“Riggles? Oh, well, his wife died, he took up with Dollie Squires again, and a double suicide in a Clark street resort put an end to his career along with Dollie’s. “The little girl? She grew up sweet like her mother; she is in a convent now, be out soon, then my work is done.” TALE SEVENTEEN. A TRIP ACROSS THE LAKE. “When Happiness comes knocking at my door, I may not lift the latch to let her in, Because, ah me! one forced his way before— The ugly phantom of an ancient Sin.” “It is a strange thing for me to want to tell you my story, but something about you inspires me with a desire to confide in you, even though I have not known you long.” The speaker was tall with the angularity of an undeveloped school girl, although self-confessed twenty-one years of age. She had bright, laughing eyes, a large mouth, whose thick lips left an impression of coarseness. Her hair was very heavy and dark, and she wore it dressed low over her left eye, in the style of the day, which gave her an unnecessarily rakish appearance. Yet, notwithstanding her unprepossessing appearance, there was an indescribable something about her which drew one to her. I assured her that I appreciated her confidence and thanked her for it. “My parents were Methodists, and while I was carefully trained, they did not keep me under such strict surveillance that I was not able to have many liberties. At fifteen I was as large as I am now, and was in for every bit of fun there was going. I always had a crowd with me, and we rode our wheels everywhere (it was when the wheel craze was at its height). I played the piano then even more than I do now, and lots of times we would ride out to the parks and go to one of the club houses in the vicinity to rest and I would play the piano and they would dance. So the spring was passed, and mamma never reprimanded me if I was in the house by ten or ten thirty. She must have thought no harm could befall me as long as there was a crowd with me.