Beneath the Sword of Damoclese: A Life With M.S.

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But it did not work. Without being actually rude, she parried my questions in such a way that by the end of five minutes I found myself as far from any knowledge of the real situa- TWO MEN. I therefore desisted from any further attempts and turned to look out, when I made a discovery that for the first time awoke some vague feelings of alarm within my breast. This was, that the window was not covered by a curtain as I supposed, but by closed blinds which when I tried to raise them resisted all my efforts to do so.

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Yet I was far from being really anxious, and did not once meditate backing out of an adventure that was at once so piquant and romantic. For by this time I became con- scious from the sounds about me that we had left the side street for one of the avenues and were then proceeding rapidly up town. Listening, I heard the roll of omnibuses and the jingle of car-bells, which informed me that we were in Broadway, no other avenue in the city being traversed by both these methods of conveyance.

But after awhile the jingle ceased and presently the livelier sounds of constant commotion inseparable from a business thoroughfare, and we entered what I took to be Madison Avenue at Twenty- third Street. Instantly I made up mind to notice every turn of the carriage, that I might fix to some degree the locality towards which we were tending. Having turned, it went but about half a block to the left when it stopped. First we had stopped in the middle of a block of houses built, as far as I could judge, all after one model.

Next the fact of the front door being open, though I saw no one in the hall, somewhat disconcerted me, and I hurried across the sidewalk and up the stoop in a species of maze hardly to be expected from one of my naturally careless disposition. The next moment the door closed behind me and I found myself in a well-lighted hall whose quiet richness betokened it as belonging to a private dwelling of no mean pretensions to elegance. This was the first surprise I received. It was anything but a pleasant one as it appeared to me al that moment, and for an instant I seriously thought of retracing my steps and leaving a domicile into which I had been introduced in such a mysterious manner.

It was only five minutes by the small clock ticking on the mantel-piece, but it seemed an hour before I heard a timid step at the door, and saw it swing slowly open, disclosing — well, I did not stop to inquire whether it was a child or a woman. I merely saw the shrinking modest form, the eager blushing face, and bowed almost to the ground in a sudden reverence for the sublime innocence revealed to me. Yes, it did not take a second look to read that tender countenance to its last guile- less page. Had she been a woman of twenty-five I could not have mistaken her expression of pure delight and timid interest, but she was only sixteen, as I afterwards learned, and younger in experience than in age.

Closing the door behind her, she stood for a moment with- out speaking, then with a deepening of the blush which was only a child's embarrassment in the presence of a stranger, looked up and murmured my name with a word or so of grateful acknowledgment that would have called forth a smile on my lips if I had not been startled by the sudden change that passed over her features when she met my eyes. Was it that I showed my surprise too plainly, or did my admiration manifest itself in my gaze?

For an instant I thought she would turn and flee, and struck as I was with remorse at my reckless invasion of this uncontam- inated temple, I could not but admire the spirited picture she presented as, with form half turned and face bent back, she stood hesitating on the point of flight. I did not try to stop her. Young ladies do not ask gentlemen to come and see them, no matter how much they desire to make their acquaintance. I see it now ; I did not before. Will you — can you forgive me.? I could have taken her to my heart and soothed her as I would a child, but the pallor -of womanhood, which had replaced the blush of the child, awed me and made my own words come hesi- tatingly.

You must forgive me! It was as wrong forme," I went on with a wild idea of QOt mincing matters with this pure soul, " to obey your innocent request, as it was for you to make it. I am a man of the world and know its convenances; you are very young. The abrupt little confession, implying as it did her de- termination not tp accept any palliation of her conduct which it did not deserve, touched me strangely.

Then with a sudden gush, " We shall never see each other again, and you must forget the motherless girl who has met you in a way for which she must blush through life. It is no excuse," she pursued hurriedly, " that nurse thought it was all right. She always approves of everything I do or want to do, especially if it is anything aunt would be likely to forbid. I have been spoiled by nurse. She nodded her head with a quick little motion inexpres- sibly charming.

She said she would do it all, I need only write the note. She meant to give me a pleasure, but she did wrong. Whether we meet again or not, my memory of you shall be sweet and sacred, I promise you that. My only happiness will lie in the thought you have forgotten. I must have it," she murmured ; then, as I stepped towards her, drew back and pointing to the table said, " Lay it there, please. Bowing with formal ceremony, 1 passed her by and proceeded to the front door. As I did so I caught one glimpse of her face. It had escaped from all restraint and the expression of the eyes was overpowering.

