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Newspaper Page Text
A LESSON IN ETHICS By Maud Smith Cottrell. (Copyright by W. G. "Chapman.) "I don't say you shan't marry my daughter, Mr. Willis," said Hiram Oakley, stroking his white beard thoughtfully. "I say that you've sprung this on me sudden like, and I want time to think it over." "And I say, Mr. Oakley, that Madge is of age and entitled to choose for iv O "I Want Time to Think It Over." herself," answered the young fellow. "And since she has chosen to accept me, I am asking you only as a mat ter of form." Hiram Oakley looked at the young fellow quietly. He did not mind Madge being married; she was flighty and had not been too kind to her father since her mother's death re leased her from what she considered unjustifiable chaperonage; but Mr. Oakley wanted to know more about Herbert Wills, who had appeared in the town three months before and taken a position with him in his de partment store. He saw no harm in Wills, but the young man had a great deal to learn. So had Madge, for that matter. The mystery was solved a few days later when Madge and Wills contract ed a secret marriage before an alder man. Hiram Oakley received a de fiant note from the couple announc ing that they meant to go their own way, unless he chose to make the first advances. What their own way meant was shown a few days later when Wills opened a smaller rival store imme diately opposite the Oakley premises on Main street. It developed that Wills had in herited a snug little sum of money, that he had met Madge at a watering place the preceding summer, and had come to the town to win her under the guise of an assistant in her father's store. Hiram Oakley was incensed at the young man's roundabout methods. He had the trade of Four Corners, and he knew Wills coutd not ap preciably cut into it. He resolved to sit tight. Revenge is not a good policy in commerce, but still Wills' store open ed with a 'great flourish of advertise ments and bills in the store windows. Wills made a specialty of displaying the same kind of goods as his father-in-law, only of a cheaper grade. Everything that was in Mr. Oakley's windows was in his son-in-law's, but cut by one-third in price. And for a time Wills' trade boomed at the ex pense of Oakley's. After a while, however, things be gan to swing back the other way. Oakley's trade went up and Wills found his counters deserted. He could not understand. He did not realize that the district was not one patronized by cheap shoppers, and that his shoddy goods and cheap stock had been tried and found wanting. iMMMMMhMMfeUkMAai