Margaret Cameron

“ She fluttered into an adjoining room.
"Poor, dear Cousin Clara was so distressed when she found what had happened, especially after that careful declaration of hers. But of course you understand how it was?" Mrs. Cheever's smiling glance was as keen as her words were non-committal. "You know elderly people sometimes forget—?"
"Oh yes, yes, of course," hastily assented Marjorie. "We quite understand, I assure you."
Mrs. Spencer returned with her check-book, and asked Dolliver how to make out the check. ”

“ Dolliver," acknowledged Mrs. Cheever, prettily. "It is so helpful to get a man's point of view. A woman alone misses it so!" She sighed, and then smiled at Marjorie, adding: "And you're a lucky girl to have such a splendid, upright young husband—but I know how well you know that! These two have the best times!" Here she turned to her cousin. "They're just like two happy, generous children playing together and wanting to share their happiness with the whole world. It's beautiful to be with them. Ah"—with a shadowing of her tone as the car swung into her street—"here we are, almost at home. ”

“ Cheever.
"Evidently the inspectors don't often meet just that sort of thing," Marjorie went on, conversationally. "I suppose people usually err the other way. Isn't it a pity that Americans generally have so little conscience about smuggling? Especially women. I suppose most of them don't realize that it really is smuggling when they 'bring in a few little things for themselves.' They probably assume that their little things don't count, without ever stopping to think of the aggregate of all these small sums." ”

“ I suppose you couldn't—ah no, it would be too much to ask you to give up your outing just to meet an old lady!"
"Can't you persuade her to stay until Tuesday at least, and both dine with us Monday night?" suggested Marjorie.
"How like you!" Mrs. Cheever affectionately patted the younger woman's hand. "But I'm afraid it's quite impossible. Cousin Clara never stays that long, and in this weather I wouldn't have the heart to urge it, even with such a pleasure in store. But I am so disappointed! She loves young people, and of all my friends I most wanted her to meet you. ”

“ He turned to Dolliver, a shade of amusement creeping into his eyes. "Eighty-seven dollars and sixty-two cents—and that list! Must be two hundred items!"
"It doesn't exceed the hundred dollars allowed by law, you see," complacently returned the little lady. "I thought it would, but it doesn't. So I sha'n't have to pay any duties, shall I? But I thought I ought to put everything in."
"No dresses?" asked the inspector, running a damp forefinger down the lists.
"Oh no, I never bother with dressmaking abroad," she earnestly assured him. "I have such a good woman at home." ”

“ It is one's share of the burden prescribed by law for the sake of the common good, and evasion of it is cowardice as well as fraud. If one doesn't wish to pay the bill, one should not incur the obligation. In other words, no one is compelled to belong to any club, or to go to church, or to buy things abroad. Thus endeth the first lesson," he added, laughing. "I seem to be getting rather didactic, but this happens to be one of my hobbies. I feel very strongly on this question of petty smuggling. ”

“ In this heat?" cried Marjorie.
"Naturally. It's the only way to get there quickly enough," was the cheery reply. "To be sure, it isn't very pleasant, but beggars can't be choosers, you know, and poor folk grow accustomed to far worse things than that. I confess I do dread bringing Cousin Clara home that way, though." She smiled rather plaintively. "Imagine passing from the sea to the Subway on a day like this! However, my poor little purse isn't equal to taxi fares, and the only alternative lies in letting Cousin Clara pay for the cab. ”

“ There came a time, however, when they wearied, not of well-doing, but of the tension inseparable from constant adjustment to the presence and prejudices of other people, and at the end of a hot, humid week in August they were looking forward with unusual eagerness to the relaxation of an outing when they should have only each other to consider, and might indulge without constraint in those long, confiding silences which are one of the truest tests of real companionship. ”

“ For instance, I have friends who rarely go over without bringing in undeclared clothing or jewelry or lace. Especially lace. It's so easy to conceal."
"Well, I never could see why the duty on lace should be so high," declared Mrs. Spencer, whose face had flushed a little. "I am a good American, and I believe in patronizing and protecting home industries, but we don't make any fine laces in this country, and I don't think we ought to be forced to pay duty on what we buy abroad."
"Dear lady," contributed Dolliver, "the mission of our tariff is not wholly to protect infant industries. ”

“ That is indicated, at least, by the large sums of money—'conscience money,' they call it—anonymously sent to the Treasury every year by people who have evaded the customs laws, and it's not supposable that anything like a majority of these lawbreakers make restitution. I'm afraid most of them never feel any qualms at all. People who scrupulously observe the rules of bridge seem to think it's perfectly justifiable to cheat the government. ”

“ That would mean my name!"
"If you care to give me your check for the amount you owe the government, Mrs. Spencer, I will cash it on Monday and see that the currency reaches the proper fund without delay, and without involving you in any way," he offered.
"Oh, will you? Thank you! That is what I—that will be so very kind of you! I'll draw the check at once!" ”

“ Cheever happily dilating the while on the extraordinary kindnesses of her many friends, the Dollivers in particular. She said, and reiterated in varying phrase, that she had never understood why people should so constantly be doing lovely things for her, who could do so little for any one in return, but she supposed they recognized in her the spirit of love, and perceived that her greatest pleasure would have been in helping others had she not unfortunately been denied the means wherewith to carry out her desires. ”

“ Or because, when she found that hole in her skirt with the lace showing through, she was afraid we had seen and understood it? Or did Mrs. Cheever make the old lady tell, to clear her own skirts, realizing that her goose was cooked if we had caught 'dear Cousin Clara' smuggling? I rather incline to that theory; don't you?"
Then for the first time since leaving Mrs. Cheever's apartment his wife turned her troubled glance to meet his.
"Page," she said, "is that it? Or is it—us? Is it possible that we are getting suspicious and blasé and cynical?" ”

“ I'm perfectly willing, within reasonable limits, to let a charming lady like the one in question 'do' us occasionally, though it does hurt my feelings when she so persistently assumes that we don't know what's happening to us. ”

“ In reply to her husband's repeated urging that she go away for a change of air and scene she argued that the car really brought country close to town for them both, and that, aside from the fact that she would be much happier to remain with him and share his life, it would give her real pleasure to use this opportunity to be of service in the work of the League at a time when most of the older members, who had longer sustained its burden, would be away. ”

“ It is also a source of large revenue to the government, and, unlike some other countries, we place highest taxes on the luxuries of the few rather than on the necessities of the many. You may prefer other methods of securing the necessary revenues—I do myself—but that's not the point. ”

“ Cheever's cousin, and—nominally, at least—our guest."
"Precisely. And the only other alternative is to continue in our present equivocal position and become party to her fraud."
"We're not!" she protested, to which he retorted: "Why aren't we? We know she's smuggling, don't we? We knew it before we left the dock, and we helped her to conceal the fact." ”

“ Not enough to bother with," he added, under his breath.
"Well, I couldn't conscientiously call it an antique," she decided.
"We have some queer experiences in this business," the inspector quietly confided to Dolliver, "but this is a sort that gets on my nerves, especially on a day like this. Say, what would you do if you had to carry a needle's-eye conscience like that around with you all the time?"
Nothing else dutiable was found, but even after the inspection was finished there was some further delay incident to the payment of the trifling duty on the ladle. Mrs. ”