oanK?" "Yes." "What Mrs. Dot is she?" ' "Mrs. Y. Z. Dot." Like a comet he disappeared into what seemed one of a set of catacombs; the next instant reappeared. "This check, madam" another look more unutterable than before "is upon the High Stepping bank. Why, then" Fair land of onr fathers! Bid he expect j me to explain, in presence of the bank, i and the crowd my shoulders knew waa gathering behind them, that Dot and 1 wera one; that she was more than immersed im-mersed in literary work, and I had offered offer-ed to run the practical part of the house j this winter; that, being methodical aa ' she waa literary, she had placed a housekeeping house-keeping allowance in the Everlasting Hills, introduced me there, and had put her and my private funds in the High Stepping by themselves; that, being telegraphed tel-egraphed away, she had sent me back this check, forgetting that I could not I take it there. Was there any law of morals or finance that demanded this? I glanced at the paying teller. His face, turned sorrowfully In profile, wore a mournful hush; iVseemed to me that the backs of the other bank men wore the same, and mine felt it breathing from the crowd behind. But "why then" the examining justice jus-tice was shafting at me once more. "As I told you, I have been introduced only hero." "But this check, madam" My "flame" was white heat now, and again, without malice prepense I cut him off: "Do you mean to say that this bank never cashes the draft of any other housa than its own?" "No; but" and then out it came. The secret climax that it seems he had been making a momentary effort to restrain. re-strain. "No: but I do not know that Mrs. Dot has any money in the High Stepping Step-ping bank." For one instant I held my breath. He did not know? He suspected she had not? Then that meant that meant Dot and I were putting up a fraud? A felony? fel-ony? We were what do they call it conspirators? And a conspiracy "thin" enough for idiots at that? "I will not trouble yon," I said-He said-He tossed me the paper and disappeared. disap-peared. "Where is the High Stepping bank?" I asked of the teller, who had not stirred. His lips parted, as if a statue of "Tragedy" "Trag-edy" could speak. "Half a block away," he said. Once on the street "white beat" had to come down to asking "What next?" Give tho High Stepping men their opportunity oppor-tunity next? . Never, if I died! And yefc if I were telegraphed? A telegraph boy brushed past me, going toward our street! In a flash I was np the steps and at the hated wires. The paying teller stood there. Was his blood frozen to icicles, each sharper than a serpent's ser-pent's tooth? . I thrust in the check, and sparks flying fly-ing as I did so. . . "I don't know whether you'll giva me the money for this," I said, biting every word; "I'm not introduced here." He lifted a handsome, pleasant face. "It is not customary," he said. "I'm quite aware. But I went to tho Everlasting, where I'm known, and they made eyes at rne till I was hot. and asked me to leave my photograph!" A low ripple of amusement broke from under his mustache. "But they would not do it then! What do you think? Perhaps Mrs. Dot had no money here at all I That would be felony, fel-ony, wouldn't it? I was furious then. If j you're not going to give it to me, be careful care-ful how you tell me, please; that's all." The ripple broke into a little peal this time. Evidently it was very droll to him. "It is not cuHtomary," he began again, "but" and his eyes lifted a swift glance. That one glance, I felt, was first at my bonnet and then at me, and I knew that I was saved! There are few unlucky persons who do not once in a life make a fortunate in-estment, in-estment, and that bonnet has been mine! I have had bonnets that belied me, and bonnets that I could only carry off, but that one on more than once one of my own eex has risen in the street car to give me up her seat! That bonnet once on, the blood of the Cs, D's and E's that I feel always tingling at my finger tips, seems commanded com-manded to the front with a leap, and people, (who can see at all) know in one instant that no member of our family, though possibly left in infancy to chop a cherry tree, could ever, ever do it by the hatchet of a fraudulent cheok! And in later life! as soon ask Juno if she had been thinning the ranks in a chicken house as suspect one of us of even pricking a cherry tree with a pin. "But" the teller continued, with a smile half hidden where the ripple had been "but I shall do it." He would do it! I was not a thief or a criminal once more! I ccald not lift myself, for I had been standing like the tallest pine tree in the forest all the time I could only bow my bonnet low toward him. " "I thank you very much! et mo go and tell the Everlastings that you did!" I began hastily. The low, quiet laugh was merrier than ever now. "They would say I didn't know my business," he said. The telegraph boy had not been at th house when I reached there, but ha came lata'. AU was well, and Dot was coming com-ing home. ' I gave her five minutes to get seated, and began: "Dot, how much money have you in the Everlasting Hills?" "Eleven dollars, as it happens, just today," to-day," she laughed. "And how much in the High Stepping, just today? " "Six hundred, if you have not drawn your check." ! "I wish you would take that eleven ; out and never put another penny there." ! "Why?" she asked, taking np the embroidery em-broidery that rested her from her pen. I poured forth the tales, cominj down upon the finale with a wrathful sweep of "What right had he?" "Hem," replied Dot, holding the pattern pat-tern to the light, "I suppose he thought i It a little