Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1901-08-07

known and received with great servil-
ity, and when tray of jewelry was
placed before her felt sure that the
next half hour would clear her of all
| suspicion or complicate the case still
further. Her manner was that Of lofty
condescension. She slowly and Ian
guidly inspected the jewels, and now
ana then the proprietor of the store,
VINO was waiting upon her in person,
mad his attention attracted for the mo-
ment elsewhere. My lady finally de-
clded to call again and was bowed out,
ana she was hardly clear of the door
when | revealed my identity to the
1eweler and asked him to be sure that
there was nothing missing from the
tray. He was at first inclined to adj
minister a snub, but when he found
the finest ring of the lot conspicuously
absent he almost fell over in a faint.
There was no room to doubt that the
lady had lifted" it, but that only made
the case worse In way. For trades
man and detective to charge a lady
OF quality with shoplifting was as bad
as treason against the crown. A mere
word would bring financial ruin upon
the jeweler, and he was ready to stand
the loss ten times over rather than
speak it,
Twice more within the next fort
night followed the lady into jewelry
establishments and morally convicted
her of shoplifting. This made six cases
In all, and. no matter how the victims
felt, we of the Yard were quite deter
mined that something ought to be done.
! had been on the staff for ten years,
and my work had given good satisfac-
ton, but i was selected as a sacrifice.
l mean by that that was ordered to
secure an interview with the lady, in
form her of my discoveries and take
the consequences. l must take all the
burden on myself and clear the Yard.
There could be but one ending, and
before making my call my resignation
was written out, and l had arranged
to go with a private agency. One
morning | appeared at the residence of
the marquis and boldly asked for my
lady on important business. / was
kept waiting until she was satisfied
that was neither process server nor
a creditor and was then admitted to
the presence Of very slipshod looking
who showed me scant courtesy
when she said:
well. sir. you are here, and now
what is it?'
'It's about the jewelry, my lady," I
replied.
"What do you mean?'
"The finger rings from Blacks, the
sunburst from Browns, the earrings
from Green's. You carried them away
and forgot to return them"
My lady's face went white as snow,
and she gasped for breath, and l ex-
pected to see her faint away. BY a |
tremendous effort she pulled herself to. |
gether. and as the color came back to |
her cheeks she Kissed at me:
you dog, you! The marquis shall |
see that you get your just deserts! |
Leave the house at once!'
left, and within an hour the mar
luis was at-thc- Yard TO say -that~he
would uproot the Whole system r. TT
was not promptly bounced and an apol-
)gy rendered. The Yard apologized,
was bounced. and my lady had story
for her friends about attempted black
mail. There were no more thefts, how
ever. and as private detective even
recovered some of the stuff from the
shops where my lady's maid had pledg-
ed them to raise cash for her mistress.