was that of a perfect
gentleman."

Again coincidence gets the credit. Had not the child tossed--had not
at the critical moment the safety pin proved untrue to the man who
invented it--that happy family reunion would have been impossible.

Or, it might be told this way:

Old Man McCurdy, the Pig-Iron King, forbids his daughter Gwendolyn even
to think of marrying poor but honest Beef Walters, the baseball
pitcher, and denies him his house. The lovers plan an elopement. At
midnight Beef is to stand at the tradesman's entrance and whistle
"Waiting at the Church"; and down the silent stairs Gwendolyn is to
steal into his arms. At the very same hour the butler has planned with
the policeman on fixed post to steal Mother McCurdy's diamonds and pass
them to a brother of the policeman, who is to wait at the tradesman's
entrance and whistle "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee."

This sounds improbable--especially that the policeman would allow even
his brother to get the diamonds before he did; but, with the God of
Coincidence on the job, you shall see that it will all come out right.
Beef is first at the door. He whistles. The butler--an English
butler--with no ear for music, shoves into his hands tiaras and
sunbursts. Honest Beef hands over the butler to the policeman and the
tiaras to Mother McCurdy.

"How can I reward you?" exclaims the grateful woman.

"Your daughter's hand!"

Again the God of Coincidence scores and Beef Walters is credited with
an assist. And for preventing the robbery McCurdy has the peg-post cop
made a captain; thus enabling him to wear diamonds of his own and
raising him above the need of taking them from others.

These examples of what the god can do are mere fiction; the story that
comes now really happened. It also is a story of coincidence. It shows
how this time the long arm was stretched out to make two young people
happy; it again illustrates that, in the instruments he chooses, the
God of Coincidence works in a mysterious way his wonders to perform.
This time the tool he used was a hat of green felt.

The story really should be called "The Man in the Green Hat."

At St. James's Palace the plenipotentiaries of the Allies and of Turkey
were trying to bring peace to Europe; in Russell Square, Bloomsbury,
Sam Lowell was trying to arrange a peace with Mrs. Wroxton, his
landlady. The ultimatum of the Allies was: "Adrianople or fight!" The
last words of Mrs. Wroxton were: "Five pounds or