"I may as well tell you about the girls, as you seem to know so much, and—I can't be arrested for that."
"Very well! Tell your story, then, truly and without omissions."
CHAPTER XXXII.
AMY HOLMES CONFESSES.
"You say that you have seen Mamie Rutger at the theater," began the unwilling narrator, rather ungraciously, "and so I should think you wouldn't need to be told why she ran away from home. She wanted to go on the stage, and so did Nellie Ewing. Every country girl in christendom wants to be an actress, and if she has a pretty face and a decent voice she feels sure that she can succeed. The girls had both been told that they were pretty, and they could both sing, so they ran away to come out at the Little Adelphi.
"Mamie took to the business like a duck to water. Nellie got sick and blue and whimsical, and has not appeared at the theater for several weeks. They live at 349 B—— place."
I made a careful note of the address, and then said:
"Well, proceed."
"Proceed! what more do you want to know? I have told you why they ran away and where to find them."