The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1880-06-11

well / might be, for l was tremendously
fond of Rose Naughton Once--am 80
still, for the matter of that-and the
sight of her face rather took me aback.
We were half engaged once, only her
mother broke il OFF; and was angry and
nasty, and-and l dropped them, and
have been sorry ever since; and then |
was too proud, and, in short, have made
IN ass of myself. DO you know where
she is gomez"
"No; but L can find out" 81 wish
you would; for after all You tell me, l
have strong inclination to follow her
and try my luck again--try if fortune
will turn her wheel for my benefit"
Most certainly do SO; you would be fly
ing in her face if you did not; for really
this Is the most astounding thing, on the
whole, that ever happened to fellow.
There must have been some mysterious
agent Mt work when You were thrown 80
close together that night without either
of you knowing it. Say that the appear
ance was but Il yapor of the brain, partly
due to i'll health and uneasy sleep, still
its aspect and nature are clearly trace
able 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 only call it, us the guard
did, 'the ghost of chance Still, what
ever it was, it hardly accounts for the
earring being in my compartment; that,
rs originally wrote, was not the ghost
OF an earring; how do we get over
that?" "Ah, | answered, "we are as
far off III 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 mystery"
He followed my advice, and he finally
married Rose NaughtOn, of course; but
still it was long time before any light
was thrown on the earring side of the
mystery. This eventually came, how
ever, thus wise: In the course of the
whirlgig of society in which my friend
and his wife move, there has turned up
II 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 hurrying along the plat
form Mt Peterborough when Miss
-NuupiitOll uilIi llcF lflellttS were IRVING 10
find seats. They were little ahead of
him, and i'll the confusion she must have
dropped one of her earrings, for he pick
ed it up, and, fearing to be left behind
for the whistle was already sounding
he made dash mt the nearest carriage.
The windows were open, but the door
was locked; and on precipitately thrust
ing i'll 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 car
riage, and across the legs of recumbent
passenger half-asleep. There was no
time to rouse the passenger or call the
guard, the train being actually in mo-
ton; and it was only by jumping into
the next compartment that he saved him
self from being left behind. OF course,
he concluded that he should recover the
earring when they stopped ut Grantham;
but then came the accident, and the loss
of the earring was held of little account
albeit it was potent factor i'll saving
NV friends life.