Middletown transcript., 1914-06-20
.EGBERT
(coPTRIoHT 1919
G.CHAPMAN)
o.IRWIN MYERS

/ first marriage, and when father was
hardly more than a boy, he quarreled
with grandfather, who turned him out.
Father came to Canada to make his
fortune, drifted to the coast, and final
ly married an American girl in San
Francisco. was born there, my moth
er dying when / was only a baby, and
my father when l was seventeen. Aft
er that came to Winnipeg and taught
for a living. OF course, things were
hard sometimes, but father had a
worse time than /, and for his sake 1
never could forgive grandfather for
turning him out Of doors.
Some day, Anne" my father used
to say laughingly, you'll go back to
France and be adopted and become
heiress Of Clichy."
II guess the rest of them won't
leave much for me to be .heiress of, !" l
answered usually, and the subject
dropped. Save for fluent knowledge
of French I had nothing about me to
betray the fact Of my foreign extrac-
ton, and l never wished to meet any
of my fathers relatiVes-never! Some
times my father would speak about
the property in the strong box. 1t was
all in bonds-worthless ones, too
which had been left my father by his
mother, whose dowry had been invest
ed in the old Panama canal, that glori-
GUS enterprise that went down to ruin
twenty odd years ago, carrying with 1t
thousands of prosperous families in a
general wreck. My grandmother had
always had a pathetic belief that some
day the bonds would be worth some
thing. She left them to my father,
placing them in the strong box which
she held in the vaults of Magniff &
Co., bankers, of Paris and London.
When she was dying she sent him the
key.
'WeIl, Anne, they won't do any harm
where they are" my father would say.
Some day, when we're all rich, well
go to Paris and take them out and sell
them for old paper"
So now think l have explained how
I came to sail for England on the
tulI VI May VIII ANO P4OS anu
one $50 bill in my purse and the key
to the ancestral strong box. Mary
wanted me to sew by bills into the
lining of my dress. But 1 felt safer
with the money in my purse, for, as
told her, I'd either have to wear the
same dress all the time or keep run
ming into my room to see whether it
had been ripped open or not. If l had
taken her advice should never have
had my adventure with the Man in the
Buff Boots-but that comes later.
Mary, Of course, was at the train in
who else should be there but that
odious Mr.. Spratt, who had once been
enamored of me, half hidden behind an
enormous bouquet. I've heard that
his boys call him THE Sprat," which
isn't a nice name to give a professor
of civic and international law. He
pressed the bouquet into one of my
hands and then put something else in
to the other in a mysterious and por-
tentous manner.
my volume Of the Code Napoleon,
Miss Ives" he said, whispering eau
tiously. "The only complete English
commentary on modern French law.
I've written your name on the fiy-leaf.
Don't lose it; you'll need it when you
get to Paris!"
could not but feel affected by the
little mans kindness in presenting me
| -sk r,F inc
1 introduced him to Mary, and we
three chatted for few moments until
the conductor called "All aboard" 1
stayed a day or two in Montreal, sight
seeing, and finally, owing to a last min
ute excursion to Mount Royal, nearly
missed the steamer. But just as the
whistles blew, plunged hastily up the
gangway, colliding at the top with a
couple of foreign-looking men who
stared at me for several minutes, ap-
parently deeply interested.
l am usually quick to form my
judgments of people. I did not like
either of these fellow-passengers at all
In very short time had discovered
that they were master and servant, or
stood in some such relation. The one
bore the hall-marks of wealth without
refinement; the other was a coarse
and Misunderstanding Greek or Arme-
nian, as judged. l was relieved when
l saw him betake himself to the steer
age. But Judge my disgust when
discovered that had been seated next
to his master at the dinner tablet
He did not lose any time striking
up an acquaintance with me. May l
pass you the mustard, Miss Howard?"
were his first words. He had evident
ly been looking me up and made mis-
take In the name. I was about to dis
illusion him when his next words
checked the words on my lips.
"Allow me to introduce myself, since
we are to see so much Of each other
during our voyage" he continued, with
an odious smirk. my name is Mag
niff-Leopold Magnifc-a name toler-
ably well known in Paris and else
where"
"The-the banker?" I managed to
gasp.
The son Of the banker" he correct
ed, much gratifed at my ready recog-
milton. ''The old boys my father. We
now control the second largest combi-
nation of capital in France. and the
will recall how in former days they
gave comparatively little thought to
this idea There was little effort to