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a safe deposit by the rev edward everett uale d d chaprer v edith line reaolvod once and gain tlxi her fathers rearn that she would tell him that she bad lost her bonds bat til day he was at his cffije and each time wheu he re turned she hated to tell him and so put it off till mcrning eoh morning he was in haste for his breakfast and the poor girl pat it off again after the second oi these tsilores she had no chance as she came hose in the afternoon from an early archery pjfty she found a note from her father say ing that he was called to new york this was followed by a telegram from new york saying he was called to london and so poor edith was left to her own newly ac quired skill in managing her own business for the next six weeks what soon became very clear was that she must have money indeed this is some thing which generally becomes clear to most people in modern society e lith first made the mistake which many other people make of thinking that it will do any good to aay aloud i must have soma money she jid this to the looking glass twice as she dr said herself but no money came from that as to housekeeping and wages there was n trouble the housekeeper had been supplied but for herself edith knew there would be trouble very soon she at once put herself on short allowance she did not to into a shop sho passed the most attraotive book stores saying lead us boo into temptation she went on too if she conld not ride in her own carriage by which i mean she never took the peoples carriage the street car she was even mean enough to put a nickel into the con tribution box a1 church sitting in the very pew where ih i deacon was always sure of a five dollar bill but then edith made an acoonnt of this and solemnly pledged herself for every nlckal she laid on the altar to place a ten dollar bill when she had it dear child she knew the difference between little turtle doves and good large lambs these eoonomies ahe kept up steadily bat economies do not create money and it seemed as it never were the un expected expenses so terrible then came a bill for annual costs at the cemotery whioh her father had forgotten edith promptly paid that then came her annual subscrip tion at the sheltering arms her assortment attheladies belief and the sewing womens friend the same afiernoon came a man from the oklahoma free school every young lady of her acquaintance had aus- cribed 10 dr witherspoon had recom mended it and edith knew that she was expeoted to suscribe eodlesa appeals were made indeed from one and another similar oharity and as a olimax the 1st of july came and all her quarterly bills the foot ing was terrible and she with so little in her pocket and if there was any virtue in arithmetic not 40 in the waverley bmk edith on the 21 of july did what you or i would have done she ordered her coupe and bade james take her to the amic- cable again it was just possible that the things might have ohanged themselves back again the warders knew her and told her it was a pleasant morning as it was hu t it seemed to edith that they lookod on her with an inquiring air as if they wondered that she dared to come still she braced herself to her dnty she gave the mystic number and she produced her key at which tho bolt flew back at the right moment just as it does ii tho forty thieves she carried the tin box out to the very same cell she had occupied before she felt as if she were a nun in a convent she opened the box aud thore was nothing there then she waited a little poor child this was to deceivo the warders then she looked the box and carried it baok she dared not look them in the faco as they bade her good day bnt she felt in every bone that they disapproved of her and even scorned her sadly and doubtfully sho bade john take her home and he did so an idea had crossed her in the cell tho bonds she had in place of hers were not hers no bnt they took tho place of hers now as she conld not out off her own coupoaa and deposit them in the waverley bank as her father had taught her might not she honest ly cnt off these coupons and deposit them when the moment came by her own it is quite clear dear reader to an in structed conscience likeyonrs and mine that sho might not but edith had accustomed herself to think of these coupons as so much money and as she certainly wonld have taken somany greonbaoks had she left them in her box and found them thore without lookiog to see if they were the bills of one bank or of another so she supposed though she supposed wrongly that a coupon of the cattaraugus and opelousas was money as trnly as a coupon of the c b q if only it were dated rightly she was a little confused when sho found thatno coupons had been cut off the cattara- ugas and opelousas bonds for five years bnt little did ahe know of the weaknesses of that enterprise she did know that her quar ters oouponn on her own bonds would nave yielded her 540 she made out that amount as well as she conld from the cattaraugus and opelousas coupons took no moe than sho needed wrote a memorandum of what she h ad done and pinned it upon the coupot a for she said i may die and sho re membered that she had heard hor father say that some written memorandum must be left for the benefit of executors she then ordered her carriage again and rode to the waverley bank she handed her bank book to tho teller as she had done before and tho man bowed as the other men bowed and said it was a fine day she also said it was a fine day bat the spell did not work when he looked at the coupons he made no entry in her little book indeod she thought he started and he crossed the room and spoke to his chief the attentive ohief at onoe came to the window mis line he said your father has made a mistako these aro cattaraugus opelousas coupons and yon know it is long since those could be negotiated i think your coupons are 0 b and q0 k w and from united