Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1880-08-26

would have oeen amusing had it not beer
mingled with an expression of pain. ''In
credible, preposterous! r he said at length
"You say that Miss Naughton is friend
of your wife's?"
"Yes; viii. explain how came up
on the fact forth with. Yesterday, as my
wife was dressing. she asked me to fetch
her. brooch from the drawer in her dress
ing-case. On opening il, the first thing that
caught my eye, amongst lot of little
trinkets, was that earring. The device
was not easily to be forgotten. She told
me how the earring belonged to school.
fellow of hers, Rose Naughton by name.
who had gone abroad; and how, two
years ago, she had been in fearful rail
way accident one evening, while going
to PeterboIo to ball at Grantham-how
two of her party had been killed while
sitting beside her; how she escaped, by a
miracle uninjured, and how, among the
trifling events connected with the terri
BILE circumstance she had lest one of her
earrings -one Of pair which had been
given to her that night by the man to
whom she was engaged, and who was
himself killed"
My friends face, with strange per-
vcrsity, seemed for a moment to lose its
palned expression as I uttered these last
words. / resumed: "When Miss Naugh.
ton went abroad she gave ny wife
her photograph, and, amongst other SOU
veniers, that odd ear-rlng; tor it appears
the tragical accident brought about one
good result for herr it cut short an en-
gagement entirely distastefdl to her, and
into which she had been forced-well,
dldn't hear exactly how; at any rate, she
never loved that man-disliked him, in
tact, my wife says, and she had no com
junction about giving the earring 10
my wife, who was struck with the quaint
ness OF the device. You will readily un-
derstana how this story instantly associ-
ated itself with you IN my mind. A
comparison of dates and other circum-
stances left no doubt. / was bound to
tell you; and hope, my dear fellow, you
will acquit me now of an idle Intrusion
upon your aftairs.' My friend, full of
amazement, held out his hand, and, in
shaking mine warmly, eyinced more feel
ing than had ever given him credit for.
"Ot course, of course, old man." he
said, 81 know you didn't mean any thing +;
only was taken by surprise, as well
might be, for was tremendously fond of
Rose Naughton Once-am so still, for
the matter of that-and the sight of her
face rather took me aback. We were
halt engaged once, only her old mother
broke it of, and I was angry and hasty,
and-and I dropped them, and have been
sorry ever since; and then I was too
proud, and, in short, have made an ass of
myself. Do you know where she is now?
Do you know where she is gomez
mo; but can find out" II Iwish you
would; for after all you tell me, / have a
strong inclination to follow her and try
my luck again-try if fortune will turn
her wheel for my benefit" "Most certain
ly do so; you would be flying in her face
it you did not; for really this Is the most
thing, on the whole, that
ever happened to fellow. There must
have been some mysterious agency at
work when you were thrown so close to-
gether that night without either of you
knowing it. Say that the appearance
was but a vapOr of the brain, partly due
to i'll health and uneasy sleep, still its
aspect and nature are clearly traceable
to Miss Naughton's presence hard by;
and mere coincidence is not sufficient to
account for all that happened
Every marvellous, truly" said he: land
we can call 1t the ghost of chance
Still, whatever it was, it hardly accounts
for the earring being in my compartment; !;
that as originally wrote, was not the
ghost of an earring; how do we get over
that? "Ah," answered, 1--WE are as far
of the solution of that as ever. Never
mind; be thankful that things are as they
are. will ascertain from my wife Miss
Naughton's present address, and do you
go and see if she can explain the mys-
terry"
He followed my advice, and he finally
married Rose Naughton, of course; but
still 1t was long time before any light
was thrown on the earring side
of the mystery. This eventu-
ally came, however, thuswise !:
In the course of the whirligig of society
in which my friend and his wife move
there has turned up young man who
was one OF the ball party on that fatal
night, and he thus explains the enigma
"He says, he was late, and was hurry
ing along the platform at Peterbor-
rough when Miss Naughton and
her friends were trying to find
seats. They were little ahead of him,
and in the confusion she must have lost
one of her ear rings, for he picked it up,
and fearing to be left behind-for the
whistle was sounding-he made dash
at the nearest carriage.
The window was open, but the door
was locked, and on precipitately thrust
ing in his head to see if there was room,
his elbow struck against the edge OF the
door, and the blow jerked the trinket
out of his hand to the further side of the
carriage and across the legs of recum-
bent passenger, half asleep. There was
no time to arouse the passenger or call
the guard, the train being actually in
motion, and it was only by jumping into
the next compartment that he managed
to save himself from being left behind.
Of course he concluded that he should
recover the earring when they stopped
at Grantham; but then came the acci.
dent, and the loss of the earring was
held of little account albeit it was 8
potent factor in saving my friends life
English Paper.