Arizona republican., 1912-03-06
The Vaurigard
 Diamond
 BY HORACE HAZELTlNE.
(Copyright, 1910, by the Pearson
 Publishing Co.)

this little matter? Would the fairies approve of my giving the slipper back to you?"
 'Oh, I am sure they would. Other wise my fairy godmother wouldn' have given me your name and ad- dress"
 And did she do that?"
 "To be sure How else do you SUD- pose I should ever have learned who had the slipper"
 "I never thought of that" he fooled. Will you come here after it? Or do you wish me to bring it to you?"
 Probably we had better meet each other half way" she suggested.
 Capital, You shall lunch with me tomorrow, at the Plaza, and I'll hand you the slipper between courses"
 You're a dear" was her apprecia- tive rejoinder. And the time?"
 Will two o'clock be agreeable?"
 Tt will be delightful
 And how shall I recognize you?'' he asked. Will you wear blue rose in your hat, or" But only a deafen- ing buzzing answered him. He waited moment. hoping it would cease; and then he called: "Hello," and repeated it. He repeated it again and again and again, and played a lively tattoo with the hook of the instrument; but the only answer was from the clerk in the office, downstairs, who said that his party" had rung of
 The incident annoyed him more than it perplexed him. It was all very mys- terious, to be sure: but be felt that. in spite of the womanS seeming gayety, the adventure held an element of the unpleasant Throughout it all, he had been at disadvantage Clearly enough, she knew him: but he was utterly at loss to conceive her identity. More over. the whole conversation. pitched as it had been. in the key of the fanci- ful. rang false, and, it seemed to him, sinister
 He took up the slipper again. and held it. almost caressingly. For the life of him, he could not have explained the feeling that swept over him. He only knew that. for some strange req son, the voice and the slipper did not fit.
 WI of the mystifying problem-to test it, bitter or sweet-Gramercy Van Braun, slim. sinewy. rarely regular and pleas ing of feature, and inconspicuously well dressed, anticipated his appoint ment by all of fifteen minutes. He had. however, taken the precaution Of securing a table by telephone; for which, discovering the restaurants overflowing, and every chair in the ad jacent passages occupied by more oi less impatiently waiting luncher, he now congratulated himself.
 Since his role was to be that Of the discovered rather than of the discover CT, he bought an early edition of one of the evening papers. at the newsstand, and then flung himself down on one of the most conspicuously placed of the upholstered benches, to await the com ing of the puZzling, if not wholly at tractive. Cinderella. And, as if mag netized for his eyes attraction, small advertisement, under the Lost and Found" heading. sprang out before the Haunting news headlines, and grappled his attention What he read was this:
 LOST.-Last night, somewhere between Sherry's and the Ritz Carlton, a white satin slipper, pearl-embroidered Finder return-s ing same to other than x Y 7, Ho- tel Plaza, will be prosecuted. Van Braun read it through twice and then lowering the paper to his lar sat. thoughtfully staring at nothing while the mystery deepened. How wa; if possible. he asked himself, to recon cile Cinderella's plea and this some | what cryptic warning of "X Y Z"' Could they. by any possibility, be one and same? Or was it that each wa: endeavoring to secure possession o that which belonged only to one? And in either event, what was there abou a slipper. extraordinary in neither ma terial nor making, to excite so mucf covetous regard?
 He was still immersed in the grow 1 ing intricacies of the problem, when hand laid lightly on his arm arrested him: and he turned abruptly to see sitting on the bench beside him, : fairly handsome, dark, and rathe | smartIy dressed young woman, wh' greeted him with smiling recognition
 You'll excuse me, won't you. MT | Van Braun?" she took for granted "Don't you remember me? I really be l lieve you don't. I'm Miss William | of"
 But Van Braun had by this recovere' himself. and he hastened to interrup her. with: "Of course I remember you l You're the young lady from one or tn newspapers, that I used to meet at m
 friends weddings, when l played tn l part of usher. And I used to see yo
 at the Opera. too; and at the Hors
 Show. and at dances; and you wer | always asking me questions that, na they been asked by anyone else, woul have seemed rudely impertinent.
 The girl laughed at this, and tn
 young mans interest suddenly quick
 ened.
 Il And you always answered my que'
 tions very fully and enlighteningly,
 she told him. Yes" he said. with a smile: "ye not always truthfully, I fear. sine sometimes I didn't know, and at othe times I doubted your right to ask, c mine to tell" She laughed again, and he smile with self-satisfaction.
 'I'm going to ask you a questio now" she announced. "If it weren't that you are so muc