Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 76, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1916 — FOOLING A GUARDIAN [ARTICLE]

FOOLING A GUARDIAN

By ETHEL HOLMES

Kate Phillips was an orphan; and her Aunt Rachel Harding was her guardian. Kate surely needed a manager for her estate, for she was a spendthrift. She was also full of high spirits and bent on having a good time. Kate went to college, not because she wished to learn all about the Greeks and Romans, conic sections and philosophy, but because she had heard that college girls have lots of fun. and she wished to see something of college life. Her guardian was willing that she should spend aa ordinary sum while a student, but did not approve of extravagance. The old lady was very fond of her niece—her sister's child—and felt responsible for her bringing up. She therefore limited her ward to a list of reasonable expenditures. But there was a weak spot in Miss Harding’s efforts. Kate was twenty years old and would come into her estate when she was twenty-one. This fact enabled her to borrow at an exorbitant rate of interest dr to buy things for much more than they were worth. Among these was the purchase of a $5,000 automobile, all on credit The car could have been purchased for $4.500 cash, but Kate was charged $6,000. and the seller kindly agreed to wait a year for his pay, charging 6 per cent interest and a bonus of S2OO for the accommodation. The possession of an auto is not an easily kept secret One can more readily own a gold mine without its being known, for- a car is of no use except for riding purposes, and that is exactly what Miss Phillips wanted it for. She was an expert driver and fond of taking her fellow students for a spin. The consequence was that everybody knew she owned the handsomest car in college, and the fact was reported to her aunt. Kate's alma mater was but a dozen miles from her aunt’s residence, and the old lady resolved to go over and learn if the report were true and if it was how her ward had obtained the purchase money. Miss TTard’ng possessed a mare and a vehicle called a rockaway, and in this she set forth in quest of the truth about her niece's extravagance. She chose a Saturday afternoon, since Kate would not be engaged in her studies at that time and there would be no interruption to the investigation. That Kate did not study on Saturday afternoon was as true as that she studied only enough to keep up with her classes. And that was very little, for she learned easily. On this especial Saturday afternoon she invited as many of her classmates as her car would hold to go for a spin, and about the time the old lady set out for the college Kate touched the starting button. la. her auto. Kate, in order to reach the road she wanted, took one that led to a point a few miles from her home where the two roads crossed. Shortly before reaching the crossing she caught sight of the familiar rockaway, every part of which was as familiar to her as the jog trot of Nancy, the mare. “Oh, heavens!” she exclaimed. “There comes my aunt!” At the same time she pulled on various levers with her hands and shoved certain brakes with her feet, and the car came to a standstill, while every eye in it was fixed on the distant face in the rockaway, lighted by the sun striking the glasses of a pair of spectacles. “What shall I do?” “Here." cried a girl in the seat behind, “take my veil! The sun is shining directly in the old lady’s eyes, and she couldn't see you even without a veil;” ... Kate took the veil, or, rather, it was put on by the lender; then she started her car and whirled by her guardian so fast and so near the rockaway that Miss Harding was altogether too frightened to take a good look at the driver. Nevertheless there was Suspicion in the glance she did take, and it made Kate uneasy, “We must get back to college before she arrives." she said, “and prepare for her coming.” Oil reaching the crossroad she turned, but instead of taking a fifty mile drive, as had been intended, she went back by the first road sue came to leading collegeward, and while the aunt was joggiug along at seven miles au hour her niece was doing the distance before her in ten minutes. The car was put in the garage under lock and key. and Kate and her friends, having changed their costumes to innocent white, went out on to the campus, and when the old lady drove up to the dormitory where Kate roomed Kate ran to meet her and, leading her to her friends, gave her a formal introduction. During the ride back to college it had been arranged that every girl was to show the old lady some attention, thus taking up her time so that she would have none for inquiries. “I met an auto on the road,” said Miss Harding to Kate, “and the driver’s figure was just like yours. I couldn’t see her face for a veil she wore. I didn't know women driver? of cars wore veils.” “That’s to keep the dust out of the eyes,” suggested one of the party. Miss Harding spent twenty-four hours with her ward and saw no signa and heard nothing of the motorear. But every one she came in contact with was coached.