h a
chuckle. "And now clear out. I'll see you at dinner."

Dick bestowed the money in his pocket, and again turned toward the door.

"You can always get rid of me on the same terms," he remarked slyly. And
then the young man gave evidence that he, too, had some of his father's
ability in things financial. For, in the doorway he turned with a final
speech, which was uttered in splendid disregard for the packet of money
he had just received--perhaps, rather, in a splendid regard for it. "Oh,
Dad, please don't forget to give Sadie that five dollars I borrowed from
her for the taxi'." And with that impertinent reminder he was gone.

The owner of the store returned to his labors with a new zest, for the
meeting with his son had put him in high spirits. Perhaps it might have
been better for Mary Turner had she come to him just then, while he
was yet in this softened mood. But fate had ordained that other events
should restore him to his usual harder self before their interview. The
effect was, indeed, presently accomplished by the advent of Smithson
into the office. He entered with an expression of discomfiture on his
rather vacuous countenance. He walked almost nimbly to the desk and
spoke with evident distress, as his employer looked up interrogatively.

"McCracken has detained--er--a--lady, sir," he said, feebly. "She has
been searched, and we have found about a hundred dollars worth of laces
on her."

"Well?" Gilder demanded, impatiently. Such affairs were too common in
the store to make necessary this intrusion of the matter on him. "Why
did you come to me about it?" His staff knew just what to do with
shoplifters.

At once, Smithson became apologetic, while refusing to retreat.

"I'm very sorry, sir," he said haltingly, "but I thought it wiser, sir,
to--er--to bring the matter to your personal attention."

"Quite unnecessary, Smithson," Gilder returned, with asperity. "You know
my views on the subject of property. Tell McCracken to have the thief
arrested."

Smithson cleared his throat doubtfully, and in his stress of feeling
he even relaxed a trifle that majestical erectness of carriage that had
made him so valuable as a floor-walker.

"She's not exactly a--er--a thief," he ventured.

"You are trifling, Smithson," the owner of the store exclaimed, in high
exasperation. "Not a thief! And you caught her with a hundred dollars
worth of laces that she hadn't bought. Not a thief! What in heaven's
name do you ca