The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1892-10-15
AN UNEXPECTED COPY.
Why a Queer Looking Paper Was
so Valuable.

81 have often told you," said James
Mayfield to me the evening before my
marriage with his daughter Kate, that
i owed my property-or, more accu-
rately, my escape from destruction-to
an accident, chance, miracle. Stand
up and look at that piece of paper let
into the ovcr-manteL Have you ever
observed it before?'
YES" said, rising and examining a
faded document under glass panel in
the oak. 81 have now and then
noticed it, but have never been able to
make out what it is.
What do you take it for?'
'Well, it looks like half sheet of
business note paper covered with indis-
tinct figures that do not seem ordinary"
"Yes," he said, gazing with half
closed eyes at the paper through the
smoke of his cigar. They are not or
binary, nor is their history"
ut is not possible to make them out,
they are SO blurred and faint. Are they
very old?"
Twenty years They are much faded
since first saw them" said he, cross
know the history of that half sheet of
business paper, and what it has to do
with me and your Kate's mother. Sit
down and will tell it to YOU"
dropped back into my chair.
''Our Kate is nearly nineteen, as no
doubt you are aware. 1t is the night
before your marriage. You, thank
heaven! run no such risk as ran the
night before my marriage. There is no
date on that blurred copy of figures, but
If there were you would find it origi-
mated on the night before was to be
married, twenty years ago. You are
short of thirty now; l was short of
thirty then. You are now in what
should then have considered aff1uent
circumstances. l am going to give you
tomorrow our only child and fourth
share in the business of Strangway,
Mayfie'd 4 Co., of which | am the sole
surviving partner, AID that fourth
share ought to bring you a thousand to
twelve hundred year. The night that
document over the mantel came into
existence l was accountant to Strang-
way & Co., at a salary of one hundred
and fifty pounds per annum."
My father-in-iaw paused and knocked
the ashes off his cigar.
IAN that timc," he went on, resum-
ing his story, 1.-The business of Strang-
way & Co. was in Broad street. We
had warehouses on the ground floor and
in the cellars, the Offices were on the
first floor and warehouses filled from
over the first floor to the states.
1.-The offices closed at six, but as
was anxious to put up everything in
the finest order before starting on my
honeymoon, was not able to leave at
that hour. In addition to the book.
keeping I did most of the routine cor
respondence, and had some letters to
write. When they were finished 1
should lock up the place, put the keys
in my pocket leave them at Mr. Strang-
ways house on Chaplain common, and
go on to my lodgings in Wandsworth,
and from my lodgings to my sweetheart
Mary's home In Wandsworth, too.
LAS l was working away, writing
letters at the top of my speed, and quite
alone in the office-in the whole house
Stephen Grainly, one of our travellers,
rang the bell, and, much to my sur
prise and annoyance, when l opened
the front door walked upstairs. follow
ing my lead through the unlighted
passages. | never cared for Stephen
Grainly; no one in the Office liked him
except Mr.. Strangway himself. Grain
ly was an excellent man at his work,
but, to my taste, too smooth and good
- too sweet to be sound.
"'What, Mayfield. he cried, work.
ing away still! Why, when / saw the
light made sure it must be Broadwood
four assistant accountant, who was 70
take my place when ] was away, and
~ I'D . g0edisa bit Of money