VIOLET LISLE; OR, A PEARL BEYOND PRICE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 449, 20 March 1912, Page 2

VIOLET LISLE; OR, A PEARL BEYOND PRICE.

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By the Author of "All or Nothing.' 1 "Two Keys," etc., etc. PART 15. Chorus girl ! What was a chorus girl ? What did a chorus girl do ? Was she fitted to be a chorus girl ? 3uppose she was unsuccessful? Might it not have been wiser to ask the advice of Martin Jenkins ? Then she summoned her courage and told herself that in justice to him she could dot do otherwise than leave him in .gnoranee of what she proposed doing. If she was not wanted as a chorus girl, she would try ■ something 3lse. There was nothing she would aot do to gain an honest living. She bad seen girls no older than herself, ay the hundreds, thousands, perhaps, who seemed to be employed in some way or another. Violet Lisle, perhaps, could never have had the courige to think of work ; but there was ao difficulty m Mabel Marsden doing so, and she must do what she could, aot what she liked. The theatre where she must apply was not difficult to find, for everyone she asked seemed to know it ; but it frightened her when she noticed that ;he men she asked, at first invariably leered at her and tried to see her face under the veil ; and one of them ffho was dressed like a gentleman, offered to take ber there, calling her ■' my dear." She had answered " No, no," in such a breathless, frightened way, that he had laughed, and would have insisted had she not run from him. After that she asked her way only of women.

More than once she was halfinclined to turn back, a dim realisation of the nature of the evils lurking in the great city coming over her ; but there was a resolution in the delicately-nurtured innocent creature that would never have been suspected. She kept on until she came to the theatre. She went to the front entrance and was directed to the stage door, which was in a dingy alley opening out of a side street. A roughly-dressed man stood lounging in the open doorway. He looked curiousljr at her as she hesitatingly approached him. " Well," he said gruffly, " who do you want to see ?" " I saw the advertisement for chorus girls," she said, faintly. The man looked her over from head to foot in a surprised, curious fashion, and puckered his lips as if he were going to whistle. Instead of whistling, however, he tossed his head and said : " Well, I'm blowed ! Right in herf my dear. Ask for George." The man was familiar, but hardly insolent or rude as the man in the street had been, and she was not afraid of him, though the burning blushes overspread her face, and a feeling of faininess shot into her heart. But even yet she would not give up. She stepped into the passage as he moved aside. " For whom am I to ask ?" she asked hesitatingly. " George." " George what, please?" asked Violet in a low, faint tone, but with an accent that wat unmistakably that of a lady. The man was rough, but apparently not unkind, for he seemed to guess how matters stood and answered : " Well, I never heard no other name ; but I'll call 'im for yer." So he stepped a little ahead of her shouted out :

"Hello, George ? I say, Tim, where's George ? Tell 'im there's a —" he was going to say " girl," but he substituted " lady " on second thoughts—"lady out here wants to see 'im. Just step into that room on your right, miss. That's it. He will be out in a minute. He's atrvin' of them inside." She went into the little den of a room pointed out to her, and sank into a dirty chair, the terror of her strange situation growing on her at each moment. She would have gone back now, if she could have done so without passing the man at the door, whose vulgar familiarity frightened her in spite of his kindness. " Well, what is It ? What d'you want ?" she heart somebody saying suddenly ; and she looked up to see a black-ringietted, bejewelled mar standing in the doorway. Her first impression was of his sleek curls, and his ponderous chains and rings ; but presently she was conscious that he was rather a large fat man, evidently a Hebrew, as £ pair of protuberant black eyes i prominent nose, and a peculiar pro nunciation bore witness. " I came in answer to an advertisement for chorus-girls," she said timidly. " Eh ! Ever been in the business before ?" he asked, his trained eai detecting a modesty of tone nol usual in a chorus girl. " No, sir." " H'm !" he grnnted and steppec over to a gas-jet and turned it 01 full. Then he turned to her and lookec her over deliberately, while she sat trembling in her chair. " Will 5011 please to stand up," hi said. She stood up, vaguely wcndering i she could escape past him if she sum moned all her strength. " Will you take off the veil ?" In next asked. She drew a deep^breath. "Is it necessary?" she timidl; asked. " Why of courae it is," he answer ed, impatiently, but it did not seen rudely. She lifted her veil and threw i;

back, turning her frightened eyes on his face. He started back slightly, ~s if he had received a shock and eyed her with unconcealed admiration. She flushed so deeply under his gaze that he could not help noticing it ; and he could see too that she was trembling violently.

