Sit down and be sociable, and tell me all about it.

How came you to let the little one go on the stage first ?" Miriam spurned away the proffered chair.
"I spurn it as I would your dead body if it lay before me, Carl Walraven! Sit down with you?
Never, if my life depended on it! The child became an actress because I could keep her no longer--I couldn't keep myself--and because she had the voice and face of an angel--poor little wretch! The manager of a band of strolling players, passing through our village, heard her baby voice singing some baby song, and pounced upon her on the instant.

We struck a bargain, and I sold her, Mr.
Walraven--yes, sold her." "You wretch! Well ?" "Well, I went to see her occasionally afterward, but not often, for the strolling troupe were here, there, and everywhere--from pillar to post.
But I never lost sight of her, and I saw her grow up a pretty, slender, bright-eyed lass, well dressed, well fed, and happy--perfectly happy in her wandering life.

Her great-grandmother--old Peter Dane's wife--was a gypsy, Mr.Walraven, and I dare say the wild blood broke out.

She liked the life, and became the star of the little band--the queen of the troupe.