The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-06-11
THE ADVERTISERS
 DAILY SHORT STORY

Miss Bradley was still wrestling With | the problem, which baffled her the more | the more she tried to solve It, when one | day her father came nome to o'nnsr, n New York, passing through Chicago on | a mission to the Northwest. ,, --"I am hunting a needle in haystack. he announced. However. since l am maid for the job. 1 have no reason to complain In plain United States, am seeking the heir to an English paronetcy and an estate of 5000 pounds year. or thereabouts Sir Gilbert St. John and his two sons were drowned on their yacht in the Aegean Sea. some months ago. ana the next heir is the son of younger brother of Sir Gilbert. The young man came to Manitoba five years ago. cattle ranching. He isn't there now: failed in the three years drouth in the trans Mis-, sissippi. and disappeared However, mean to trace him. alive or dead. My
 only fear is that shall find too many or him."
 It took all the perfect self-control upon which Ethel Bradley prided herself. to keep her voice steady and indifferent as
 she asked. What is the young man
 Hugo Edmond St. John. advertised for him. of course, in The New York Herald
 knew why: but the next morning she rose
 early, went out before breakfast, bought
 a paper. and. marking the personal for
 Hugo Edmond St. John, mailed it to Ned
 Hughes
 It was no surprise to her when a day
 later Mir Bradley informed his family
 that the coachman was to leave on short
 notice. To her instructed sense 1t seem- ed, however, that he showed less regret at the loss than might have been ex- pected.
 Hughes has come into some property at home, and wants to go back to the old country. We shall never fill his place a hut of iS for him. I offered to lend him money for the journey, but he says he has all he needs I told him that l think he ought to go at once."
 For reasons of her own, which no one suspected. Miss Bradley took care to be out of the way when Hughes came in | to pay his respects to Mrs. Bradley be- fore leaving. She alone, of all the fam fly. had nothing to say about his depar- l ture. and she had surprising patience with his inefficient successors. But for weeks Miss Bradley was indifferent to most things. listless and restless by turns, and | nervous to a degree that worried her mother, who insisted that the season had | been too much for Ethel. and took her of to Florida. in spite of her protesta- | tions that the remedy was worse than the disease.
 Ethel Bradley scarcely knew whether | to be pleased or not, when her father | announced suddenly. that he would sail for Southampton the next week and | would take her with him. Miss Bradley s most intimate friend had married into | the British aristocracy. Ever since she | had been longing that Ethel would do likewise, and an urgent invitation to a visit to London in the season had re- gently arrived.
 As beauty and an heiress, Miss Brad ley's social success in London was a | foregone conclusion: invitations poured in upon her and she found herself at once | in the midst of things
 "Of course,' Lady Norman declared. | Harry and I could float anybody, but
 you.'' and she smiled spprovngly, you | could swim by yourself"
 ! It was at one of the first functions which Miss Bradley attended that her figure, familiar. in spite of the change | made by evening dress and a recently ac- quired mustache.
 l Miss Bradley. allow me to present Sir l Hugo St. John. Sir Hugo spent several years in America and has a great admi- | ration for your charming countrywomen" " | and Miss Bradley found herself looking
 once more into Ned Hughes clear gray l eyes.
 She kept her self-possession bravely
 and uttered the usual polite common | places - | Sir Hugo seemed scarcely to hear them | and the hostess had barely turned her
 back. when he interrupted.
 Miss Bradley. I had booked my pass.
 age to the States. when I learned that you and your father were here, which
 makes the voyage unnecessary''
 l It Is one of Mir. Bradley's favorite jokes
 that his fastidiouS daughter Ethel mar
 ried her fathers coacnman, but, sine,
 the joke is reserved for the bosom ot
 his family. Lady St. John resents 1t much
 less than her mother does.