CHAPTER VI.
LITTLE BROWN PARTRIDGES.
May 20.
I wonder if I couldn't _earn_ money. For the last week--nothing but
trouble. No check from Father. Hugh Bellmer I have not seen. Strathay has
really gone, spirited away by that superior cousin.
And Mrs. Whitney has deserted me--oh, if it were not for money troubles, I
wouldn't mind that, cruel as was the manner of it!
Of course the newspapers soon learned that Strathay had left town. Trust
them for that; and to make sensational use of it! The first I knew of it,
indeed, was when one day Cadge came bursting into the room.
"Isn't it a shame?" she began in her piercing voice; as ever at fever heat
of unrest, she waved at me a folded newspaper.
"Emphatically; but what is it?"
"That fierce tale of the _Echo_; haven't seen it? We couldn't print a
line. Big Tom says the chief has put his foot down; won't have stories
about women in private life, you know--without their consent. But why
didn't you--why can't you give us a whack at it?"
"Because there isn't a word of truth in the whole disgusting--what does it
say?"
I had seized the sheet from her hands and rapidly glanced over the staring
headlines.
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