Year: 1871

| A CORRESPONDENT of the Cincin-
IA natl Chronicle assures the verify Of
the following highly romanti story, which,
while in the full flavor of the choicest old
style fiction, has still to find its solution in
modern fact:


In the dusk of an evening of last winter,
when they were just lighting the gas in
the stores of city supposed to be st. Louis,
there entered certain fashionable jewel
ers establishment pale, slender, very
| shabbily dressed girl, apparently about Is
years old, who timidly asked a clerk in
charge if he would not buy from her q
much tarnished small bracelet, which she
rather stealthily exhibited. Carelessly no.
ting the soicd general look of the article
the clerk at first gave q sharp refusal but,
happening to have his attention incidental
ly attracted by the antique setting of some
ornament in the bracelet, and next discov-
ering that said ornament was valuable
ruby, with monogram inside, he sternly
refused to let the woud-be seller or her
ware leave the store until his employer
should have arrived. Consequently, when
the .ieweller came in from his dinner he
found the girl crying with terror, awaiting
him in his private Office and the clerk hold
ing her in custody for suspected theft
Examining the bracelet closely, he became
convinced that it was foreign both in man
ufacture and ownership and this convic-
ton, added to the pleading manner and in
nnrnnt 1noly of tho torrifind o,ir1 in1rcnJ
him to credit the latters fearful protesta-
tions of honesty. BY skillful admixtulc
of paternal kindness of tone with admoni-
tions to full explanation for her own
good, the golden merchant presently per
suaded the alarmed young creature into
such disclosure of her history as he had lit
tic anticipated.


The girl described herself as the daugl-
ter of "great lady" in Europe, from
whom, some four years ago, she was remov-
ed by her uncle, who placed her ON board
ship at night, in care of man never seen
by her before. She knew not why this was
done. 1t came upon her without a mo
ment's warning, and to all her protests and
questions u command for silence was the
only response. On the ship she came to
this country, vigilantly guarded by her
strange, wholly incommupicative custodi-
an, who, after their landing in New York,
hurried her to the Western city, delivered
her there to the charge Of an obscure and
poor family, evidently advised of her arrival
beforehand, and then disappeared, to be
seen Of her no more.


Upon her arm when she left home was
the bracelet. Her reason for attempting to
sell it was that the people having the care
of her were too poor to provide her with
decent clothing, and had not objected to
her sale of the bracelet in the interest of
her wardrobe.


While scarcely inclined to credit this Gu
rious and unsatisfactory story, the jewelcr
felt sufficiently interested in the girl to
make inquiries about her of the people with
whom she lived They verifying all that
she had told him, though stubbornly refus-
ing to add an explanatory word thereto, he
took the mysterious young exile into his
own home as a nursemaid for his children,
and placed her bracelet in one of the show
cases of his store as curiosity.


So the affair rested until a few days ago,
when the bracelet produced new scene.-
A priest, lately despatched by his ghostly
superiors in Europe to some duty in Amer
lea, had left his watch at the jewellers's for
the usual rectihcation after sea VOYAGE.
and when calling to receive it, again!noticed
the bracelet in the showcase, and asked
the privilege of inspecting it more closely.
His request being granted, and the bauble
placed in his hand, he was seized with an
agitation too powerful to be repressed, and
after moments pause, solicited an i'm
mediate private interview with the eweller.
What passed during that interview can be
only vaguely inferred, for one of its effects.
1t appears, was to commit the jeweller al
so to the secrecy heretofore involving all
others concerned with the bracelet. At the
close of the interview the priest accompan-
led the merchant to his private residence
from whence, after an hours pause, priest
and girl came forth together, to enter a pri-
vate carriage, and drive--it is not known
whittier. SO ends all of the story that can
be known at present the general readers
ingenuity and powers of imagination be-
ing conveniently left at liberty to devise
the solution most agreeable to his, or her
sense of the logic of romance and poetic
| Justice. and tho moot oh,..o.