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."