The Penn's Grove record., 1889-08-17
CHANCE OR FATE.

CHANCE OR FATE.
1t was 4 O'Clock on a depressing
Autumn afternoon.
The railway station at one Of our
most popular watering places was not
so crowded but that the noisy mirth of
a group of yachting men, assembled to
take leave Of one Of their number, at
tracted considerable attention among
the passengers, porters and loiterers
collected on the platform.
In one instance this notice was
wholly of a ~condemnatory kind.
Opposite the spot where the young
men stood a gentleman sat alone In a
first-class compartment, from the win
dow of which he cast frequent glances
Of contempt and disapprOval at the
l~oud-yoiced men outside.
These last were typical Englishmen;
four tall, well-built young fellows, with
fair skins burned red or copper-cOlor,
gathered round a fifth, still taller than
they, and evidently older-a yellow
haired giant, with a fine figure that
was beginning to tend toward stout
ness. a good-loOking, red face, and a
manner that Vas at once genial, didac-
tic and self-asserting.
Whether from instinct, or from the
fact that he was Numerically opposed
in type to this particular individual,
the solitary traveller before referred to
took an especial dislike to this ponder
GUS fair man.
"Great bumptious brutei" he said to
himself. "Fancy being married to such
manlr
With this second reflection, the blood
rushed to his sensitive, dark face.
lie was rather under than over the
middle height. with a slight. boyish-
looking figure, a face rather interesting
than handsome. and delicate, restless
hands, with which he necessarily stroked
his mustache. His nerves were strained
to their utmost tension, doubt, uncer-
tainty, pity and passionate love were
blended In his mind, with a great de-
sire for solitude: and. in this phase OF
nerve tension, the noisy laughter OF
those four bronzed yachting men and
the self complacent platitudes of the
fifth irritated our traveller almost beyond
endurance.
Suddenly the door of his compart-
ment was burst open. The yellow-haired
man jumped in, directed a porter where
to place his portmanteau in a deep bass
voice, suitable to hislarge frame, tossed
the man six.pence with an air OF
princely patronage, then ratified down
the window and leaned out for a few
valedictory words to his friends.
81 shan't 60 Northward until to-
morrow" he observed.
At which there was a laughing cho-
rus Of:
Tomorrow, Teddy?"
well, they don't expect me yet"
he went on, smiling with a radiant.
superior calm. Il say, boys, we really
have had q most excellent time to-
getherl"
"Pity you didn't keep up that diary.
Might have interested them at home"
suggested one Of the four.
"You might compile an amended
edition in your spare time in London,
Gilpin," put in another.
81 can't make you boys believe 1t,
but l shall only stay in town long
enough to see my lawyer-"
And then take the next express back
to the bosom Of Jour family. We know,
Gilpin."
s:And, afterwards" the big man
went on, imperturbably II shall perma.
nently settle down in the North and
put together my experiences into book
FORM"
Tho train was moving of by this
time. The four yachting men ran
alongside of it, waving noisy good-byes
until it steamed more quickly out OF
the station and the fair man, after re-
peatedly nodding to his friends. sank
heavily into a seat and gazed around
him with an air Of patrOnizing benevo'
lence. He evidently wanted to talk,
and, what was more, he meant to.
First, he asked concerning the WIN
dows, whether his travelling companion
minded having them down; next he
grew discursive on the fact that it was
not a smoking compartment. but that
he meant to smoke. After which,
observing with a genial smile and "a
North county infection:
sch, but it's good to be in England
again." He stretched out his feet
across the seat opposite, took several
whiffs at his pipe and prepared himself
for conversation.
1t was In vain that the other man
shut his eyes, opened them with a stony
glare. took out letters TO read, OF at
fected to he absorbed in making calcu-
lations In his notebook. Teddy was
resolved to talk, and was soon In the
middle of a slowly delivered descrip-
lion Of the perils of N OF his last
yachting excursions, and of the heroic
bravery he him-cli had displayed there
In.
Getting used to the deep, m~onotonous
voice, his fellow-traveler's thoughts
went off on their usual journey. His
eyes were fixed on the cushions facing
him, but his mind conjured up the
vision Of a woman with soft brown eyes
full OF sadness, a voice like the sweetest
notes of a violin, and a touch so charged
with magnetism that his very soul
seemed to culver at the memory of it.
He was on his way 10 her. and once
in her presence he would scatter her
objections. Der prOtestations, to the
winds, by the force of his passionate
pleading. She was miserable, m.sun-
deistood and neglected; eating her
heart out among dreary and unsympa-
thetic surroundings. For four years
she had been beating her wings against
the coolest and dullest Of cages; and he
was on his way now to set her free. It
would be injustice to her for him to
listen to her remonstrances, and
"Yes. marriage for the man Of intel
lect, as we'll as for the man Of action,
is most undoubtedly a distinct failure
So lectured the big. fair man. happy