sweetheart, and five hundred
dollars looks like a fortune to a young man just starting life. But he
was weak enough to take this girl into his confidence; and on their way
here--for both were invited to the ball--he went so far as to pull it
out of his pocket and show it to her.

"They were admiring it together and vaunting its beauties to the young
lady friend who had accompanied them, when their carriage turned into
the driveway and they saw the lights of the house flashing before them.
Hastily restoring the jewel to the little bag he had made for it out of
the finger-end of an old glove,--a bag in which he assured me he had
been careful to keep it safely tied ever since picking it up on the
college green,--he thrust it back into his pocket and prepared to help
the ladies out. But just then a disturbance arose in front. A horse
which had been driven up was rearing in a way that threatened to
overturn the light buggy to which he was attached. As the occupants of
this buggy were ladies, and seemed to have no control over the plunging
beast, young Deane naturally sprang to the rescue. Bidding his own
ladies alight and make for the porch, he hurriedly ran forward and,
pausing in front of the maddened animal, waited for an opportunity to
seize him by the rein. He says that as he stood there facing the beast
with fixed eye and raised hand, he distinctly felt something strike or
touch his breast. But the sensation conveyed no meaning to him in his
excitement, and he did not think of it again till, the horse well in
hand and the two alarmed occupants of the buggy rescued, he turned to
see where his own ladies were, and beheld them looking down at him from
the midst of a circle of young people, drawn from the house by the
screaming of the women. Instantly a thought of the treasure he carried
recurred to his mind, and dropping the rein of the now quieted horse, he
put his hand to his pocket. The jewel was gone. He declares that for a
moment he felt as if he had been struck on the head by one of the hoofs
of the frantic horse he had just handled. But immediately the importance
of his loss and the necessity he felt for instant action restored him to
himself, and shouting aloud, 'I have dropped Mrs. Burton's ruby!' begged
every one to stand still while he made a search for it.

"This all occurred, as you must know, more than an hour and a half ago,
consequently before many of my guests had arrived. My son, who was one
of the few