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Updated: June 23, 2025
"Madge," suggested Phil quietly, "don't be so frightened about Tania. I have an idea the child has walked off the houseboat in her sleep. She must have done so, for the dining room door is unlocked from the inside. Our door on to the deck was not locked, but Tania's was, because Miss Jenny Ann recalls having locked it herself.
She slipped on her wrapper and went into the kitchen to start the fire. A few moments later she went into the dining room to call Tania and to help the child to dress. But the dining room door on to the cabin deck was open. Tania's bedclothes were in a heap on the floor. The child had disappeared. Miss Jenny Ann was not in the least uneasy or annoyed.
He will just think every single thing we do is perfectly dreadful, and will frighten Tania to death with his preaching. I know he thinks her fairy stories are lies. He told Mrs. Curtis that Tania never spoke the truth." Madge lowered her voice. "I am sure we have never caught her in a lie. I suppose this Philip will think my exaggerations are as bad as Tania's fairy stories.
Philip Holt assured me that the child was continually in mischief in the tenement neighborhood where she lives. When he took her into the neighborhood house to try to help her she positively stole something. I am afraid Tania's mother was not the woman you think she was; she was only a cheap little actress, a dancer." Mrs. Curtis glanced at her companion. Madge was eyeing her seriously.
How different Tania's audience to-day from the crowd of people that had watched her on the street corner when Eleanor and Madge had first seen her! Yet these gay society folk were even more fascinated by the child's wonderful art. They could better appreciate her remarkable dancing. Tania did not even see her beloved Madge, who was silently watching her.
She might have been able to explain to her friends that Tania was only a street child and knew no better than to dance for money; but how could she ever explain the remark to Madge? It looked as though Madge had been a party to Tania's dancing and begging. Madge was overcome with embarrassment and humiliation.
I know how to do but one thing to dance as my mother taught me. How can it be wrong to take the money from people? I have often done it in New York. They only gave it to me because they liked my dancing." Madge could feel Tania's hot tears on her hands. She clasped Tania closer. "It isn't exactly wrong, Tania; I was mistaken. It was just different. I will have to explain it to you afterward.
For the first time she now realized that her captor was her childhood's enemy and evil genius, Philip Holt. "Oh!" she exclaimed, with a long-drawn sigh that was almost a sob, "it is you! Why have you brought me here? What have I done?" Then a look of unearthly wisdom came into Tania's solemn, black eyes.
Tania's eyes shone as she felt the size and weight of a big silver dollar. Few people in the Cape May crowd knew who Tania was, or whence she had come. They probably thought that the object of the dance had been to earn money. For a few moments Madge had been paralyzed by Tania's peculiar actions. She did not realize what they meant. In this lapse of time the rest of their party joined them.
Once on the ground, Tania ran on and on, without thinking where she was going. She only wished to get far away from the dreary house where Philip Holt had hidden her. There was a thick woods about a mile or so from Tania's starting place. No one would find her there. Once she was through it Tania hoped to find a town, or at least a farm, where she could ask for help.
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