially since his experience in St. Louis,” said Miss Allyn, soothingly. “If he happens to chat with her a little, why leave him alone. He will come back to you when he’s tired of her.” “T wish he’d get tired right off, then,” was the petulant reply, “for he’s been hanging around her ever since she joined the com- pany at St. Louis, and I think he ought to show the rest of us some attention.” “Meaning yourself,” said Miss Allyn, slyly, “I’m afraid you are jealous.” “No, indeed,” replied Miss Ellis, flushing. “I wouldn’t be jealous of a boy like that’ “A very nice sort of ‘boy’ nevertheless,” was the answer. “Bert is the very best fel- low I know, man or boy, isn’t he, Dr. Brookes ?” “Bert’s chief recommendation, to my mind,” said the doctor, gravely, “is his stead- fast devotion to Miss Marlowe. He jc SO much in love with h ‘oD i 'j Te oinicbooksco =}