"Don't stand any longer," he said, trying to soften his loud voice. "Can you sing at all ?" " A little," she answered, without sitting down. " Only a little. " I —I think I should not do. I —l would rather not —" " Oh, don't be nervous," he said, endeavouring to speak kindly, but hardly able to regulate the admiration in his great, bold eyes. "Come with me and watch the others try. That'll give you courage. I think you'll do well enough. Come right through here. Don't stumble against these ropes. You're not used to these places I fancy, eh ? What did you say your name was ?" "Mabel Marsden," she answered, a sort of terror at her heart at finding herself traversing the dark passage with the man who had alarmed her with his bold admiration, and yet had seemed to make her go with him against her will. " Well," he muttered under his breath, " if you've got a voice half as sweet as yourself, Miss Mabel Marsden, Patti'll take a back seat. What eyes ! What a pair of lips ! What a figure !" He let Violet hear nothing of this, however, but acted towards her with such deference and kindness that in spite of his admiring glances which he seemed unable to control, she became less afraid of him, when upon emerging out of the passage upon a half lighted stage he handed her a seat. " Stay here," he said, " and wait until you feel a bit less nervous." Then he turned away from her and shouted something to somebody. Violet could not make out to whom he was speaking, although she saw a great many persons on the stage. They were all women she noticed, presently she saw that they were having their voices tried, and she became interested in a breathless sort of way. At a signal from the man who had led her there, one of the women walked up to the footlights and began to sing from a sheet of music. " That'll do," cried out the man with the big eyes and the loud voice. " You may go. A nice fairy you would be with that voice ! Stop ! Now then, you with the magic-lantern on your head."

A young woman with a hat that did indeed remind one of a magiclantern stepped forward with an air of great confidence and began to sing. But she had not proceeded more ttfan two bars before the man shouted at her :

" Stop, stop \ You know the way out." The young woman laughed at him as if in no wise abashed, and walked out with the same air of confidence that she had borne in going forward to sing. Violet was oppressed and frightened. The man seemed tc know how it was impressing her and to be desirous of reassuring her ; for he addressed the next applicant more respectfully, and told "her to stand aside and wait when she had finished.

Then one after another was tried, some being detained for further trial, and others being peremptorily dismissed. And Violet began to recover from her fright after a while; and it seemed to her that although the man with the loud voice was rough he was not really unkind. Still something told her that she hod made a grave error in coming to such a place where even Mabel Marsden did not belong. . She would have gone away as soon as she had arrived at this conclusion had she been sure that she cotild depart unperceived'. But she felt that the man had his eyes upon her all the time and she did not wish to call attention to herself by entering into a discussion with him. He said nothing more to her until he had tried all those whom he had detained —this time having the piano played for them. Then he dismissed them all, telling some to come again at a £xed hour, and letting the others go without an appointment. As soon as Violet saw he was disengaged she rose from her seat and said to him : " I think it is useless for me to stay. Mj voice is uncultivated, and —I do not believe I should like to come here." The man turned hiis big black eyes on her and stroksed his fat chin for a few moments without answering. Then he said kindly : " Just as you please, Miss Marsden. I thought that perhaps if you remained here and heard some, of the fearful voices you'd get courage." Violet had intended to go away with as few words as possible ; but the man was so kind and respectful that she answered him-: " It isn't altogether that, sir. But I am afraid I should not be aide to —to —'' " I know what you mean/' he said quickly. " They are not the right ;ort for you. Oh, I could see you were a lady." " I suppose," 9aid Vicdet, " I ought not to feel so ; but I can't help it." " Ah," said the man, sympathetically, " I can't blame you.. No one knows better than I how .rough and coarse they are. But —I" beg your pardon, Miss Marsden —I areppose you wouldn't have come hsere ;at all if you hadn't been in a difficulty for something to do." " Yes, sir," answered. Violet. " 1 did not know what chorus girls were, and I had been told I hiad a good voice, so I thought I would try." " And quite right, too;," said the man; " though to be ssire, it isn't ttee thing at all . a lady, as

