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Show If NDERELLA OF if ST. AUGUSTINE M A t BY E. W. STEWART. topyright, 1904.. by E. "W. S.irgcnU MMIB TOLLIVER regarded ivith lQ I decided interest the tiny shoe -'Which lay on the center of. the W lwnSte counterpune. lie had a Mivi cy0 for l',c atlractlvc and 1,e lllJ ired himself that thin wns a Lri-ra? Lri-ra? fh of the cobbler's art; if, indeed, ; maker of such a dainty creation de-red de-red such a commonplace appella- V ivras a low-cut shoe with patent her sides and white kid facings. . fli ,q an unusual combination. Somo- U;i ' it seemed to appeal to Jimmio !fhQ removed It from the bed to the ; dBe, where It stood before his eyes Ihe wrote the Inevitable letter a, while he lazily puffed a clga-he clga-he Invested the dainty bit of ar with all the attributes of a ice. How did It got there? Sure-chambermaid, Sure-chambermaid, even in a high-hotel, high-hotel, ever had boasted the pos-n pos-n of such a creation. He turned r carefully, but there was not so as a monogram in sight. InrUred to dreams which were with -Tb'.is. of tiny shoes that :ly resohed themselves luio the beautiful girls and as unexpect-howed unexpect-howed as mere shoes, ed but for the presence of the n his table the next morning ;ht have thought that tho whole .was a dream, for how . in a dly feminine shoe to find' its -way i&robm Of So confirmed a woman as Jimmle Tolliver? placed the shoe on the buroau tig safer than the table, and then nt down to breakfast. Te ran ra afterward to change his coat trip over the golf links, and d his room Just in time, to catch inge chambermaid making off neshbe. here, young woman.- that's", pet-idny." pet-idny." warned Tolliver. "tou at right back." as only taking it for tho lady inged to," demurred the dusky uh!" said Tolliver. "Who is the : belongs to?'' woman could only look around sly. " Deed, sub.," she de-"the de-"the lady" done tole me not to ij-one." n"' said Tolliver, gravely. "This needs looking . into. It's absurd for you to say that It's j'our own," with a glance at her ponderous 'feet. "How am I to tell that you are not taking it to make a match receiver or a pin cushion? T guess you had better leave It here, and tell the owner to come and prove property." " 'Deed she won't come, suh," stammered stam-mered the maid. "She done tole nie to get it for her, and she'd give me a dollar. She don't want to come." Tolliver produced, a two-dollar hh ' ir "See here, young -woman, that's petty larceny." "How did It come in my room?" he asked. r The girl's eyes opened wide. lou seo thu lady" ' ' I wish I did," murmured Tolliver. "The lady she dun get foolin' wld a fren'. She throw the slipper at her fren' and the fieri' dono dodge- It fly outon the window and fall Into your room. Dat's how it am done!" Tolliver glanced across the street. "That's a fine Btory," he mused. "It's a good two hundred feet across the strbet. She must have plenty of muscle " Then to the girl, "You tell the lady to send or bring the other shoe over and she can have this one." With a nod to the waiting girl, he stepped Inside the room, carefully locked the shoe In hia trunk, and then went pff to the links. That afternoon Tolliver did a very rude and inexcusable thing. He got out a pair of strong opera-glasses and scanned the rooms across the courl. There was a band concert in the small stand in tho center of the courtyard and he had a good look at the girls across the way, but not one, he decided, was fit to wear the shoe. With a sigh he packed the shoe back in his trunk But the shoo was not to be banished from his thoughts. It became Instinct with life. Everywhero he went he looked for a woman whom he thought might wear such a tiny shoe, but without with-out avail. Then came a summons from his mother. She was supplementing a winter In Nassau "with a few weeks at Palm Beach, before going North, and JImmIe was called to Join her there. He loft St. Augustine with regret, for at St. Augustine was probably the undiscovered un-discovered Cinderella. And in Palm Beach wau "Vlvlenne Carroll. Now Tolliver particularly disliked Miss Carroll not because he knew her, but becauso his mother wanted him to marry her and settle down. It had originally been planned that .Tlm-mio' .Tlm-mio' should run over to Nassau to meet them and escort them home, and It was becauso of Miss Carroll that ho had not done so. He took tho train for Palm Beach, mentally protecting, but even his devotion de-votion to the unknown wearer of the slipper was forgotten at sight of his mother's iruest. She was slightly below the average height, but with a figure and carriage that did not betray the fact until she stood beside other girls. She had tho graces of a queen, and grave blue eyes saved her from acquiring a reputation repu-tation as a flirt. Tolliver, from the moment he look her little hand In his, was sorry that he had not gone on to Nassau, and that night when he took tho slipper out of the tray of his trunk, It somehow seemed to have lost Its old personality. It only BUggeHted Vlvlenne. In a short time he forgot the slipper entirely. He had awakened to a realization real-ization of the fact that he waB really In love with Vlvlenne Carroll, and that for once he and. his mother wero In ncrnrrl on the matrimonial subloet. They were sitting on the broad piazza the next night, Vlvlenne opening open-ing and closing her fan nervously. "Mr. Tolliver," she began, with an odd diffidence in he voice, "I want to ask you something " "Even to the- half of my kingdom," lie quoted, with mock heroics. "Not thchajf ofa kingdom." she corrected with a laugh, ''the half of a J pair of shoes." "Eh? What?" stammered Tolliver, taken back. "You have one of my shoes." she went on, "unless you have thrown It away." "I assure you," he said, "the only lady's shoe I have Is one that I found on my bed in St. Augustine. A darkey girl tried to make me believe that it had been thrown into the window, across a two-hundred-yard court." Vlvlenne laughed. "I'm not as strong as that," she declared. "You seo you were almost in the angle of the wall and the shoe flew diagonally. I had run up from Nassau to visit with Helen Redgold, and, as I was leaving the next morning, morn-ing, T did not have time to persist in my demand for the shoe." "How did you know I had It?" he demanded, curiously. "The maid told us who had the room," she explained. "I'm sorry I can't give you that shoe," he said, half seriously, half In jest, "you see I have made It one of my household goods. The only .way you can gain possession Is to take, the household along with it. Will you. Vlvlenne-? I loved the -wearer of that little shoe until I met you; then I loved you. It was all the same, but I did not know it. Will you take .tho shoe back and me along with It?" It must have been all right, for Mrs. Tolliver, nee Carroll, wears as a charm a tiny gold shoe encrusted with diamonds. dia-monds. It was her husband's wedding gift and she calls it her mascot. |