THE THREE-PENNY BIT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8309, 6 May 1905, Page 5

THE THREE-PENNY BIT.

(Pall Mall Magazine.) Presently mother and son got out, and there entered a lady in a coat of sables, Avith two charming little girls, in bright red jackets and caps, from beneatn which fell showers of golden hair, illuminating the drab . interior as a stained-glass window does an ancient church "Ah!" I thought to myself, "the mother of such beautiful children must be good." Alas! how foolish it is to judge of character by externals !— most unwise! " , ' , The lady, who had a charming presence, put a threepenny-bit- into the rough- hand of the conductor. He looked at it and said, " There's a hole in it," and shook his head. "I can't take it, lady." "You can't take it!" she exclaimed, the blood suffusing her cheeks. She had evidently a high tern-' per.. "No, lady." He spoke in tones polite but firm. She went on: '?I believe you could take it if you liked." The conductor shook his head. "You think so, do you? (No ' lady ' this time.) I tell you they won't take it from me, and I'm not going to take it from you." Then, sotto voce, " I suppose you would not mind that, so as you palmed it off !" So this lady, who had such a keen eye to business, reluctantly produced tnree copper pence from out of her purse^ a gold chain one, and I have no doubt she would have defended her conduct with many excellent reasons.- She then slipped the threepenny-bit with a hole in it into a little recessf ' apartvf rom the other coins, and, looking round, said to the company, " Well, somebody will _ have to take it," and smiled, showing a set of pearly teeth. How charming she was ! I had really half a mind to take it myself, she was such a siren. I suppose conductors are proof against them. Said a sly gentleman, " I should give it away, mm, if I were you." The lady paid no heed to him — perhaps because he was old and venerable; perhaps because she regarded his speech as a liberty; perhaps because she was tninking angrily of the threepenny-bit. Not to be put down, and being garrulous, as old age is, he addressed the company: "4, friend of mine once had a half-crown with a hole in it. He tried to pass it many a time, but though he was a deep schemer he was unable to •Vget rid of it. Ono day he gave it to a poor cab-runner who had carried his portmanteau from one of the stations to his house close by. The cab-runner , thought he had made a mistake, so put iv in his pocket and ran. The next day my friend took a ticket for the City at the same station, and received changS" in silver for half a sovereign. Later on in the day he took out the money from his pocket, and at once recognised his own half-crown! The cab-runner had filled the hole up, and the stopping had come out. "'You should examine your change before leaving the desk" said the clerk at vue booking-office when my friend showed him the half-crown." "That's my motto," put in the conductor. , " And what happened to the halfcrown, sir?", asked an inquisitive person, one of those who likes an end. "What happened to it?" quoth the" old gentleman with a benevolent smile, ' " I keep it on my watch-chain to remind me vnat he who diggeth a pit for others may_fali into ifc himself. I waa that man." The lady frowned, but the old gentleman only laughed, and got out.