any one can see in a moment. But if you could find some genteel way of using your voice would you like that ?" "If it was something I should not he afraid to do, sir," answered Violet simply, " I should be only ton glad." The man rubbed his chin again, slowly, all the time eyeing her covertly with a violent admiration. "Would jou object to letting me hear your voice ?" " I can only sing ballads." sha .said. Well, try one-" he said, reflectively. " What shall it be ?" Almost without reflection Violet answered, " The heart bowed down by weight of woe." He gave her a. quick glance and walked over to the piano, which bad been brought upon the stage for the purpose of accompanying the singers. Violet took her place on the stage as she had seen the others do, wondering mechanically to find herself doing it after she had decided to go away from the, theatre. The man who had played the accompaniments for the others singers got up from the stool to let the big man take his place. Then he ran his lingers over the keys in the prelude, making Violet turn at the masterly touch. Her voice shook and was weak when she began, but grew firmer in a moment, and she went on to the end of the ballad,putting her soul, as it seemed to her, into the words, and forgetting that she was on exhibition, until she had finished, and the man was saying to her : I " Where did you say you'd studied ?" "No where, sir." " What do you think of it, Davy?" he said, in a low tone to the man at his side. " A little raw, George," was the whispered reply, "but the richest voice I've heard this many a day ; A fortune in it, George, if we can secure it." "Why not? The first thing is to get her, and she's so innocent stvj'll never see through my game." Violet had waited in the meantime quite innocent that she was to be the victim of any sort of plot, and thinking only that the two men were discussing her voice. She had often been told that her voice was fine ; but she had no idea that it was more than commonly fair, and would not have been surprised had she been told that it was not good enough for the purpose of her examiner. The man George got up from the piano and went over to her. " You have a good voice, Miss Marsden," he said, " but it needs cultivating." " Yes, sir ; I was sure of that." " Well, what I was going to say was this : I don't know anything about your affairs, you know ; but if you're able to have it cultivated —" " I am not, sir," she said, as h€ hesitated. " What I thought ; else why should you be here thinking of beinfj in the chorus, where you don't belong by any r means ? Well, now, I am a good deal older than you, miss, and maybe you won't mind if I ask you a question or two, eh ?" "Certainly not," answered Violet, wondering again as she had wondered before why it was that she had put so much confidence in this stranger. He rubbed his chin in a way that was habitual with hern and asked her slowly : " Have you run away from home?" " No, sir." "Will you tell me why you, who are a lady as any one can see, came here ?" Violet flushed, and looked uneasily at him. "Why do you. ask? Why do you ask me if I have run away from home ?" " Because I don't wish to get into trouble ; that's all. Of course, if you don't want to tell me you need not." Violet, considered a moment. Why should she tell him anything ? What good could it do ? Why not leave him at once ? She looked into the big black eyes that could not conceal the admiration that shone continually out of them and answered showly, as if half unwillingly. "I have no home. I must havo something to do or —or—" " Starve ?" iw queried. " Yes." " Well, there's no need for starving, Miss Marsden. Is .Marsden your real name ?" he asked suddenly. " No," she answered, " but it ia the only one I shall ever use." " Has anyone a right to control your movements ?" " No one." " Will anyone be searching for you ?" j "No one." She could not have told why she answered all these questions so readily. It seemed to her even as she spoke that it was foolish in her to do so ; but she had not hesitated after the first question. He commenced pacing the floor after her last answer, and continued to do so as she watched him anxiously. Presently he stopped in front of her. " I would like to take you to a lady I know," he said. " 1 think we can find some way of usim: your voice which is really beautiful. V»i" you go with me now ?" and he looked at her in a singular waj . She hesitated a moment. He looked anxious. Then she glancet/ up at him and said " Yes, I will go with you." To be Continued.