states bonds are they not are thrse not just the same thing said edith feeling as if the ahould sink through the ground i know vothlnp about it only i found them in my safe here she held closely to the truth she oould sea a vague smile of contempt pass over tha cashiers face as ho said well i dont know what hopeful people would say mas lne only these things have no value on the market bring us around your ft 15 aud q and wj wul cud taem for yon gladly- 1 then as he was turning away the teller whispered to him again and he said da not give yourself any trouble but you have ove drawn your account a little poor eiith did not known what this meant and he explained that she had drawn more money from the bank than she had in it that this wonld be made clear to her as she looked at the checks which the teller gave her it was of no consequence the cashier said only he thought he wonld call her attention to it so poor edith left the bmk without any money and feeling that she was much deeper down in the bog of dis grace than she had known fortunately she did not understand that if anybody had supposed that she was dis honest in overdrawing her bank account she could have been arrested before she left the building this would not have happened howver in any circum stance to herfathersdaughter the wav erley bmk was a new bank and the people were very glad that he had brought her account and placed it there eiith retired to her carriage with as good grace as she could and bade james to take her home chapter vl she had several courses before her first she oould telegraph to her father in london i am disgraced and without money what shall i do j sesond and of this she thought seriously she could go to d witherspoon who had ohrlstened hor twenty years ago and had received her into the church six years ago and loved her as her father did this would have been the wisest thing for her to do bnt she had a sense of mortifica tion whioh hindered her from doing this then she thought over the list of her mothers old friends among the ladies of tamworth and there was not one of them whom she liked as a counsellor then ahe remember ed a sermon whioh dr witherspoon had preached a few weeks before of whioh the doctrine was face your perplexities he had told them they should not run away from their perplexities but must look them in the face and find out how great they were 3he remembered that some man she had talked with not long boforehad told her that tho turning point of robinson crnssos fortunes comes in the moment when he faess his perplexities on some piece of paper he had with some ink he had made he wrote them down sc that he could look at them and see what they vere edith took a sheet of note paper and proceede1 to write down hers the liattook the following order 1 i am a fool 2 i believe i am a thief but am not cer tain i have no money 4 i have taken from the waverley bint 47 whioh i had no right to by adding np the amount of her checks and comparing it with her own account she had found the fatal mistake which showed that instead of having 40 in the bank she had taken out 47 more than she should have done ediths list went on 5 i owe honest tradespeople who have trusted me 172 11 6- i wish i had as much as 75 in the house if it were only to keep up decent appearance till papa gets home 7 in fact i have 11 97 i suppose the housekeeper would lend me something but i do not liko to ask her and i have no right to starve the family then by an uof ortunate suggestion of one of thoso lower powers who have been allud ed to who are permitted to have some part in the government of this world under strict orders from higher authorities however it happened that edith remembered a horrible scandal which had convulsed tamworth a year or two before when a certain mrs john fisher had borrowed a thousand dol lars at a jewellers on the pledge of a bracelet whioh became very famous in tho scandal of the town edith said to herself i wonder if i could not borrow 200 of somebody i think if i were a man i should know how to borrow 200 i observe in books that men alwaya borrow money when they want it i do not see why i oannot borrow this money for e lith had been so little tempted in her younger life that she nover learned what most young men learn when they are young er that there are two devils of speoial danaer in modern life that the larger devil is named drink and tho smaller devil is named dabt thcro had been no occasion for edith to have these lessons taught her and though the poor child had had some rea sons to know tho devil as ovorybody has in american life she waa profoundly uncon scious of the dangers of the temptations of the second she did know what a horrible sorape mrs john fisher had got into and she dreaded any such scrape but on the other hand she knew that in tho jawel oase nndor her hend were baubles she nover used which were worth twenty times the snm that would make her perfectly comfortable till her father came home and so it was that having read in novels about poor peo pie pledging what they had to borrow money the thought did cros3 her mind that she might borrow something if she knew how on the pledge of some part of her jewelry it is a very curious phenomenon belonging to human nature whether of men or women that a psraon in a scrape generally prefers to tell some utter stranger of his trouble and not tu tell some near or intimate friend this is not the place to discuss the reason for this phenomenon bnt it is a phenomenon obaerv- ablo by all people who hold the position of general counsel for mankind this phenom enon showed itself in ediths case she did not go to dr witherspoon she did not go to her fathers partner she did not go to any of her somewhat distant relatives in tamworth nor as has been said to any of the eld friends of the family but before night came on ahe felt as if she ahoull die if ahe did not take the advice of somebody she made