Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1910-12-16


black velvet gown wearing a black
velvet picture hat and holding a long
stemmed rose in one hand.
Pauline looked at the picture with
rising indignation, for it was a half
tone reproduction of Fleming's por-
trait of herself. The original picture
hung in her fathers study downstairs.
There was a single line under the
picture which had evidently illustrated
some special article on Fleming, the
painter. 1t read, AN example of
Flemings delicate portraiture."
The next day Pauline caused to be
inserted in a morning paper brief
advertisement:
Found.-A pocketbool1. Owner may call
and prove property. No. Go w. - street.
A continuous line of people who had
lost pocketbooks of some description
kept the Cameron servants TO rigid at
tendance upon the door
Four o'clock came and not one ap-
plicant had aroused that assurance in
Paulines breast that here was the
man who had carried her picture with
i'll his pocketbook.
Again the bell rang. and the servant
ushered in tall slender man. immac-
ulately dressed. whose air was that of
Paulines own world
His quick glance swept boldly from
Paulines lovely dark face to the lux
uriously furnished room. in one corner
of which sat Pauline's maid. quietly
alert
You have found my pocketbook, I
believe" said the man pleasantly.
lawfully careless of me. you know.
to drop it Found 1t In Broadway.
supposeT
NO" said Pauline graciously. 81
didn't find it in Broadway. What col
or was the book you lost and what
was its sizeY'
Ozark green Russia-about eight
inches long"
What did it contain?" asked Pau
line
Money" hesitated the man-"sev-
eral hundred dollars and q few trim
kets."
I'm sorry, but your description
doesn't fit at ALL" said Pauline pleas
antly. and she wondered at the ugly
frown that crossed the mans brow.
1t was not so much a frow of disap-
pointment as an expression of bafiled
rage.
The callers came at long intervals.
and they were all men. Some were
young and others were old, and each
one offered a description that nearly
fitted the pocketbook she had found.
At last the callers dwindled down to
one last straggler. a most progresses
ing young man whose manners were
especially engaging.
I'm such a careless beggar," he ex-
planned to Pauline; I'm always los
ing something or other"
"Of course l must ask you to iden-
tify the pocketbook," hesitated Pau
line. Here, she felt. was the real
owner of the article.
1T was a dark Russia leather, al
most new, about ten inches long. 1t
contained between $500 and $500 in
bills-and something else. There was
no mark of Identification in the way
of letters or anything of that sort.
dropped 1t somewhere near the park
about the Sixties or Seventies-that is,
missed it shortly after passed West
Seventy-second street and went back
to search for il, but it could not be
found" He spoke rapidly and posi-
lively. and Pauline felt little thrill
that she had at last discovered the
real owner,
Nevertheless she was rather piqued
by the fact that although he might
have cared enough about her picture
to carry 1t within his pocketbook the
claimant did not seem to recognize by
any outward sign that the original of
the picture sat before him. Conse-
quently she pressed the point to her
own chagrin.