The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1912-05-09

Prince, Tor the sake OF romance, pTOIn-
Use that you will not hold 1t as keep
sake, but return it to your poor little
and woefully distressed Cinderella"
Young Van Braun hesitated just a
breath before he made reply. 1t
seemed quite evident to him that the
speaker was some one he knew; and
yet, so far as his recollection went, the
voice was totally strange.
you will have to prove your prop
erty, you know" he told her, with
teasing chuckle. at is a very tiny,
fairylike slipper; and to be quite exact,
prosaic mortal that I am. may tell
you at once that 1t is neither crystal
nor glass"
Lightly, her laughter flowed over the
prosaically utilitarian wire. "Oh, you
goosey gapder," she chirruped. Don't
you know anything about fairies at
all? 1t was crystal when It left my
foot; but 1t might have been any one
of a hundred things when 1t reached
you. Fairies simply love to practise
transmutation."
"Oh, / see." he returned, as If thor
oughly convinced. And can they
change the size, too, just as readily,
these twentieth century fairies? Glass
slippers always stayed glass slippers
when l was boy. And their size
never varied"
'Your ideas were CLEANED from the
story books" she told him, with an eff
fort at gravity; "and the fairy story
writer's misrepresented the little pixy
people terribly. There's really no limit
to the fairies power"
"You alarm me-" he cried. Am I
liable, then, to get into trouble over
this little matter? Would the fairies
approve of my giving the slipper back
to your"
ooh, am sure they would. Other
wise my fairy godmother wouldn't
have given me your name and ad-
dress"
"And did she do that?'
ITO be sure. How else do you sup
pose l should ever have learned who
had the slipper?"
II never thought of that" he fooled
will you come here after it? Or do
you wish me to bring 1t to your"
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 dear" was her apprecia-
tive rejoinder "And the timer
"Will two o'clock be agreeable?"
at will be delightful"
"And how shall I recognize your"
he asked. "Will you wear blue rose
in your hat, or" But only 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 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 off.
The incident annoyed him more than
It perplexed him. 1t was all very mys-
terieus, to be sure; but he felt that, in
spite of the woman's 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
a loss to conceive her identity. More
over, the whole conversation, pitched
as it had been, in the key Of the fanci-
full, rang false, and, 1t seemed to him,
sinister.
He took up the slipper again, and
y.
life Of him, he could not have explained
the feeling that swept over him. He
only knew that, for some strange rea-
son, the voice and the slipper did not
fit.
In his eagerness to delve to the core
of the mystifying problem-to test it,
bitter or sweet-Gramercy Van Braun,
slim, sinewy, rarely regular and pleas.
- q u
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
overlooking, and every chair in the ad
jacent passages occupied by more OF
less impatiently waiting luncher, he
now congratulated himself.
Since his role was to be that Of the
discovered rather than OF the discover
er, 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, IL not wholly at
tractive, Cinderella. And, as IL mag
netized for his eyes attraction, small
advertisement, under the Lost anC
Found" heading, sprang out before thu
Haunting news headlines. and grappleC
his attention What he read was this
LOST-Last night, somewhere
between Sherry's and the Ritz
Carlton, a white satin slipper,
northumberland. Finder return
ing same to other than X Y 2, Ho-
tel Plaza. will be prosecuted.
Van Braun read it through twice
and then. lowering the paper to his lap
sat thoughtfully staring at nothing
while the mystery deepened. How wa
1t possible. he asked himself, to recon
: Gle Cinderella's plea and this some
what cryptic warning of * r.
Could they, by any possibility. be on
and same? Or was 1t 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 mucl
| covetous regard?
He was still immersed in the grow
: ing intricacies of the problem, when
) hand laid lightly on his arm arreste'