Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1912-07-18
By GERALD DAVIS

EACellSut lGii0W Nv utei1t, buOuSA He
was only understood By his intimate
friends. No one ever thought of Rog-
ers as a husband or father. AS to
living with man. woman or child or
having his affairs mixed with those of
any one else than himself, the idea was
preposterous He was very fond OF
womep's society and was popular with
them, but always In a general, never in
a particular, way He had reached the
age Of fifty without any entanglements,
but was not disposed to consider him
self "out Of the woods" so long as he
lived. Ills one aim was to so conduct
himself THAI no woman could get an
advantage of him, for. though he ad-
rnlred the sex. he held the theory that
no man could stand against any one of
them either In duplicity or to prevent
the accomplishment of any purpose on
which she might have set her mind
Rogers was very fond OF plag-that
is, among gentlemen. He never played
at gambling house Indeed, he once
spent week at Monte Carlo without
investing a franc Il never play to
make money" he said. Il play only
a gentleman's game for the purpose Of
passing the time
Rogers went TO Paris and was intro
duced at an aristocratic club there.
One night at a social game he won
from young man named Rutan some
ten or twelve thousand francs. The
amount expressed In the French coin
age sounds large but it was little
over $1,000 Rutan was understood to
be well off and did not seem to take his
loss to heart, and, as for Rogers, there
was nothing unusual IN his winning or
losing such an amount at any time.
The settlement was made by Rutan's
paying Rogers his winnings in new
crisp bills of 1900 francs denomina-
ton
The next morning Rogers was sit
ting in the reading room of his hotel
scanning a newspaper when waiter
announced to him that a lady desired
to see him in a reception parlor
"a lady to see mel" exclaimed the
colonel Are you sure you have come
to the right MANI"
sShe wishes to see Colonel Rogers Of
Virginia.
Being the only and original Rogers
of Virginia, the colonel raised himself
from his comfortable leather covered
chair and followed the servant to the
lady He found very attractive look
ing person about thirty years old, but
with a worried expression on her face.
Colonel Rogers | believe" she be-
gan in tolerabIe English
Eat your service, madame"
'You won last night from my hus-
band 1900 francs?"
q believe | did, madame, win some
money from Mr.. Rutan."
Would you mind taking from me in
place of the notes he gave you other
notes to similar amount?"
II would gladly do anything to oblige
you, madame, but l would like to be
enlightened as to the reason for the
change"
"And / would not think of permit
ting you to do me a favor without CIV
ing you some mixing as to the cause.
I have always heard that the chiyalry
of Americans toward our sex comes
largely from you southerners. Every
one knows what may be expected from
Colonel Rogers of Virginia
The colonel bowed
II will trust you with the secret on
that account. I know it will remain
with you My husbands father Is
wealthy, and my husband has nothing.
l have, fortunately, some money of my
own. My husband is an inveterate
gambler He has lost all the money
his father has given him and broken
every promise to reform Yesterday,
on mis- promise not to gamble, Mr..
Rutan, Sr., gave him $4,000 francs,
marked some Of the bills and set a
detective to watch his son. discover
ed through an accident that the bills
were marked, and my husband told me
that he had lost them to you desire
to save him from a break with his
father which, If it occurs, will never
be healed. By replacing these notes
he has given you with others | can
avert this calamity"
There was nothing for the colonel to
do but make the exchange Indeed, he
was glad enough to do SO, for he was
terror stricken lest he be connected
with family scandal Taking the
notes from his pockctbook, he counted
1900 francs and handed them to the
lady, receiving in return those she took
from her own portemonnaie. Then, 4
with profusion of thanks, she left
him
The next day a gendarme called at
the hotel, and the colonel was charged
with passing counterfeit money. Every
note the lady had given him was spuli-
Gus
To Colonel Rogers his loss was moth
ing. nor was the position In which he
was placed especially appalling, for he
was above suspicion 1t was the fact
that after all his fears and all his eau
ton he had been made the dupe of
woman. From that time forward he