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Show ' VirtALK about women! Why, girls, ' th'ey don't compare with mon whon a man onco gets started down pQ ,wjly path." And Marian started herseff at the table with a flourish that told of something up her sleeve out 'of the UBual. Then she turned to 'Mollie with: ".'tYou remember, don't you, darling, -that. delightful man you introduced to Dick and me several months ago, who said he was in the business of manu--fafcturing the best gun in the world? Well! Dick did dome little thing for himfr-nothing particular difficult I think it was getting somebody transferred trans-ferred from one army post to another an-other but the man was so grateful he couldn't get over it! You would have thought Dick had made the soldier sol-dier a general or something. In his gratitude he felt he must do something for Dick. He, it seems, was mighty lucky in playing the market, and al-way al-way being approached for advice, or tips, but he would say to Dick, 'Bad business, bad business,' meaning that he could not tell any more than anyone any-one else that it was only luck with a little common sense and knowledge of value knowledge of what stocks blight to do. Yet, somehow, the stocks he went into himself always went up. "To make a long story short, one day he said to Dick: 'I'll tell you what to do, where there's little risk; if you 1 really want to take a chance, I will let you into a pool, and you can sit back with the rest of us and wait for I the turn it takes. And Dick- my sen sible,, cautious Dick actually drew a cheque for over $4,000, and knew, because be-cause of his real knowledge of the man's successes, that the four thou-sandr thou-sandr would be increased into five times that much at least. And do you know the stock began to go up ifnd'up, until Dick thought there was quite enough profit and said so to your delightful man! I " 'Stuff and nonsense,' said Mr. I Man; 'that stock has only just begun I to soar! The members of the pool I have decided to wait for another ten 8 points. Don't you be foolish; you stay I in and Wait with us! Sure enough, I the stock kept on going up, and was I actually up over twenty points from I vjhere Dick bought. The 'delightful I man,' when Dick drew his cheque to I go into the pool, had insisted on giv-I giv-I ing Dick his personal note for the I money, because, as he said, Dick did I not know him so very well. Dick I said no, that was not necessary that 1 he was willing to take the chance I with the rest; but nothing doing! I Dick must accept. When Dick told ' me, a fleeting thought went through my head that the man was making an unnecessary specialty of honesty; but M it seemed to clinch Dick's faith in him. f'You all know how suddenly Dick I was ordered overseas, and that he left a "lot of things for me to attend to. Among the rest was the closing out 1 of 'the deal' that held this little nest-Hi nest-Hi egg-which he gave to mo and told H me to get and to deposit It at our K bank, etc. He gave me the note and the 6anceled cheque, and told me how to Write the letter of instruction to Mr. Man to close his part of the transaction, and the man's address. I wrote the letter and waited for my little fortune to come by return mail in a fat cheque. Well, girls, I am still waiting! I got no answer. I took the canceled cheque and the note and the other papers he gave Dick and went to my lawyer, and he went on a hunt for the man. The man had disappeared, and Mollle, darkling, dar-kling, it looks as if all those dinners and luncheons he gave Dick were on Dick's own money; that; he never invested in-vested it at all; just put the roll in his pocket! Can you beat that?" "Why, yes," said "Mollie darling," "I can beat it with another story of the wiles of men. Do you remember that little foreigner a Russian of such beautiful manners, who spoke several languages perfectly and English Eng-lish as well as the rest that our American Princess So-andSo introduced intro-duced us to? A few weeks ago Prince and Madame la Princess gave a card party at their hotel to some intimate friends, and the stakes began to run high you know what inveterate, natural nat-ural gamblers Russians are! and the little man of the polished manners said to the Princess: 'The game is a bit steep for me. I never allow myself my-self the pleasure if it is more than I can afford. As I am the loser I can gracefully withdraw, and also as I have a most important engagement that I have been neglecting.' "They said they would change the game, but he really had to go. In settling he had not enough American money. So he said to the Prince: 'If you don't mind, I will give you a larger cheque on my bank in London, and you can endorse it for me at the desk, where they don't know me well enough to hand our a hundred pounds.' The Prince said, Sure, Mike, or certainly, cer-tainly, or something like, and the man got his five hundred dollars our money paid his card debt to the host. Of course you can guess the rest. Yesterday that cheque and another one that the Prince endorsed afterward after-ward came back to the hotel from London marked 'no funds,' and the Information In-formation that the polished little Rus-sion Rus-sion Is very much wanted by this particular par-ticular bank; that he had got several English and Americans into some deal that had a hole in the bottom just bo-fore bo-fore he sailed away. He, too, has disappeared." dis-appeared." "These tricks of mon are as old as the hills," said Marian; "the only new phase of it is the mon of good position posi-tion socially who are taking up the game. In almost every instance it is women who are their victims. But the smooth talker can rope other men in, too, because money is flying about for the making and does not seem to have the protection It did have. I sure do hate to write to Dick about the fizzle in his Investment and the loss of his $4,000 but do you know what Dick wil say? This: 'Hold on to the note the man will make good some time!' And just because of Dick's good faith in people they do make good. Say, girls, it seomB- restful rest-ful to have a story or two about the wiles of men and not of women, eh? Waiter, bring five of hose pretty-lit-tle-war-time-harmlosB cocktails." The Annalist. - |