Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1909-06-04
THREE LINKS
IN A CHAIN OF FATE.
BY NORMAN p. WHITE.

make circumstances And he did-that
is, till they became too powerful for
him by the union of all his enemies"
THAT may do for Napoleon, but not
for me. That am a resident OF this
city, that l am the husband of my
wife. the father of a boy named Alan
and a girl named Lucia and that we
are all rich Is the result Of not
one incident-hat wouldn't be SO sim
gular-but of a number of incidents
happening in succession, the absence
OF any one OF which would have made
entirely different surroundings for me.
1.-THE first incident was this: On a
certain day a man took up a paper he
had never seen before and saw an ad.
of mine. I was a young lawyer, with
no clients. / advertised to secure the
care of estates. The nan was a stran-
ger In town and wished for some one
to be agent for a building there. See
ing my ad., he came to me. II he
hadn't seen it I wouldn't be talking
with you now. He told me that the
building, of a scattered estate, be-
longed to some one he was looking for
and couldn't find. The interview re-
suited In his giving me the agency, the
building being a part of the Pendleton
estate.
zone afternoon, being bored by hav-
ing nothing to do, l went out and
stroiled into a vitascope show. One of
the pictures was the arrival of a ex-
press train at Schenectady, N. Y. The
passengers poured out of the cars, and
one, a girl about seventeen years old,
came walking. with a satchel In her
hand, toward the audience. 1t seemed
as Ii she were going to step right into
the showroom. She had a timid look
ON her face, such as a girl might have
arriving In a strange city. She was
looking about her, fearing some of the
many vehicles passing hither and
thither would run owe her. l wanted
to go and put my arm about her to re-
assure her. Then suddenly she passed
out of the picture.
'@There was something in the face
and figure that took hold Of me. The
performance lasted half an hour, her
began all over again. l waited Till l
had seen my little girl get out OF the
train and run the gantlet Of wagons
and carriages three times. Not only
that, l went to the show every day till
the picture was taken off. By that
time I was desperately In love. Odd.
isn't 1t?
"The next In the chain OF incidents
x,o n trin ko Cnbapaotadu 0n h.1cipaco
That was two years after falling In
love with a moving photograph. While
there | went into a merchants office
and saw sitting at a table jabbing type
keys with ner mgers-wnUm 10 you
supposef l recognized her at once
the original of my moving pictured
What sent me to that city and that
very counting room2 Fate.
Having found my love. 1 didn't pro-
pose to lose her. l learned her name
Evelyn Northumberland her a bet
ter salary than she was receiving to
work for me, and she Joined me at
the end of the month.
"You may rest assured l made 1t
pleasant for her. and l made love to
her In a delicate, gingerly way-she
was very sensitive and reseryed-and
won her. But l was still a poor law
yer with too small an income to marry
on, so she stayed on as my typewriter
till l would be better fixed financially.
That she might be of more assistance
to me, / taught her to keep my &C.
counts.
zone day the man who gave me the
agency of the building l spoke Of came
to town, and l paid him some collec-
lions. He told me that he had been
unsuccessful in finding the heirs to the
estate, and he rather thought the pro-
vision made In the will in case they
were never found would be carried
out. The provision was that at the
expiration of a certain period the prop
erty was to go to specified charities.
That period would expire in a few
months. I asked him If he knew who
the heirs were. He said be knew that
all were dead except the children of
Eliza Pendleton. at the name Eliza
Pendleton ! noticed that my assistant
ianceeI mean my 1ancee-assistant-
looked up After the man had gone
she asked me:
"'What was that man saying about
Eliza Pendleton?
"'Why do you askY
"'Because that was my mothers
name before she married my father
"It wat probable that there were a
great many Eliza Pendletons, but 1t
struck me the matter was worth look
ing into. Evelyn told me that she
knew nothing of her fathers family,
but that her grandfather on her moth
er's side was named Nathan Witridge.
1 had her typewrite a letter to the
manager OF the property, giving this
information. He had gone back to
where he lived and didp't get the let
ter till the next day. Then l received a
telegram giving an affirmative reply
and asking why / wished to know.