The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1909-09-09
THREE LINKS
BY NORMAN p. WHITE.
In A CHAIN OF FATE

"Fate be hanged! There's no such
thing Az fate. Napoleon said, 4 will
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 resident of this
city, that | nm the husband of my
wife, the father of boy named Alan
and girl named Lucia and that we
are oil rich is the result of not
one incident-that wouldn't be so sin
gular-but of 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
certain day n man took up a paper he
had never seen before and saw an ad.
of mine. was a young lawyer, with
no clients. | advertised to secure the
care of estates. The man was a stran-
ger in town and wished for some one
to be agent for a building there. See
ing my adj, he came to me. If he
hadn't seen 1t l wouldn't be talking
with you now. He told me that the
building, one of q 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 part of the Pendleton
estate.
zone afternoon, being bored by hav-
n 10 I nd
strolled into vitascope show. One Of
the pictures was the arrival of an 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 If 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 over her. 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 then
began all over again. waited till !
had seen my little girl get out of the
train and run the gantlet of wagons
and carriages three times Not only
that, | went to the show every day till
the picture was taken off. By that
time l was desperately in love. Odd,
isn't it?
"The next in the chain of incidents
was trip to Schenectady on business.
That was two years after falling in
love with moving photograph. While
there I went into a merchants office
and saw sitting at table jabbing type
keys with her fingers-whom do you
suppose? | recognized her at once
the original of my moving picture
What sent me to that city and that
very counting room? Fate.
Having found my love, didn't pro
pose to lose her | learned her name
Evelyn Observation-Disclosures her bet
ter salary than she was receiving to
work for me, and she Joined me al
the end of the month.
"You may rest assured | made II
pleasant for her. and | made love tc
her in a delicate, gingerly way-she
was very sensitive and reserved-and
won her. But was still poor law
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 ths
agency Of the building spoke Of came
to town. and l paid him some collec
lions. He told me that he had beer
unsuccessful In finding the heirs to thu
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 thu
expiration Of a certain period the prop
erty was to go to specified charities
That period would expire In a few
months. l asked him II he knew WHIT
the heirs were. He said he knew tina
all were dead except the children O
Eliza Pendleton. At the name Eliz,
Pendleton l noticed that my assistant
fiancee-I mean my fancee-assistant-
looked up. After the man had gon,
she asked me:
"'What was that man saying abou
Eliza PendletonT
"'Why do you askT
/ "'Because that was my mother
name before she married my father
at was probable that there were
great many Eliza Pendletons, but
struck me the matter was worth look
ing into. Evelyn told me that sh
knew nothing Of her fathers family
but that her grandfather on her moth
er's side was named Nathan Witridge
had her typewrite letter to tn
| manager of the Property, giving thi
Information. He had gone back
| where he lived and didn't get the LEI
ter till the next day. Then received
| telegram giving an affirmative repl
and asking why l wished to know
| This began to look peculiar. replies
. by telegraph that my typewriter wa
| the granddaughter of Nathan Witridg
| Pendleton. The reply to this was, 4
| she can prove 1t am ready to pay he
SS00,000'
Evelyn Brickworth had no difiicu
| ty In finding the requisite proof ant
being the only living heir, got tn
| property. 1t was lucky for me that
| had cOurted and won her while sh