The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-04-10
EDening Story
The Foot of Fate.
BY DORA NOLAN,

or paper pOunu dOoul p9 |"A9soA
elastic, skidding from under the spurn-
ing foot of a passerby, brought up
against Ediths offending rubber.
She picked it up Evidently the
paper was wrapped about some small
object. Whoever had kicked it her
way had passed on. Edith dropped
the little parcel into her bag and pro-
ceeded to her train.
Sinking into the first vacant seat
the girl rested her head against the
high plush back and YEARLY closed
her eyes Two weeks with a grip cold
as bed fellow had forced Edith to take
vacation
possessed her mind and body. Vagrant
thoughts came and went. unpursued to
any conclusive end. Cousin Marie,
whom Edith was going to visit, would
ascribe her sickness to the fact that
she didn't wear woolens-she would
harp on that. Then the illness itself
doctors bills and meals in her room
"a forfeited summer vacation-no
money for weekend outings-an en-
ployer who expected as untiring serv-
ice from his office force from his
tipping machinesi
The approaching summer would
loom dreary enough, Edith decided,
were it not that a small park, that
quaint old square dedicated to the
US never uttered a lie. lay within easy
walking distance of her rooming
house. There were green growing
things there, and benches where one
might sit and watch the passing.
Associated with that park in Edith's
mind was mana slender young
man with dark. dreamy eyes who often
walked there alone. He was not like
the parks patron saint. He could tell
d 1ie-hsd told her one. One sunny
morning he had sat on the bench next
to her favorite one. Across the walk
a toddling, swarthy speck of humanity,
fired by the same spirit that sent
famous com patriot sailing over I'M
charted seas centuries before, set out
from the port of his mothers knee on
voyage of discovery, gleefully- tot
tering to the inevitable fall.
Edith and the dark young man had
simultaneously rushed to the rescue
half an instant too late. When the
excited parent arrived they were MAX
ing joint efforts to wipe away the evil
dences Of a bleeding nose. The moth
er'S voluble thanks served as an intro
duction of sort, and when they seated
themselves again it was upon the same
bench They talked of many things
impersonal mostly. But the man had
| said he walked in the square every
pleasant Sunday morning-he would
look forward to seeing her the follow
ing week. That was the lie. Two
pleasant Sunday mornings had passed
and he had not been there.
| The conductor, coming for her
| ticket, interrupted Ediths train of
thought AS she took the pasteboard
from her bag she. noticed the for
gotten little package. Slipping the
| elastic binding, she found it to con-
tain a blue plush jewel box, and in
| the box reposed a ring-a cameo of
extraordinarily delicate pink set sim
ply in gold, beautifully chiseled. With
an inward exclamation of admiration
Edith proceeded to closer examina-
ton Of the ring
Some characters. engraved on the
inner surface, she deciphered as
! &C. to E; S-2-11-5." Surely that
mystic inscription must mean much
, to some one. Somewhere, that some
| one was bewailing the loss of the
cameo even while she was revealing
| in its beauty.
On the sheerest impulse Miss Red
way dropped the jewel box to the
| floor and trust it under the seat with
| her foot but not before she had
glimpsed the name of a wen-known
firm of jewellers stamped in gold in
! side the lid.
She tried the ring on every finger
and found that it best fitted the third
finger of her left hand. Why should
| MT she keep it? The foot of fate had
| literally kicked it to her And, any
| way, she remembered reading some
where that beautiful things should
/ belong to those to whom they brought
, the most enjoyment. 1t was easy for
a rather discouraged, half sick woman
in Edith's place to anaesthetize her
conscience.
But anaesthesia is a temporary con-
dition. Edith, completely restored
under Cousin Maries motherIy care
and Oh her way home two days earlier
/ no che IaoI
the restlessness of the unaccustom eddy
idle, was sorely conscious of that
| jewelry firm name and address
1t met her eyes in the columns of
the magazine she tried to read; the
wheels of the train pounded out the
rhythm of it. The jewelers. would be
sure to have some record of the per-
son to whom the ring had been sold
and who had had it engraved Surely
not to attempt to trace its ownership
thru that obvious channel was to steal
it; no less. This was Saturday after
noon and too late in the day to do
anything about it. But on Monday
Meantime, Edith rsjoiced that with a
clear conscience she could wear it one
more day.
Sunday morning. warm and sunny,
advance sample of the best styles in
May weather. found Edith Redway
stroliing toward her favorite bench in
the square And there, looking as
candid and trustworthy as if he and
truth were one, sat the young man
who had lied to her-who had prom
Used and had not come. Steeling her
self to ignore him utterly. Edith was
sauntering regal1y by when he caught
sight Of her and sprang up, his face
alight. It was too genuine: his de-
light too sincere. The girl yielded to
his entreaties to be seated and let him
explain.
He had been called away six weeks
before, he said, by the almost fatal
illness of his mother, and had re-
turned a fortnight ago. He had
! haunted the square ever since, hoping
that she would come. What had hap
pened? Where had she been2
So Edith toi1 him about her own