MARION MARLOWE’S COURAGE - A Brave Girl's Struggle for Life and Honour E-Book

Grace Shirley

• Herausgeber: Abela Publishing
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

The beautiful Marlowe twins, Marion and Dollie are in New York, living in a cheap boarding house and almost penniless. Marion had just found and rescued Dollie from the clutches of Professor Dabroski, the hypnotist, who had abducted her from her home in the country. In rescuing Dollie she had crossed swords with Emile Vorse, a fiend in the attire of a gentleman. Discovering who they are, their landlady tries to throw them out, but assistance arrives from an unexpected ally, who puts the landlady in her place. With her money returned the Marlow sisters and their new ally, Miss Allyn, depart Mrs Garvin’s shabby establishment. Ensconced in new rooms, the next day Dollie responds to an advertisement for a trainee typist and Marion wonders the city looking for work. Silas appears, as if from nowhere, and tells Dollie and Marion that he has bought the mortgage to their parents farm. He assumes that because Dollie’s reputation is somewhat tarnished, she would readily agree to marry him. He was wrong. With three months grace the sisters start laying plans to rescue their parents. But $9.00 is a long way from $500, especially in 1900’s New York. What adventures will the sisters plans lead them on and into in their attempt to earn enough to pay the $500 mortgage hanging over their parents’ lives without breaking the law? YESTERDAY’S BOOKS FOR TODAY’S CHARITIES 10% of the profit from the sale of this book will be donated to charity. ============= KEYWORDS-TAGS: Marion Marlowe, Courage, New York, broke, penniless, , Allyn, answer, aunt, Bert, block, boarders, boarding-house, body, breasts, bum, Carlotta, city, companion, concert, country, diamond, dollars, Dollie, Emile, exceptional, father, fellow, fiend, fireman, flush, forgive, furious, garments, Garvin, gentleman, German, girl, Haley, handsome, happily, heroine, home, hope, house, hundred, indignation, jacket, Jackson, Jenkins, Johnson, kindness, kiss, landlady, laugh, little, loan, love, luscious, man, Marcus, Marion Marlowe, marry, Matt, Miss, money, Moore, mortgage, New York, office, officer, Olio, orchestra, Otto, paper, passion, pleasant, pleasure, pocket, policeman, Poor, preacher, Professor, pussy, Dabroski, prompt, pussy, Ralph, Ray, room, Rosen, rush, sad, Samantha, Silas, sing, sister, sisters, sneer, song, started, starve, store, streets, thief, tremble, trouble, twins, typewriter, unconscious, vigorous, Vondergrift, Vorse, whisper, young, accost, kidnap

Leseprobe

Marion Marlowe’s Courage

Or

A BRAVE GIRL’S STRUGGLE FOR LIFE AND HONOR

The Marion Marlowe MysteriesBy Grace Shirley

An Extract From

Originally Published by

Street & Smith, New York City.

[1900]

Resurrected byAbela Publishing, London

[2018]

Marion Marlowe’s Courage

Typographical arrangement of this edition

© Abela Publishing 2018

This book may not be reproduced in its current format in any manner in any media, or transmitted by any means whatsoever, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, or mechanical ( including photocopy, file or video recording, internet web sites, blogs, wikis, or any other information storage and retrieval system) except as permitted by law without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Abela Publishing,

London

United Kingdom

2018

ISBN-13: 978-X-XXXXXX-XX-X

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Abela Publishing

CHAPTER I A Boarding-House Experience.

“How much money have we left, Marion?”

“Nine dollars and seventy-five cents, but don’t worry, sister! We’ll obtain more from somewhere, I’m sure. We cannot certainly be going to starve in a great big city, full, as it is, of wealth and happiness!”

Dollie Marlowe sighed disconsolately. She was not so hopeful as her sister Marion.

The two girls were seated in a top floor room of a cheap boarding-house, where they had gone only a day or two after Dollie’s rescue from the clutches of Professor Dabroski, the hypnotist, who had abducted her from her home in the country.

Both girls were dressed in simple home-made frocks, the same that they had worn when they first came to the city, but although their garments were coarse and absolutely destitute of style they could not disguise the natural beauty of the two maidens.

The girls were twins, but they did not look at all alike, except in the general characteristics of their features.

Dollie’s golden curls were bewitching as a fairy’s, and her blue eyes sparkled even through her tears, while Marion’s fair face was sweet and charming in spite of the anxieties to which she had been subjected. For Marion’s first visit to the city had been full of adventure. On her arrival she had been sent to the wrong address by Emile Vorse, a fiend in the attire of a gentleman, who had seen her at the station, and only rescued from the insults of another fiend by a Miss Ray, who was kept almost a prisoner in the apartments to which Vorse sent Marion.

Miss Ray had confided to her that she had been entrapped through a mock marriage and only remained quiet for the sake of her family, but Marion had induced her to run away, and the young woman was now safe in the bosom of her family.

After this experience came the rescue of Dollie from her abductor, and then, without funds or friends, the girls took up their brave struggle for existence in a city which shows but little mercy to the poor or the unfortunate.

For two weeks they had occupied this shabby room, which they obtained, with their board, for eight dollars per week, and during this time poor Marion had been very busy, for it was chiefly her information that secured the indictment against her sister’s abductor.

“Thank goodness there’s nothing more to be done in that direction,” she said, wearily. “That dreadful Mr. Lawson, or ‘Dabroski,’ as he calls himself, is safe in jail, and the Chief of Police tells me that it will be some time before he is brought to trial. Justice is so slow,” she added, plaintively, “but then, it is sure, so there’s no use in getting impatient. I’ve been to seven places to-day in my search for work. Oh, I am sure I will get something soon! I don’t see how I can help it!”

