Produced by Ted Garvin, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. NEW FACES BY MYRA KELLY AUTHOR OF "LITTLE CITIZENS" "WARDS OF LIBERTY" "THE ISLE OF DREAMS" "ROSNAH" "THE GOLDEN SEASON" "LITTLE ALIENS" [Illustration: Printers Mark] _Illustrations by_ CHARLES F. NEAGLE G.W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY PUBLISHERS NEW YORK _Copyright, 1910, By_ G.W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY NEW FACES [Illustration: "THERE'S NO QUESTION ABOUT IT," HE RETORTED. "SHE KNOWS THAT I SHALL MARRY HER."] "Oh give me new faces, new faces, new faces I have seen those about me a fortnight or more. Some people grow weary of names or of places But faces to me are a much greater bore." _Andrew Lang._ CONTENTS THE PLAY'S THE THING 17 THERE'S DANGER IN NUMBERS 57 MISERY LOVES COMPANY 83 THE CHRISTMAS GUEST 115 WHO IS SYLVIA? 147 THE SPIRIT OF CECELIA ANNE 187 THEODORA, GIFT OF GOD 219 GREAT OAKS FROM LITTLE ACORNS 263 ILLUSTRATIONS "There's no question about it," he retorted. "She knows that I shall marry her." Burgess gained an interest and an occupation more absorbing than he had found for many years Uncle Richard's face, as he met John's eyes, was a study She swooped under the large center table, dragging Patty with her The changeless smile and the drooping plumes made three complete revolutions, and nestled confidingly upon the shoulder of the law Celia Anne shut her eyes tightly and fired the rifle into the air NEW FACES "THE PLAY'S THE THING" A business meeting of the Lady Hyacinths Shirt-Waist Club was in progress. The roll had been called. The twenty members were all present and the Secretary had read the minutes of the last meeting. These formalities had consumed only a few moments and the club was ready to fall upon its shirt waists. The sewing-machines were oiled and uncovered, the cutting-table was cleared, every Hyacinth had her box of sewing paraphernalia in her lap; and Miss Masters who had been half cajoled and half forced into the management of this branch of the St. Martha's Settlement Mission was congratulating herself upon the ease and expedition with which her charges were learning to transact their affairs, when the President drew a pencil from her pompadour and rapped professionally on the table. In her daytime capacity of saleslady in a Grand Street shoe store she would have called "cash," but as President of the Lady Hyacinths her speech was: "If none of you goils ain't got no more business to lay before the meetin' a movement to adjoin is in order." "I move we adjoin an git to woik," said Mamie Kidansky promptly. Only three buttonholes and the whalebones which would keep the collar well up behind the ears lay between her and the triumphant rearing of her shirt waist. Hence her zeal.