her choice of a confidant almott at hap hazard chapter vii it happenod that that waa tho evening for the meeting of the chautanquan cbme to which edith belongod the girl had rather tired of gay society alter tho first two winters that followed her coming out she had danced quite well she had received a good deal of attention ahe had tasted that cup pretty thoroughly and then without being cynical at all abaut it she thought aha had drunk about as much of it as sho wanted oa the other hand some near ifi friends of hers had engaged in the chautau- quan course of reading she was sitting with tnem one evening when some reading aloud mnat oa and found herself interested in the solid and practical work which they had engaged in she thought rightly that she had time to make up some back work and sent to plainfield to connect haraelf with the circle and had become one of the moat diligent of the readers this accident determined her now in tho choice of her adviser she had meant to day to make some after noon visits but the day waa hot and the ait sultry and ahe made this an excuse for sending william with her carriage back to the stable she wonld go to vincent chapel in the evening and to vincent chapel she went it was the last meeting of the circle before the summer recess she had been chosen secretary and record er of the gill circle at the meeting in april and her record was oarefully prepared it was the year for english history and they had set apart the subject always interest ing to young people of mary stuart for tbeir evening discussion that happened which is apt to happen that all the women were very hard on poor mary while all the men defended her as there were more wo men than men the men had to stand well to their guns i understand the president very well said edith firmly i meant to do justice to his argument before but it seems to me to mean this that because this woman was pretty she is to be exensed for being wicked and that because ahe was a woman it la to be expeoted that ahe will act like a fool they all laughed heartily at this and th president hastened to aay that this was not the centre of his position that mary cer tainly had been very badly educated c c etc and that bothwell had o o 3 and that john knox bad c o o and eo on and ao on aa may be imagined still i cannot see that this changes our opinion on the question whether she did right or wrong this waa the unflinching reply of the stern edith it shows why she did wrong but it does not show that she did right unless the president means that when a woman dresses her hair in a becoming way and invents a new headdress she may do aa ahe chooses after this it may be imagined that the president and edith were very good friends through the rest of that evening and the reader will not be surprised that in the simple and admirable code of tamworth and of that circle edith asked him as they ate their ice cream together if he would do her the favor to walk home with her she had not liked to fix a time for the carriage she said he gladly egreed to do so as any young man in tamworth would have been glad to do so soon as they were well in the street away from light edith who had studied out the whole conversation in advance said to him i have a question of con science on whioh i want the advice of a man of a hnsiness man my father is away for six weeks i find there is a mistake about my money and i have overdrawn at the bank on my account now it happens that i have received 100 by accident i know not from whom it is lyidg in my desk nnused should you think i might use that as if it were lent to me and repay it when my father comes home the president heard hor through waited a moment and then siid i believe at law you might i doubt if you cjuld be sued for doing it but it is not a nice thing to do if it had been yon would jot be in doubt yourself thank you said edith you feel just as i do but he did not let her go on you see he said your unknown corres pondent might appear to morrow morning and you would want to have her money roady for her you would do much better to barrow yourselt at your bank or of some friend i have to many friends and eiith more bitterly taan sho meant that i can not select and i am afraid my father would bo wretchedly annoyed if he knew i was in this soraps though really it is from no fault of mine i cannot well borrow at the bank without saying that he has been careless or making people think so it gives a certain publicity to the mistake he made when he thought that for eix w eeke i could paddle my own canoe i do not think there is such publicity as you fear von s6a said he good natur- eily the bank people wonld be only too glad to lend your fathers daughter anything it can ba moat easily arranged how much do you want ob i want as muoh aa 250 these are all the subscriptions papa likes me to make and the young man laughed lightly as ahe thouaht pardon me he said from your tone i thought you were going to y two hundred and fifty thonsand i wish miss edith you would let me lend it to yon my self you have been kind enough to ask my advice w ill you be good enough to take it edith was now taken wholly aback she had chosen her adviser as he said here was a proposal wbiob wonld lift her out of tho depths for the instant ahe felt that ii only aha had the three bits of piper he spoke of ahe should be perfectly happy sho could see the two notes of one hun dredand one note of fifty olean two of them appeared crisp and olean and one flab by and dirty before her minds eye but ahe did not waver even for that instant her manner waa kind enongh bnt absolutely firm as ahe deolined you are quite right in baying that i had better ask the bank people i will certainly do ao you are very kind and i shall always be grateful to you for your willingness but it will bo batter ao i hope you are not offended aaid he aomewhat proudly you aeem to bo dia- tressed we are not in a novel i