queer.' And eleven dollars j wouldn't have made him safe, you know, ; against seventy-five." . j "Queer!" I ejaculated. "What affair was that of his? . You and I felons and conspirators, Dot! What right had he to I put an implication like that on us before crowd? Don't you suppose his bank I feels able to maintain a messenger of any : kind, that he could have slipped off quietly quiet-ly to the High Stepping to inquire'" i Dot laid u threud of silk agaiuet au-; au-; ailier to be Hnre it matched. I "That's what you ought to lmve made I fcjm dr." she quietly replied. L T. II. in j Washington t. ( m BANE. i 1, a felont L a criminal! And worse than that, Dot and I, who can run our glance over a line of "forbears" glistening glisten-ing with the soul of honor, back to a Bottle house we, together, charged with conspiracy, before a crowd of strangers that I felt gathering behind my backl Let me tell yon how it came about At a reception that some of the ladies gave the South Americans the other night, Senor Don Joseph Maria Placids Gnamano, of Ecuador, in his brilliant little talk about "woman in the present century ," remarked: "She contends today to-day for every position which we" with a - charming gesture nf waving his own I claims "politely relinquish to her." "Graceful, wasn't it?" I said to Dot 1 -when I came home. "I'm not so sure it's true, however, nor that I approve of it if it is I feel more confidence in heaven's plans for woman than in Belva Lock-wood's Lock-wood's I believe. But there is one position posi-tion that I should individually like to contend for, and. have some one relinquish relin-quish to me. I would like to stand for one week behind the wire caging of seme respectable bank, and try if I could solve a mystery that mocks forever at me as I gaze from the other side. Is it a special Law? Is it an atmosphere? Is it a 'subtle 'sub-tle alchemy?" I wish I knew P "Knew what?" asked Dot, quietly. "Knew why a man, elsewhere governed by civilized codes, possibly considered at times even agreeable, once behind the wires, feels free to look at yon and talk to you in such a way that a good tall Polar bear would seem a silky refuge, compared to him! , I hate mysteries and I hate banks!" Dot made no reply. "Of course," I pursued, "on your own native heath you are safe; but strangers as yon and I are here in Washington! Why, the other day I went into that bank of the Everlasting Hills, where you Introduced me, and they put their heads together and pierced me and my check alternately with such looks Parthian arrows, Scythian spears, St. Sebastian, anything would have seemed mild." Dot laughed. ' i '"What do you care? I went into my bank yesterday, and the man began to make eyes at me, but I just held up my bank book at him and he flew. I didn't care." "No, yon didn't care, exasperating little lit-tle insulated wire, but I do. I don't see what right they have. ' And I always do hate going upon other people's ground; it gives tbem such an advantage. And that menagerie grating piles the advantage advan-tage np to such an awfully unfair height. Why, yon can, yon know if you would allow yourself, yon could poke at a tiger through his bars; but that bank fenoet 'Why, if I had a brother, or com a a" "Yes," laughed Dot. ;.;,;rWelL even if I had that to take along, prepared to spring at the throat, if any one were well, inconsiderate toward to-ward me, he couldn't reach him!" . At that moment came a ring at the door and a yellow telegram envelope. Dot was to fly to Philadelphia. The one feeing on earth who was part of both onr souls was very ill. Twenty minutes for satchel packing and leaving the place, "Dot," I said stonily, "send for me if it is very bad. And, ok! I shall want some money while yon are gone." "I'll send a check," she said, and the cab rolled away; so did a night and morning of suspense; then came another yellow envelope and then a letter. One said things were better, the other brought the check. I breathed again; bnt still I might be called. I must go to that miserable bank. There was just time before hours were over. I caught the avenue car and was off.. On the bank steps I. palled ont the check. - Dot had not drawn it on the "Everlasting Hills," it was on the "High Stepping bank!" What now? She forgot for-got that they did not know me there. Still, of course, one respectable bank would cash another's check; it must be all right. The sight of the wire caging brought back my talk with Dot, and I feli the bipod of my ancestors growing hot in my veins again. But I must be safe; they would surely remember me this time. - Not What was that paying teller doing do-ing now? Looking at my check, turning it, twisting it, shooting looks at me, looking at it again Parthian arrows, indeed. Now ha was off to an older man, who seized the check in his turn, pierced it and me with more arrows, as if he were examining magistrate of a police court. Now he sprang from his stool and gpranj at me. Only the wires, apparently, apparent-ly, kept him off. . Uy "heat" became a flame, and, with no warning to myself, broke forth: ' "I wish you would kindly let me leave my photograph here, and give me a card stating that you recognize it This begins be-gins to be annoying in the ex" But the magistrate was waving me aside. ' "One moment, madam! This check," slowly and solemnly, "is drawn upon the High Stepping bank." , (Loftily.) "Yes." "Did Mrs. Dot intend to draw it upon that bank?' i "I presume so." i -"Then why," with a shaft designed to pwo strike me to the earth, "why did you not take it there?" ''Because I have been introduced here . and not there." - A'-wioment's fearful' jiauHe. 'J&as Mrs. Dot an account with this I i ' 4