The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-03-30

that she needed this discipline, or the
good Father would not have called her
to bear this grevious burden.
Marie found these to be fearfully try
ing days, although she had the rather
barren consolation of knowing that few
staunch friends stood by her, among
whom were her pastor, MIR. Wiswall, and
her dearest girl friend, his daughter Jane.
1t was the first warm, spring-like day
in April when Mrs. Randall's funeral
took place. People from both of the
social factions which the loss of that
emerald trihe had engendered, turned out
to attend the services, for, as has been
said, Mrs. Randall was a lady universally
beloved and respected. Yet many, it
cannot be denied, were curious to see
how Maria bore herself, one sentimental
unmarried woman declaring, with sigh,
that st was not often one saw so young
a girl as Maria Randall bring the gray
hairs of mother in sorrow to the grave.
Among these curious ones were Mrs.
Minot and Cora Dressed elegantly In
colors, in sad taste for funeral occasion,
they came in their carriage, and before
the solemn services began crowded up in
front, where they could get a full view
of the stricken mourners.
At last, when the friends were gathered
in the churchyard around the open grave,
Cora, in her elegant seal brown suit,
pushed up so closely to the mourning
group that her own friends even WINGED
at her heartless presumption.
While the arrangements for lowering
the coffin were being made, the sun came
shining out, and Cora Minot opened her
brown silk parasol. AS she did so some
thing bright flew out, sparkled in the
sun an instant, and hitting the coffin, re-
bounded and fell at the pastors feet.
He quietly picked the object up, and
said, his voice trembling with emotion,
"Here, l think, is the emerald ring
which has caused so much ill-feeling
among many of our friends, and brought
such load of misery upon one poor, in
nocent head, while the death of our be-
loved sister, whose mortal remains now
lie before us, was doubtless fastened in
consequence. Let us, as we now give
thanks to God for the good example of
this his servant, who, having finished her
course in faith doth now rest from her
labOrs,' also return thanks that the innO-
cence of this dear motherless one has
been established in this most solemn and
impressive manner"
The scene which followed these touch
ing words of the pastor, and the restora-
ton of the ring there over that open
grave, battles description. The mortitica-
ton and remorse which seized upon Cora
Minot and her mother, and their friends
who had formed the "Minot party" dur
ing the rise and progress of the cruel
scandal, can be easily imagined.
Although overcome with chagrin, Cora
confessed on the spot that the last time
she had carried that parasol was on that
day, in the previous autumn, when she
called on Maria to show the emerald ring.
She we'll remembered partly opening the
parasol as she was about to leave, but on
descending the steps, feeling the air to
be chilly, she had closed it again, when
the ring must have slipped off her finger
unobserved, and lodged within the silken
folds. She had fingered, chattering with
Maria, and on her return home had put
the parasol away for the winter. This
occasion was the first one on which it
had been used since that memorable day.
Is it necessary that any words of mine
should frame moral to this simple mar
rative of factsl