wanted to be of use that is all offended how oould i be offended said she i asked for information and advice you have given me both i shall get out of my troublea now i see and i shall thank you for showing me how will you not come in no good night then and- she gave him her band please do not think i am offended it waa tory queer if they had only known all wonld have been well for thia president of the chautauqua circle was an- tony blake as it waa they both went home and for two or three honrs neither of them went to sleep ooght i have said this why did i aay that in all poaaible forma till nature and youth asserted themselves and the provoking conversation was forgot ten chapter v1il e lith rose the next morning with a new resolution she went to her ueskaa soon as breakfast waa over and wrote this cote lemers lost a parcel of six let ters dated in my jss3 and tied together with a white ribbon the finder will be mankedand liberally rewarded if he willsend a note to g r at the post offiex i tnia advertisement sue inserted in the argcs of that day the hope ahe had was well enough founded but hated the politics of the argu tended to be an independent paper and was on any side which the proprietor thought profitable antony never looked at any part of the argus least of all at the adverts- menta sa poor eiiths notice might have been published a month and he would have been none the wiser on his pt he went to tho wavarly bank and asked the cashier if he wonld lend him 250 what collateral said the cashier who waa his old ally and friend none aaid antony unless you will take stock in the seltaoting coupler cor poration not yet organized bnt if yon wonld endorae my note i think the direct ors wonld pass it nopsanse said the oashier bank rules will not permit that but if you want 250 old fellow here it is give me a memorandum and pay me when you like make it to me j this is not the banks mon ey it is mine you know i am glad to serve you antony thanked him and said what was true that he would do as much for him gladly then he went to the amicble reading room and write to edith this let ter aniony blake to edith lake wednesday moitsiso july 3 my dear miss lank as i absolutely have these bills in ny h- i 1 take the lib erty of asking you use them as you will there ia no reaaou vhy you should have the annoyance of addressing the officers of the bank please im tue me to be president of the waverly b uk as well as president of the chautauqja cirole very trnly youtb antony blake so poor edith aotually saw her way clear to pay all her debts by incurring this one very pleasant debt to this one very gentle manly man she asked the servant if the bearer were waiting and wab told he had gone send john to mo i want to send a note down town these cattarauiu3 bonds yours and this- hundred dollars perhaps too and she handed him the well known parcel ix mr lites abaence in england was pro longed anl it waa ssptember before he re- turied eiith met him at the tamworth station with the carriage to bring him home fair tntoty ff edith lane to antony blake dear mr blake you are moat kind but already i see my way out of my embar rassments and i return the notes at once very truly yours edith lane john found antony at the st clair where he had been bidden to go antony did not quite like the note it seemed to him a liutle shorter or more sharp than it need be anyway if she conld be proud he could also he put the note in his peckot and turned it over in his mind all through a long interview which he had with the rumrills who had sent for him again then he determined to call on miss e lith that evening but lest she should be out he wrote the following letter wednesday afternoon july 3 my dear miss lane lsbi i do not find you at home 1 venture to write for i have at bottom the feeling that you think i have taken a liberty and presnmed on the confidence which you gave mo so generously last evening i want simply to say that you are unjust to me if yon think so i know that from the standard of the novel writars of fifty years ago my proposal was not to bo heard of but 1 think the standard of america is higher and better i hope tho standard of tamworth is higher and better i think men and women meet each other with mutual respect and mutual confidences it is not in vain that we go to the same schools work in the same causes study in the same circles and in a word live in the tamo life if you and i were henry and emma or paul and virginia or silly and billy or fergus and evelyn or any other ab surd people in a novel of course you would not wish to have me help you in any sen sible way and i shonld never think of pro posing to but seeing we are plain tam worth people members of the same church and officers in the samo cirole i see no harm in what i have done and i will not say i do truly yours antony blake when edith oame home late from a long drive which she had taken in tho country thia note was waiting for her she read it more than half through with approval of the young fellows pluck and pride but when she came to fergus and evolyn the worda aeemed to stand out of the paper or was she crazy herself did ahe see words which were not there or were there ever two people in love with eaoh other with those two names she read the note through and then went to htr fathers den she looked in the telephone directory and then asked for 297 hollo i doea mr antony blake live id the st clair ask mr antony blake if he can come to no 99 curwen atroet in ten minutes mr antony blake waa there though it was halfpast ten at night mr blake pardon me for troubling you but who aro fergus and evelyn i am anre i do not know i wish i did he aaid rut fully poor edith she could have dropped on tho floor for her disappointment what did you mean then mr blake when yon aaid silly and billy evelyn and fergus she had read the words forty times while he was coming now it waa his turn to blnsh and stammer nor