The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1899-04-06

"Ste2 this way moment, Ii you
please, Miss Chadbourne.
Mr.. vanghn had opened the letter
book and was looking at ii with a puz-
zled air. He spoke quietly, but his
tone caused the young stenographer
to start from her chair and approach
him with trepidation.
s,;Wnat do You call that figure, a
three or iive?" he asked.
As she caught sight Of the blurred
cess copy Of the letter she had taken
,rom 9i.tation and sent to Marshall &
Hol.,s the evening before, she flushed
guilti!y and with premorition OF ap-
preaching trouble. Mr. Vaughn's lean
foreinger was porting to the fourth
item in a long column Of figures, quo
tatioas OF prices furnished to one OF
the firms best customers, and Mildred
Chadbourna suspected that the trans
action involyed was one Of unusual
importance.
To hide her confusion she bent low
over the page and anxiously scruti
n!ze;l the indistiact copy; but to do
her best she could not decide whether
atfourth item was thirteen OF fifteen.
Late on t'-e previous afternoon Mr.
Vaughn had dictated this letter to her,
slowly and with extraordinary pains,
charging her tous all possible care in
getting tho figures down correctly. He
had scanned to her quite unnecessarily
deliberate, for she was impatient to so
home that SIZE might finish gown
she was making, and she had planned
to leave few minutes before the Gus
tomary closing hour.
When the dictation was completed
be had rushed ofte-his train, although
first charging ner 10 wIlte, copy an.
post the letter that night without fail.
Inwardly rebel!ing, she had ratified the
important communication through the
writing machine at railway speed, and
then, as t.-e Office boy was invisible,
she had undertaken to copy it herself.
1t requires care to copy aletter as it
should be copiel. II the tissue leaf
upon which it is to be impressed be
not wet enough, the result will be a
faint copy; if too wet, blurred one,
and in that case the original sheet will
sometimes be so badly defaced by the
washing Of the ink as to be almost IL
legible.
Mildred had rushed the letter
through the copying press with quite
as much haste as she had put into the
fypewritiug Of it. She had passed a
dripping brush over the leaf and then
had neglected to absorb with a blot
ting pad the supe:huous moisture. In
consequence. the copy had turned out
a slorenly one, and the original had
been seriously defaceA.
She knew then as we'll as she knew
afterward that haste hal made waste,
sand that her plain duty would have
been to do the work over again from
beginning to end: but the letter was
long one, o'clock was drawing
near, and just then the completion OF
her new party gown was Of more I'M
:*portance to her than the business con-
Germs of Theophiius Vaughn & CO.
Moreover, if she were to send the
.Aetter off as it was, probably she never
would hear from it again; as for the
copy, that might be matter of little
importance. Not half the copies in
he letter book ever were referred to-.
They were put there because it was a
business custom to preserve them, but
they seldom proved to be of vital con-
sequsnce-that she had discovered in
:: her experience thus far.
So she had crowded. the ''wate:-
logged sheet hastily ont Of sight in
an envelope and sent it away. Now,
"a hours later, it had occurred to Mr..
Vaughn to glance over the copy, and
a time of reckoning Lad come.
sI can't make it out, sir, she said,
desperately, after keeping silence as
long as she darel. Il cant tell
whether it is FIVE or a three. I will
look at my notes and see what it
ought to be-
; 'tI know perfectly we'll what it
ought to be- he commented, dryly.
*It ought to be five. What I am
anxious to learn is what it is
':I have it five here, SIR" said the
girl, who had been consulting her
shorthand notes.
''Ihe point is, did you get it down
FIVE here?'' her employer returned.
Mildred's spirits sank, and she dared
not meet Mr. Vaughn's gaze, but stood
before him hot, silent and thoroughly
uncomfortable.
:'These quotations, he proceeded,
indicating the column Of figures, "were
furnished to Marshall & Hobbs at
their request to enable them to submit
bid for large contract-an unusual
ly large one, I infer-which they are
hoping to secure shortly. They asked
for bedrock figures, and I gave them
our very lowest. Now those castings
there, which I intended to quote at tif,
teen cents, they are going to want a
great many Of thousands, in fact-and
at fifteen cents we should make one
,, cent profit, while at thirteen we should
sn;r a corresponding 80 m
-