The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-06
A BUSINESS TRANSACTION.
BY BELLE MANIArEs.

Every seat in the car was taken whsI a young woman got on at Forty-nintf Street. She did not eye the passenger' with the demanding glare that often Il g, effective in bringing returns. bul quietly, and as . matter of course, at tached herself to the strap nearest thu back platform. In an instant Gregory a. the farther end of the car, arose and lifting his hat. motioned to the young woman to be seated.
 She thanked him gFaciously and occu. pied the place he had vacated Gregory continually cast eurreptitious giancef iL her direction. for she was most fall to look upon, with a refined, prepossess' taste though not richly.
 The conductor came forward to col. feet fares and she removed her gloves
 to search for the correct change. Greg ory noted apprecistiveIy the. shapely hands and the diamond solitaire that cleaned on the third finger.
 He was so absorbed in his admiration
 of her that he forgot to have his owr
 fare in readiness when the conductor
 came to him, and he fumbled in his pock.
 cts in vain for small change. He took out a long pocketbook which was vel fllled and selected one dollar bill from others of various denominations. Hay. ing dropped his s5 cents in change into
 his pocket, he folded up the pocketbooi and was about to restore 1t to its usual place when the young woman to whom he had given his seat dropped her purse Quickly thrusting his pocketbook into the right hand outer pocket of his over ccat. he picked up her purse and handed 1t to her, receiving a courteous "Thanh fen a y1f sweet.
 Inss then the person sitting beside hei ieft the car and Gregory instantly appro- prieted the vacant seat. He was mol susceptible and not in the common ac' ouaantance of the term a ladies' man. but he was attracted by the personnel of this young woman and possessed of a desirs to know her He instinctiveiy felt tha' he could not win her acquaintance by any other route than the conventional strasghtforward introductory one. Hs wished he had not obeyed his first i'm pulse in taking the seat beside her, fol in his former position. he had the ad' vantage of being permitted to look d
 her. which he of course could not do nov without being guilty of staring. H' opened newspaper. and while appar entiy scanning the headlines. he wal
 
 her. They were in the suburbs now. ant nearly. all the passengers had alighted.
 Presently the young woman besid' h;nr arose and walked quickly to thu rear, and before he realized the fact she had stepped from the car. and h' was being wf1irled onward with the oft experienced sensation of face lost il the crowd. When he came to his stree and was walking the block that inter vened between the avenue and his apart
 ments. he remember, the depositing 0
 his pocketbook in, his overcoat pocket
 He mechanically felt for 1t, but foun'
 the pocket empty.
 He started, felt again, turned to go { the street car barns, short distanc away, and then reflected. He had take the seat beside the young woman al rectly after he had placed 1t in hi pocket--the one next to her. No on had occupied the seat after she lert tn car and when he got oh, there was one on board save the conductor who ha not been near him. Ali things pointed d rectly in the line of circumstantiai ev dcnce to her as the thief. But no! Fl wculd never believe so impossible fac Again he thrust his hand into his pockt l in the vain hope of finding it, He CT | courtered a small ohiect down in on corner and drew forth a diamond rint | the diamond ring he had noticed on ne finger. He recalled now that she ha l not put on her gloves again after payin ! her fare. More bieter to him than the loss of hi money was the convincing proof Of nc theft. He was man of comfortable IT come and he would not suffer any de priyation from the abstraction or nj pocketbook, which contained s2oo that ha been paid to him that afternoon aftt banking hours. The ring was prooaol | worth sso. It was not very. larg' though a very good stone as his eritief ave decided. He resolved to take n steps, to recover his property. ahhoug hs would like the papers and data in tn pocketbook. He shrank from having
 known that he had been the victim
 a woman in broad daylight Still mor | did he shrink from seeing her accused Uch an act. He decided to keep tn ring as A warning not to be sehoo
 boy and go daffy over a passing fac
 again. u..,. ., tices sisned 'Z,' notifying the perso | who took. the pocketbook that the rin could be had in exchange for same.
 TWO days later he received a packas | with, first-class postage on, but not reg istered. Opening 1t. he found the poch et-book with contents intact-save un money. His card with address had CT abled the sender to return
 "sha is considerate anyway. n thought. with a suspicion of gratitud' Often as the days went by ne spect |