did he see how near was the crisis oh only well you ssej well i once had some letters i thought they were love letters addressed to evelyn somebody and fergus somebody i do not know who the somcbodys were the letters were not mine 1 put them away where did you put them where are they now where 1 they are in my safe at the amicable- i wish i knew where they ought to be and edith was heraalf again mr blake i think it is for me to turn over to you some property of yours i have here indeed i did not steal it but aro not i news said be so well and you are a good wo man of business that has appeared all through from your letters that you will have to judge of papa at that moment as they croasad the station her lather saw antony blake pressed bis hand warmly and asked him to come and eee them which antony said he would glad ly do that young man said mr lane as they entered the c image ia one of the moat suc cessful young men in this state whynoliffe has been talking to me about him half the time as we came on from new york why edith he has an invention which will save thousands of lives and must be naed on every railroad he has established a new machine shop here to make his couplings and whyn- clfie and all of them are crazy abont him bit eiith he la no stranger to you yon naed to know him he is the same man who war in your reading club yes papa and papa he has asked me to marry him and i have told bim i would ask yon but really papa he is the best man in the world and 1 shall never marry any one else thus was it that edith made her revela tion it was not untill the wedding day how ever that sho told her father that the new machine shop waa built with the prooaeda of the aalea of her government and c b and qa mails at 250 miles ah h0ub- a scheme to carry them by an electrltr elevated wire bona within a twelvemonth from the present- date mails will be carried from boston to new york city in sixty minutes so bay the capitalists who are miking arrangements for the establishment of a transport line on the socalled pnrteleocrio system for the convenience of letters and packages between the metropolis and the modern athens even- the least sanguine backers of the enterprise are confident that if the i xpected public sup port ia given to the scheme not more than two years will be required at most for the establishment of the neccssarv plant in run ning order to bring the tvo centres of population within an hours distance by post the said plant will resemble as to its most essential part a little elevated railway sup ported on a single line ot tall iron uprights- and stretching from the postt ffie hereto- thrvt on the island of m inhattan along the track on top runs a finall car laden with mall freight whioh at certain intervals dnr- ingits transitis seen to go under que- rlookiog box shaped arches tnese hix like arrange ments contain each one a coil of wire passing beneath the rait below and around over the arch so that tho me v jig mail carriage runs aa it were through a succession of boiled wire hoops and these latter communicate the motive power to the vebiole the tpsed to be attained by the car in this- mannor la incalculable aa is recognized in- mechanics a constant rrpslimg force ie- prodnctlva of nearly infiuite velocity ob structed only by the resistance of friotiorr- in this system the only friction comes from the air and the slight contact ot the car with the rails two hundred and fifty miles an hour is not thought to be an overestimate of the speed easily to be compassed by the portelectrio despatoh at tho starting- point the wire coils will have to be close- togother and on up grades but elsewhere and especially on down grades they msy be- few and far betwoen the motive piwer- needed being slight sx stations placed at intervals between here and new york will snpply the requisite currents from dynamosv- many experts think that the ayatem to destined to revolutionize the postal service in this country for instance it is expeoted that instead of mail hours apart between boston and new york cirriages will be sent over the tracks from eiiher end of- the line at five minute intervals thus- rendering unnecessary the waiting for mails t3 close and giving people in one city an opportunity to read their letters two hours after they aro written in the other once prove the notion a success here and it will be quickly adopted evjry where by apply ing it on a larger scale too who knows that it may not serve for transportatio of passengers some day at the rate of 250 miles an hour one couli put a girdle around the eanh in four days i truly it la a won derful century wo live in a hint for wives young wife john do you love me as- much aa you ever did young husband more than ever my love y w i am glad of it for i love you a thousand timea more than when we were first married y h you do y w yea i do and i was juat think ing that if you died i would never marry agiin never nover y w oh i yon think so juat now y w i am anre of it 1 know my own- mind dearest y h well i believe you you are a darling little wife kissing her y w no indeed i would never marry again oh i by tho way john dear i saw the darlingeat little bonnet in mrs felt- straws that you ever saw juat too sweet for anything and i waa wondering if y h how much b it y w fiiteen dollars y h you shall have it it would be a mean man if i didnt oblige such a sweet loving little wife with a small favor like that y w oh i you dear hot an everyday occurrence two teamsters came into collision in the street with their vehicles the other day firat teamater my dear air im very sorry for this accident will you kindly excuse me second teamater pray do not mention it my dear v the fault waa as much mine as yonrs j after gel lg their carta clear of each othor they i wed politely and with a plea sant good day proceeded about their business it is a groat pity they had not had their photographs taken for curloaituf