Bridgeton pioneer., 1908-01-02
My Ancestor.
[Original.l

the men Wallets. Miss Rosamond En-.
mingway and | were very schummy
Indeed, there was but one thing to
prevent our being engaged, and that
was that one of my ancestors in
colonial times had turned highwayman.
whereas no stain whatever rested On
the Emmingway escutcheon. con.
sidered it very hard that l should
have tosgive up my love for the sins
Of one who had preceded me by four
generations.
Miss Emmingway's father was an
old man in his dotage, who was never
permitted to go out except attended by
his valet. One evening when was call.
Ing on his daughter my wallet, which
at the time happened to be well sup.
piled with bills, slipped from my pock,
ct. l didn't miss 1t till after l had
left the house and returned for it. 1t
was not to be found. A few DAYS
later Mr. Emmingway's valet came to
see me with the pocketbook, informing
me that he had found it in his mas
ter's possession. l asked him If he
had Informed Miss Emmingway of the
facts, sand he said that he had; that
the lady was overcome with mortifca.
don. l gave the valet $40 for his hon.
esty and his trouble and charged him
to keep the secret. g.,
Soon after this l received summons
to go to Miss Emmingway immedi \
ately. On reaching the house found
f,, 4 Loi
stolen away alone, and when he re-
turned his valet had found his pockets
full of jewelry. My good offices being
asked, l examined the articles, de-
termined the store they had been taken
from, went there. told the head Of the
firm that the old man was in his
dotage and returned the articles. For
this received Miss Emmingway's
hearty thanks.
The old man came to be known
at certain stores as a kleptomaniac.
When he was caught stealing things
bills were sent to his house, which his
daughter Immediately paid. The valet
had orders when stolen articles were
found in his pocket to return them i'm
mediately. But great many articles
were paid for that were not found.
| Soon after the discovery of the old
mans failing l renewed my suit to
Miss Emmingway, to be again put off
on account of my rascally ancestor.
| IF you love me,' l said, 'that should
make no difference. My ancestor
| very remote-had weakness for other
~, t1,sy L, I. i IT.
! ness to take them at the point Of
| pistol"
| "While my father is only sneak
thief" she added dejectedly.
| "Not at all. Your father has simply
arrived at an age where he is breaking
up. 1 alone know of his weakness,
| except his valet, and so long as you
| keep the valet well fed he will keep
| the secret. l, of course, would rather
| die than have you suffer from the mat
ter getting out among your friends"
"You are noble, good man."
When woman uses such language
| to a man it is an indication of yield
| ing. / knew myself to be very COM
| monplace person, but had the sense
to press my suit and won.
"We both suffer from like causes"
she said. 1--WE must comfort each
| other"
| | kissed her dozen times and Sc
cretly hoped the old man would con-
tinue his depredations till after our
marriage. Indeed, l hurried up the
wedding, fearing that he might sud
denly recover his honesty or his brain
vigor, didn't much care which.
| Not long after the wedding l was in
a store and saw Mr.. Emmingway saun-
tering through the aisles, occasionally
deftly snatching some article from the
| counters. AT first / thought he was not
observed, but L soon saw a man fol-
lowing him, and every time the old
man took anything the follower made
a note of it. Mr.. Emmingway left the
store, and followed him. To my sur
prise, he was joined outside by his
valet. And what astonished me more
was that instead of taking his masters
arm to support him, as he invariably
did when they left the house together,
the two started briskly off, as If they
were chums. l followed them to a
dingy building they entered. hurried
after them and caught them just be-
fore they were going into back room.
l entered with them and closed the
door behind me.
Your games up," said.
The valet became deadly pale. The
other turned, and saw at glance
that he was not Mr.. Emmingway. Both
expected that would have them ar
rested at once. but had no such inten-
tion. l directed the valet to return the
articles just stolen and to resign his
position, charging him if he valued his
liberty to keep the secret He did both.
and Mr.. Emmingway's pilfering ceas-
ed at once. Indeed, he had never stolen
anything, though his personator had
reaped rich harvest.
Having just been married, did not
dare to let my wife know that she had
accepted me under wrong impress
| sion r Cro fbnrod o0rAJo,no 11xz-