Flip's Islands of Providence""

dd a few lines to the birthday letter which he had written Philippa the night before. He wrote them standing at the public desk; then, drawin

fingers. "It is so heavy that any one could guess what's in it, and it might wear through. I d

turned to push the slip and the money through the window bars toward the clerk. Then he saw that it was Ralph Bently who stood behind him, flipping a postal order in his fingers, impatient to have it cashed. They exchanged ca

that coin that Stoker paid you just no

the clerk, as he com

night. Avery drops in her five-dollar gold piece that she got as a prize, you know. Collector turns his back on the meeting to count the money, hands in a report of only four dollars and ninety-six cen

low, anyway?" a

om some little place back in the country several months a

? He's both the company and the manager in the firm, isn't

ay, Billy, if you don't mind, I'll ta

s friend. "See me play Sherlock Holmes now.

bit of circumstantial evidence, and it would be hard on t

n to his uncle's office. It was some time before

or you this morning, Ralph?" He had always taken a special interes

ask you about one of the employees in the factory.

ant in thought. The factory was a lar

esman we have on the road. Came well recommended from a little town called Ridgeville, I be

him besides his uncle?"

dently have a reason for these inquir

"Something happened last night that put

ith Ralph's insinuations, Mr. Windom was instantly al

's money from the collection box, and the discovery he had made at th

. It is a remarkable coincidence, I admit, but even the common law regards a man as innocent until he is proved guilty, and surely a society that stands for all that the Christian

what I think. Somehow I've never liked the fellow from the start. He takes so

up his pen again. "Stoker is all right so far as I know," he said. "It wou

se, backed out of the office with a hasty good day. His face flushed at his uncle's implied rebuke, and he resolved that if there was an

hat address, will you, and ask him to tell you what he knows about a former resident of that place-one

nything?" as

with a knowing look. "It's a d

K. so far as the postmaster of Ridgeville knew. His grandfather had been one of the most highly respected citizens

lecture on the cruelty of repeating such stories to the intentional hurt of a fellow creature. Stung to anger by this additional reproof, Ralph was

was dishonest is no proof that he is a thief. Drop it, Bently. Don't put a stumbling-block in the poor fellow's way b

r with some of the members, who were more willing to listen than the others, and less conscientious about repeating their surmises. So the poison spread and the story grew

firmed in their suspicions by it. Ralph Bently declared that it was proof enough for him that Stoker felt guilty. If nothing was the matter, why s

mmittee who had called on Alec during his illness, and was really interested in him, started to call again. Something interrupted him, however, and he eased his conscience, whi

zed him again. He would work doggedly on during the day, thinking of Flip and his Aunt Eunice, and feeling that for their sakes he must stick bravely at it. There was no other position open to him. But it was almost intolerable staying in a town where people not only knew of h

was no longer any use for him to hope the manager would ever raise him to the position of his trusted assistant, no matter how thoroughly he might learn the d

urch, but the picture of her pure, sweet face, upturned like a white flower as she listened to the service, had been with him ever since. It had come before him many an evening when, with head bowed on his hands, he had leaned ov

ing her smiling greetings in the past, his hand went up involuntarily toward his hat; but he stopped half-way,

P INVOLUNTARILY

thinking she purposely avoided him. His teeth were

ht that she would believe in his innocence, no matter who else doubted. She

e thought. He would have compelled her to believe his innocence by the very force of

question, and Alec, hurrying down the street with unseeing eyes, became suddenly aware that he had run against

nd I don't care," wa

ply, and the other boy, slipping his arm in Alec's, turned his step

ng into vacancy. He should have had another promotion in March. Alec felt that he was proficient enough to

ul by the hint, he discovered how Alec was spending his evenings. Although the work in the factory was done as well as ever, he knew that no one could

s and snowdrops; then that Ridgeville had never been such a bower of roses as it was tha

light of the breaking dawn. He had been out all night and lost not only all the money he had put away in the bank, the

k against it for a moment. He was facing two pictures that gazed at him from the mantel: One was the patient, wistful face of his Aunt Eunice; the other was Philippa's, looking straight out at him with such hone

ut, faint from lack of food (there had been no time for breakfast), worn by the excitement and high nervous tension of the night before, he was in no condition to do his work. He made one mistake after another, until, m

you your walking papers," said the foreman.

unt Eunice. How they believed in him! How proud they were of him! Not for worlds would he have them know how far