The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1891-02-05
THE CONSEQUENCE.


Some days later, a young man sat
smoking his after-dinner cigar in his
lonely room. Convinced that he had
been cherishing foolish dream, he had
undertaken to cure himself by hard
work, and was getting ON very we'll;
for he was thoroughly interested in his
profession. and did not find life waste
after all Tonight, just through with
IN important case, in which he had
been allowed to share the honors as
well as the work, he felt disposed to
allow himself little relaxation; and
directly pair of gray eyes rose before
him, now smiling, now pensive, and the
old question-''Might it have been?'
rose once more, as if it had not been
settled forever" again and again.
He finally push ed back his chair from
before the fire, and began impatiently
pacing back ana forth in the room.
A knock at the door, and the elevator
boy passed in the last mail for the
night Two or three business letters
and a little box. The letters were
thrown carelessly down on the table;
the box he kept in his hand in some
curiosity. It was small and light, and
sealed at either end carefully, as if it
contained something precious. Being
man he did not spend much time in
conjecture, but broke the seals and
brought to light a plain jewel box. In
much surprise he took off the cover to
find the box apparently filed with cot
ton. Inside the cotton something
cracked. "ny namite!' flashed into
his mind. Then, with a laugh at him
self, he pulled open the cotton to t1nd a
harmless slip of paper wrapped in a
little coil around something which fell
into his hands as he began to unron the
paper. 1t was a ring he noticed hastily,
and then turned his attention to the
paper, which seemed of more impor-
lance to him. And this was what was
written on it:
Fate sends you this circlet
With a task that is sweet
To search the wnr over
And make 1t complete. !"
This task once accomp ished-wherevcr II b.
Revea eth, oh, seeker thy true love to thee.,a
His first sensation was one of anger.
''Some joke of the fellows, suppose.
It's pleasant to think I'm laughing
stock to the crowd! haue been rather
unsocial of late, but this is going too
far. st. Valentines, eh? So it is!
Rather an expensive jolze-this ring is
the real thing-odd, too," and he held
it up to the light. 'It is only part OF
a ring. l can see that there must be
another band with clover leaf set the
other way to fit into this. Two four
leaved clovers mated-pretty idea! It
ought to be very lucky combination.
Now, who could have sent it to me?
The address looks little like Temples
at least, as it might if he were trying to
disguise his hand. Well, could stand
it better from him. Search the world
over-there is only one place where I
care to look, and I'm not likely to find
it there!
Zone thing, though: I really ought
to call on her before l leave town. She
has always treated me well, and it is
hardly the thing to drop off 50 sudden
~ and completely. Might arouse her
suspicious if she happened to think OF
me. She will have heard of this case,
and I'll appear welded to law-ab-
sorbed IN my work. Speak in an easy
way of Tom Blake and make a grace
full exit from her life. Why haven't
thought of it before? I'll go tomorrow
night. Tomorrow! Why, that is St.
Valentines day! Well, hardly care to
60 there that night. Somebody else
would be there-he would any night,
for that matter-and it's the last oppor-
tunity, if leave town next morning.
'Parshall, you have some supersti-
tious nonsense sneaking through your
head, but we'll put a stop to that I
won't 60 at all.''
St. Valentines day-a whirl of snow.
No one could go out and (perhaps) no
one come in. To one girl the longest
day she had ever known, as she wan
dered, restlessly, from one room to
another, disdainful of the dainty cog
coctions of lace, bon-bons, and tender
sentiments, with which the good saint