The Mysterious Case of the Missing Fan

The side door of the Academy of Design was accessible during the recent pedestal fund loan exhibition. The policeman at the door scanned everyone who entered or departed. He remembered an exceedingly marked man entering—handsome, with black eyes and prematurely gray hair. 'Colonel Beauclerc,' the man identified himself. A lady, Miss Mirabeau, asked him to carry a valuable antique fan belonging to Mrs. McElroy to Miss Lomax, as it had arrived too late to be catalogued. The colonel, charmed by the lady, accepted the errand. He ascended the stairs, became distracted by the artifacts, and eventually found himself holding the fan without knowing where Miss Lomax had gone. He panicked, realized the fan was missing, and feared it was stolen. The loss terrified everyone, as Mrs. McElroy was known to be irate. The colonel and Miss Mirabeau bonded over the frantic search, eventually falling in love. Just as they felt the weight of public suspicion—fueled by a newspaper paragraph hinting that a certain 'handsome individual' was little better than a thief—the fan was discovered. Mrs. McElroy had simply walked by, seen her fan sitting unattended on a glass case, and took it home herself, never thinking that her own retrieve would cause such a scandal. The couple, now betrothed, breathed a sigh of relief.