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Show A Suit at Law and Love ' By H. IRVING KINO C McClure Newspaper 8yndlcat. WNU Servlc.. ON THE deuth of his father Ed-ar Ed-ar Vreeland came into great fortune. In a vague way he had always known that the paternal fortune for-tune had had lti be-C be-C LI Q fj T ginning In some act j w ix i thu ethlcs of whlch SLfJTwcre questionable. Ii w K I When he came to CTHDV loo' ovcr 'at'1" 3 I J IV I er's papers, and had familiarized himself with the details of the growth of the fortune which now was his. his conscience con-science began to make a nuisance of itself. There are consciences of such a pliable, adjustable, good-natured sort that they make most agreeable companions; but Edgar's conscience was not of that order and make. It was one of those querilous, nagging, fault-finding consciences wrongly said to be the exclusive product of New England. It appeared from the records that, at about the time of Edgar's birth, old Simon Pomfret, being in financial finan-cial difficulties, had, in order to keep It out of the hands of hii creditors, placed his print-works In the hands of Herman Vreeland, hli superintendent legally, on the fc of it, sold him the works for a small sum. Simon straightened out his affairs, squared up with the world and then wanted his printworks print-works back. But Vreeland said Nay! Nay! the works were legally legal-ly his and he meant to keep them. Pomfret was enraged and astonishedhe aston-ishedhe had had absolute faith In Vreeland's fidelity. But there he was. Either he had sold the works to Vreeland, in which case they were Herman's or he had placed them in Vreeland's hand with a view of concealing his assets from his creditors. There were lawsuits, of course but Vreeland kept the print-works and waxed wealthy. Edgar inquired about the Pom-frets. Pom-frets. He learned that Simon had died six years before leaving as his only heir a granddaughter; and a very modest fortune upon which that granddaughter was now subsisting. sub-sisting. Her name was Rose. Edgar Ed-gar resolved to seek out Rose Pomfret Pom-fret and make restitution. He found her at one of those modest, inland, Florida winter resorts patronized by people of modest means or of frugal fru-gal inclinations. Edgar had not intended in-tended to fall in love with Rose; but he couldn't help it. She was just the sort of girl any sensible young man would fall in love with. EDGAR had calculated to a penny how much his father had "done" Rose's grandfather out of and, after he had seen the girl, amended his first intention, which was simply to offer her the money by deciding to offer himself along with it. One night as the two sat on the piazza as usual Rose said: "Do you know, Mr. Vreeland, pleasant as I have found your acquaintance, your name is associated to me with something some-thing not so pleasant" and she proceeded pro-ceeded to tell him the old story of her Simon Pomfret and Herman Vreeland adding: "And I am going go-ing to law to get my rights. I recently re-cently discovered some papers among my grandfather's effects which, I think, prove my case. I have written my lawyer to bring suit. He writes back that it is too late; talks aboirt'the statute of limitations lim-itations I think he calls it and a lot of legal nonsense; says I have no case. But know better." She was quite decided in her opinions, opin-ions, was Rose. "Miss Pomfret," said Edgar, "I came down here for the express purpose of asking you to take back the money unjustly withheld from your grandfather. I am Herman Vreeland's only child and heir. Will you accept it from my hands?" Miss Pomfret rose to her feet. "You! Herman Vreeland's ion!" she cried. "No, sir; I will not ac-: ac-: cept as a gift the fortune stolen from Simon Pomfret. I will accept it as my right by the decision of a court of law I don't care what my lawyer says." Edgar sized up the situation and rose to it. "Well," said he, "then, of course, I must fight. But because be-cause we are enemies at law there Is no reason we should not be personal per-sonal friends, is there?" "None in the least," smiled Rose. That night Edgar wrote a long letter to his lawyer giving him emphatic em-phatic orders to which his lawyer replied: re-plied: "If you insist upon being quixotic I can't help it The value of the property assigned by Simon Pomfret to Herman Vreeland was not so -great, after all, but that, considering the amount of your fortune, for-tune, you cannot afford to return it Miss Pomfret's lawyer was reluctant reluc-tant to bring the ridiculous suit but I persuaded him to enter it Then we will confess judgment." Two weeks later Edgar and Rosa were watching the fireflies ai usuaL "OhV' she suddenly exclaimed, "I have been reluctant to tell you but I have won my suit I I'm lorry, of course for you." Then Edgar sprang the Una he had all along been preparing and offered himself. "You poor boy," said Rose, "aftar taking your fortune it seem no more than fair tiat I should tak you, too." |