The Princeton union., 1900-02-22
III

d s5a4S
had not told an ,nblushing false
hood when l had said that ! knew a
man who made umbrellas. To be pre-
else, l knew a man who sold umbrellas,
Tor had bought umbrellas from him,
and for aught / knew he might make
them himself or at least have them
made for him. But it was too late to
hunt him up that night. l went home
hugging that precious umbrella, her
umbrella and her work, and laidit on the
table in my little room while thought
over the situation. Within the last six
hours the situation had altered with a
vengeance. Six hours before that 1
had been intent upon running down
| the person who had victimized the Ga
zette to the extent of $500. And now 1
was intent upon shielding that person,
or some one whom I supposed to be
that person, from the results of her
misdemeanOr.
At times l could not bring myself
to the Belief that she could be the guilty
one. Looking at that umbrella, her
umbrella, her school umbrella, L cudg-
eled my brains for explanations and eN-
cuses. They We're rather unsophisti-
Gated people, this father and daughter,
and perhaps they had done this
wrctched thing when hard pushed for
money, and without realization of it's
| Nervousness. Some excellent people,
women especially, saw nothing wrong
in cheating the government by smug-
| Cling in laces and glovcs-rather the
contrary; they boasted to their friends
of their success. Perhaps Miss Rob-
ertson saw nothing worse in getting
the best of newspaper. Such an
achievement gave evidence of moral
bluntness which I could not associate
with her; and yet-and yet-the evil
dence was certainly against her. But
was it? After ALL what did my precious
evidence amount to-? 1t was not
enough to convict u professional! thief,
to say nothing of this young girl. With
this comforting reflection | went to
bed, to dream that the heavens rained
fire and birthstone and that my only
defense against the downpour was that
umbrella-her umbrella.
AS it would be necessary to have some
sort Of story ready for Miss Robert
son when I met her at the library the
next morning, I left my boarding house
early and stopped at the shop of my
umbrella dealer. In a dozen words I
told him the story and showed him the
umbrella. lie smiled good naturedly.
1t doesn't seem {; bad idea to you,
Mr.. Seymour" said he, ''but to anyone
in the trade it's absurd, for number
of reasons. In the first place, you
never could make watertight joint
where that glass is fitted in; there
| would always be a leak there. If that
was not enough to damn it, people
would not carry such an umbrella, be-
| cause OF her people would look after
them and perhaps laugh; then the
glass would prevent the umbrella being
furled up into the tight thin roll that
fashion demands; finally. no one would
pay Il penny more for an umbrella with
an eyeglass in it than for one without.
If anyone wants to sell you the patent.
| avoid it as you would the plague. It's
Il capital idea-to let alone"
There was nothing more to be said,
| and L walked on to the library hugging
that umbrella. With all it's faults. it
| was still precious. At the doors met
Miss Robertson. who had evidently
been on the watch for me.
SWELL" she said. her eyes dancing
with eagerness, was your friend en-
thusiastic?' How could I dash her
hopes?
'He said it was capital idea," re-
piled. She saw that I was not full of
hope. But he suggested weak points,
/ went on. And gradually L told her
the whole story. She made brave
show about it, but her eyes were dim
with a suspicion of tears.
what does one mans verdict amount
to?'' L said, as cheerfully as 1 could.
'Probably this particular manufac-
turer is an IDIOT
"You said that he is an intimate
friend of yours, didn't you?" and there
| was a ghost of a smile.
"Of course" said, only too happy to
see the mist of tears disappear; ''but
he may be an idiot all the same
"Oh, I'm afraid not. You see, two
umbrella dealers to whom papa spoRc
said about the same thing, and declined
| to go into the matter even to the ex-
tent of making few such umbrellas.
| TO tell the truth, had no very great
| hopes, and it is better to know the facts
| Poor papa, must do a good days
| copying to console him; he was more
| sangune than |. Thank you all the
same, Mr.. Seymour. I'm sure you have
| done your best.''
With her sunniest smile she tripped
into the library, and was soon en-
crossed in her work. There was a boy
| from the Gazette office waiting for me
| with u note from my chief. Another
bother was in store for me. | was
| needed for Il hurried expedition to a po-
litical convention in Boston, and Bur
ton, the managing editor, wrote that
he had decided to put a professional
detective on the matter of "Daisy's
Quest and release me from the job
Would I be so good as to write out what