Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-03-15

and chains innumemble. This magician's
cave now seemed filed with studs and sleeve
buttons. Etruscan, onyx, crystal, intaglios
ratified out Of drawers, boxes, the collectors
own pockets while studs of every imaginable
variety, from sparkling diamond drops to flies
and bugs of coral, were presented TO our he
TO, and he was not proof against their attrac-
tons Then his prudence was literally stormod,
dnzaled and bewildered 10y Roman and Greek
coins of massive gold and silver, by scarabei,
by necklaces of Egyptian workmanship, by
antique bronze gods. The young stranger,
fearing to be ingulfcd in such extravaganza
as would leave him bankrupt, sought any
means of escape. and his eye caught the gilt
ter of the gold buckle Had not Henry Top
bingham seen the buckle in the bric-a-brac on
that sulhy July morning the course of his
own life would have been changed. Proyi-
dence gives us nuts but expects us to crack
them, says the proycrb The buckle was
Henry Toppinghams nut in life. lie failed
to recognize it as such fruit. Still it interes-
ed him, and the dealer, observing this, took
the ornament from the paper wrapper pol
ishld the metal on his sleeve, and presented
III for clos inspection. 1t was a large heavy
shoe-bucAie Of ancient workmanship in gold,
suggestive of having spanned a slender instcp
in quaint high-heeled slipper.
Ones grandmother might have worn t. 8"
thought the young man, weighing it in his
hand.
Only fifty francs He shook his head, paid
for the slceye-buttons and studs which his
soul coveted, and prepared TO depart I'm
pulse led him to turn back and take up the
buckle again. He would give forty francs for
it. The dealer shook his head in turn Fifty
francs was the last price.
Henry walked away, and spent the remain
der of the day in the galleries. When he re-
turned to his hotel and had dinod he did not
retire to his room before nine O'Clock. A
small package lay on the table. He opened
it. and the gold shoe-bucklc fell out 4 card
attached bore the printed name Ctsarc Borg
hett and the price below was writton-f forty
francs. The magician dwelling behind the
Green Door had decided TO accept the price
offered for the article.
The Young man smiled. AID held the buckle
nearer tie candle. How had the magician Of
the morning traced him out? Then he re-
membered having mentioned another brc-a-
Lrac shop located under his hotel, in couver-
saton. and on this clew the shrewd collector
had found him Did he wish to buy the
buckle after all }; The gold glittor,d in the
light from careful polishing; on the inner
side he read the two letters IL. l.. Possibly
these initials had been illegible before the last
polishing given to the metal by the collector
in order to tempt him. Their discovery start
led him. He rose and began 10 pace the
chamber in great excitement. his face suiIus-
cd his sauguine blue eyes sparkling.
What did the letters H. l., mean:
1.-THE BUCKLE REVEALS ITSELF.
H. L. might be the initials of any foreigner,
English, French, or Italian; and yet when a
mans whole life has become concentrated in
one absorbing interest he catches Mt every
straw as belonging to his vortex, to be sooner
or later ingulfed in it. Now Henry Topping
ham willed that the buckle should have be-
longed to Hannah Long and have graced her
pretty foot in the colonies of America some
time in the eighteenth century. when she was
young and blooming-a belle toasted by the
gay officers of the British garrison In the
silence of his chamber, having so willed it,
the conviction grew upon him that it could
not be otherwise. Forty francs. lie would
pay one hundred and forty rather than lose
this clew. There it lay on the table, now
sparkling now deadening, ms he moved. in
yiting further investigation.
Henry Toppingham was a rising lawyer in
one of the Atlantic cities with n slender in
come, which did not yet enable him to marry
the girl TO whom he was engaged, no reputa-
ton and little practice He needed to get
on" in the world, even to obtain position at
the bar, and he beheld himself surrounded by
hosts of newly fledged young lawyers in the
same condition.
Mr. Anthony Whitecap, the eminent practi-
toner, smooth, rotund, and prosperous, who
had Just won heavy suit against a railroad
company, had rubbed his hands together and
looked at Henry Toppingham refectyely.
You had better take n trip abroad, skim
through the leading capitals, and try to find
him." he had said. Buy Cooks ticket
say. for three months: will advance you the
money. Mind you, do not believe you can
find this needle in the hay-stack, however
Il will try, Sir said Henry, in reply.
The needle in hay-stack thus referred to
by Mr. Whitecap was the heir TO an unclaim-
ed property, bequeathed by very peculiar
will. John Long, possessor OF several valua-
BILE coal mines, had in dying left all his prop
crty to his brother Albert, on condition OF the
latter's claiming it within five years from the
date of his own decease. Failing this the
mines were to be sold, and the money distrb-
uted among certain charities This heir, Al
bert Long, had not been heard from for ten
years, when he was rumored to have been
seen in China, and subsequently in Paris.
John Long. a sour, reticent man of eccentric
habits, without wife or child, confessed be-
fore death that n family quarrel had driven
the younger brother abroad. Albert Long
WIS adNtlllhtu III hOllt ANA lNItlbl ltMNllu-
pers for one month after that he must take
his own chances of restitution. This was the
puzzle presented by the great lawyer Mr.. An
thony Whiteoap out of his abundant harvest,
TO the needy and eager young aspirant Henry
Toppjngham, with It half-amused doubt
"Solve it if you can"
The young lawyer had entered upon the
scheme with ardor. 1t was his chance TO reap
fame, a golden opportunity for the exercise Of
talent. His first step had been to sift the
house of Long for genentions-a simple his
tory enough his second, in availing himself
of foreign tour, to search the records OF
bankers, hotels, and clubs for the name he
desired to discover. There was no reason to
suppose Albert Long was living under an as
sumed name, since he had done nothing to
disgrace his own. If he was poor, his posi-
ton in Il foreign land would be obscure il
he had 10y any means acquired wealth, there
would be less difficulty in finding him. Hen
ny Toppingham never allowed himself to be-
iieve the missing man dead. Accordingly he
had searched Liverpool, Edinburgh, London,
Paris. the German cities, aud even Rome,
without success. No person knew Albert
Long The bankers had not even heard OF
him; consuls were equally at fault. Only
that very morning, in the Church of Santa
Croce, he had said, -Four years and seven
lllOullA nave tlilnth hl1lNt Allt htitlll VI bouL
Long, and the charitable institutions will get
| all his money Pshaw had there been any
hope, Mr.. Whitecap would have kept the case
for himself"
The same petulance again oyercame him
now. The evening was dull, the hotel sitting
From his open window he gazed down ON q
deserted street He took up the buckle list,
lessly. What hopes had he not built on it,
merely because his researches into the history
of the Long family had led to the discovery
of a grandmother, whose name, Hannah
Long, had been indicated by the letters H. L.
| embroidered on a faded sampler and tapestry
screens? 1t was known that this man Albert
Long, whose existence had become to the
| young lawyer mystery, fascinating and tor.
menting, had been given a small portion be,
| longing to his dead mother, What more nat
ural than that the grandmother sbuckle should
have been preserved as a relic? How could
it have found its way to a shop with Green
Door in the city of Florence? Impossible
| 1ba mara cnppncitioY xvau obcur1 IA