“You are just wearing yourself out, dearie,” said Dollie, remorsefully. “You look a lot older than you did at home. Oh, dear, to think that I should be the cause of all your worry!”

“Hush, Dollie!” cried Marion, “you are not to blame, sister, and, oh, I am so glad that it isn’t any worse!”

Her beautiful face flushed scarlet as she made this admission.

Dollie’s blue eyes filled with tears and her lids drooped heavily.

“It’s bad enough, I am sure, but please don’t speak of it. You love me just the same, don’t you, sister?” she cried, piteously.

Her loving sister rushed over to her and kissed her penitently.

“Forgive me, dear, but I can’t help thinking of it sometimes! It is perfectly awful, and to think the papers are full of it!”

“They have been for two weeks,” said Dollie, sighing, “but they have been so kind in their judgment of me, I can never be too grateful to them. Still, I am glad we changed our names when we came to this house! If our fellow-boarders knew who we were they would probably snub us!”

“Well,” cried her noble sister, scornfully, “I should not care for that. We have done no wrong, why should we be scorned by them?”

“It is the way of the world, I guess,” said Dollie, sadly, “for even my own father and mother condemned me before they knew I was guilty.”

“Oh, just hear this!” cried Marion, who had picked up the evening paper; “poor Mr. Ray’s father was buried to-day! The grief has killed him! And what do you think, Miss Ada Ray’s lover has thrown her over, and all on account of her sister’s misfortunes! Oh, I can hardly believe it! It is too utterly abominable!”

She threw down the paper in a burst of anger. She could not tolerate injustice, it made her furious to think of it.

“I expect that is why we have seen nothing of Mr. Ray this week,” said Dollie. “The poor old father, he must have been over-sensitive, for if his daughter was innocent he should not have grieved so. As for that fellow who professed to be a lover, why, he must have been a good-for-nothing to do a thing like that. She’s lucky to be rid of him!” she added, with unusual spirit.

But Marion was walking the floor in a perfect frenzy of indignation. She clenched her hands together as she thought over what she had just read.

“Mr. Ray, our dear, good friend. Oh, I am so sorry for him!” she cried. “He is going to take his two sisters abroad immediately. He has to, I can see that. It would be dreadful for them to stay here.”

“And we won’t see him again,” said Dollie, almost ready to cry.

Marion bit her lips and her gray eyes grew almost hard with agony.

“I’m afraid not,” she said, shortly: “the paper says he is to sail to-morrow.”

There was a sharp rap on the door, and Marion composed herself quickly and opened it.

The stout, coarse figure of the landlady completely blocked the doorway.

“Good-evening, Mrs. Garvin,” said the young girl, politely, then as she observed the woman’s expression she stood still and stared at her.

“You are a nice pair, I must say!” began the boarding-house keeper angrily. “To think of the likes of you comin’ into my house! You’ve got nerve and to spare, Miss Marion Marlowe!”

She glanced at the sisters as she spoke, but as neither of them answered she went on with her vituperations.

“Did you think because you gave your names as Miller that the truth wouldn’t leak out? Well, that shows how much you know, you little ninnies! Why, I’d have caught on myself if I ever read the papers! The description of you would have given me the tip at once if I’d happened to see it!”

“If you had read the papers you would have seen that we were not to blame for our misfortunes,” said Marion, coldly; “but you cannot blame us for not wishing to be known. We are only simple country girls, we do not wish to be stared at as curiosities.”

“Oh, I guess you ain’t so simple as you look,” sneered the woman. “Girls that run away from home with city chaps ain’t so very simple, or innocent either.”

“Hush!” cried Marion, sternly, “not another word, madam! You are talking about something which you do not understand! This is my room, and I insist upon being treated with courtesy.”

Marion’s cheeks glowed like fire as she glared back at the woman. For Dollie’s sake she would as readily have confronted the very demon of evil himself.

“And this is my house, and I want you to leave it!” was the woman’s prompt answer. “I’ll not harbor such creatures another night, if I know it!”

Marion took a step forward, her face becoming covered with a death-like pallor.

“Another word if you dare!” she said in a vibrating whisper.

The woman glanced sharply at the set lips and gleaming eyes, and seeing something in the young girl’s manner that thrilled her cowardly soul, she shrank back with a movement that took her over the threshold.

As quick as a flash Marion shut the door in her face.

“You shall get out to-night!” screamed the woman through the door.

Marion opened the door again and faced her sternly.

“I paid you eight dollars to-day for a week’s board in advance. We shall be ready to go when you have returned my money!”

“You’ll not get a cent!” roared the woman, furiously. “You shall go out penniless, you brazen hussies!”

Marion’s lips curved in a disdainful smile as she closed the door.

“You heard what I said, madam,” was her only answer.

CHAPTER II A Woman Reporter.

Five minutes later there was another tap on Marion’s door. She opened it at once without the slightest hesitation.

“Oh, it is you, Miss Allyn. Come in,” she said pleasantly. “We are just packing up, but, as you see, it will not take us long. Do sit down, and Dollie and I will be through in a minute.”

The young lady who had entered was a woman of striking appearance. She was about twenty-five, of medium height, but not at all handsome. The attractive feature about her was the shrewdness in her eyes, which were as keen as an eagle’s, and yet perfectly frank and fearless.

“I heard that old termagant talking to you just now,” she said, bluntly, “and I came to pat you on the shoulder, Miss Miller. Don’t you budge an inch until she gives you back your money.”

“I wouldn’t if it wasn’t for Dollie,” said Marion, sighing. “I can’t permit Dollie to be insulted, and if you overheard the conversation you know who we are, Miss Allyn.”

“I’ve known it ever since you came here,” said Miss Allyn, pleasantly, “and I’ve been hoping that she wouldn’t get on to it.”