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VOL. LXXXVI

NUMBER 511

LIPPINCOTT'S

MONTHLY

MAGAZINE

JULY, 1910

THE

LADY

THALIA

BY HENRY C. ROWLAND Author of "Grimes Takes Command," "Sea Scamps," etc. PART I. " r I ^HE men look poisonous, but the girl is rather pretty," said I Stephen Dallas.

"'Poisonous' is scarcely the word," answered Sir James— " unless you apply it to the big Jew in the same sense that it might refer to the hind leg of a mule. The girl is Austrian, I fancy, with perhaps a dash of Italian. She would be rather a beauty—when you got used to her." " She does not look to me as if you would ever get used to her." " So much the better. That is worth far more than beauty." The Englishman let his big frame sink back upon one elbow, stretched his long legs on the hot sand, and looked off to sea. Dallas lit a cigarette and glanced curiously toward the trio sitting on the beach at a few yards' distance. " The stones on that big Jew's hands give me a vertigo," said he, " and his accent suggests a toucan with a cold. What beastly language are they talking ? " " I don't know. It seems to be all spits and sputters, with now and then a bark." Sir James stopping spinning his monocle around his finger, to screw it into his eye and survey the trio. Under the fixity of his British stare, all three turned with the same impulse and looked at the two young ,men. Then with equal unity of action all three scowled : the girl with a sudden intensity that brought a swarthy flush to her Copyright, 1910, by J. B. Ltppincott Company. All rights reserved. Vol. LXXXVI.-l 1