I subdued a wild impulse to leap back to her side, and stepped at once over the threshold. The nurse joined me, and together we went down the stoop to the street. I told her, and she gave the order to the coachman, to- gether with a few words I did not hear ; then stepping back she waited for me to get in. There was no help for it. I gave one quick look behind me, saw the front door close, realized how impossible it would ever be for me to recognize the house again, and placed my foot on the carriage step. Suddenly a bright idea struck me, and hastily dropping my cane I stepped back to pick it up.

As I did so I pulled out a bit of crayon I chanced to have in my pocket, and as I stooped, chalked a small cross on the curbstone directly in front of the house, after which I recovered my cane, uttered some murmured word of apology, jumped into the carriage and was about to shut the door, when the old nurse stepped in after me and quietly closed it herself.

If I had expected anything from the presence in the carriage of the woman ivho had arranged this interview, I was doomed to disappointment. Reticent before, she was absolutely silent now, sitting at my side like a grim statue or a frozen image of watchfulness, ready to awake and stop me if I offered to open the door or make any other move indicative of a determination to know where I was, or in what direction I was going.

That her young mistress in the momentary conversation they had held before our de- parture had succeeded in giving her some idea of the shame with which she had felt herself overwhelmed and her present natural desire for secrecy, I do not doubt, but I think now, as I thought then, that the unusual precaution: The mark which I had left on the curbstone behind me sufRciently showed the nature of my resolve, and when we made the first turn at the end of the block I leaned back in my seat and laying my finger on my wrist, began to count the pulsations of my blood.

It was the only device that suggested itself, by which I might afterward gather some approximate notion of the distance we travelled in a straight course down town. I had just arrived at the number seven hundred and sixty-two, and was inwardly congratulating myself upon this new method of reckoning distance, when the wheels gave a lurch and we passed over a car track.

In- stantly all my fine calculations fell to the ground. We were not in Madison Avenue, as I supposed ; could not be, since no track crosses that avenue below Fifty-ninth Street, and we were proceeding on as we could not have done had we gained the terminus of the avenue at Twenty-third Street. Could it be that the carriage had not been turned around while I was in the house, and that we had come back by way of Fifth Avenue?

I could not remember — in fact, the more I tried to think which way the horses' heads were directed when we went into the house, the more I was confused. But presently I considered that wherever we were, we certainly had not passed over the narrow strip of smooth pavement in front of the Worth monument, and therefore could not have reached Twenty-third Street by way of Fifth Avenue. When we stopped in front of the Albemarle I quietly thanked the woman who had conducted me, and stepped tp I the ground.

Instantly the door shut behind me, the carriage drove off, and I was left standing there like a man suddenly awakened from a dream. Entering my hotel, I ordered supper, thinking that the very practical occupation of eating would serve to divert my mind into its ordinary channels. But the dream, if dream it was, had made too vivid an impression to be shaken off so easily. It followed me to the hall in the evening and min- gled with every chord I struck. I could scarcely sleep that night for thinking qf the sweet child's face that had blossomed into a woman's before my eyes, and what a woman!

With the first hint of daylight I rose, and as soon as it was in any degree suitable to be out, hired a cab and proceeded to the corner of Fifty-ninth Street and Madison Avenue, where, according to my calculations TfVO MEN. Bidding the driver proceed at the ordi- nary jog trot down the avenue, I laid my finger on my wrist, and counted each throb of my pulse till I had reached the magical number seven hundred and sixty-two. Then put- ting my head out of the window, I bade him stop. Noting the streets between which we had paused, I bade the driver to turn down one and come back by the other, occupying myself in the meanwhile, in searching the curbstone for the small mark I had left in front of her door the night before.

But though we drove slowly and I searched carefully, not a trace did I perceive of that telltale sign, and forsaking those two streets, I ordered my obedient Jehu to try the two out- lying ones below and above. He did so, and I again con- sulted the curbstone, but with no better success. No mark or remnants of ji mark was to be found anywhere. Clean discouraged and somewhat out of temper with myself for my pusillanimity of the evening be- fore in not having braved the anger of my companion by opening the carriage door at the first corner and leaping out, 1 commanded to be taken back to the hotel, where for a whole niiserable day I racked my brain with devices for ac- quiring the knowledge I so much desired.

The result was futile, as you may imagine ; nor will I stop to recount the various expedients to which I afterwards resorted in my vain attempt to solve the mystery of this young girl's iden- tity.

What was the sword of Damocles?

Enough that they all failed, even the very promising one of searching the various photographic establishments of the city, for the valuable clew which her picture would give me. And so a week passed. Instantly there arose before my mind's eye the vision of a brown-stone front with its vestibule and door. It was, then, the number of a house ; but what house?

I could not answer. There on the page was the number thirty-six, and equally plain in my mind was the look of the brown-stone front to which that number be- longed — and that was all. But it was enough to awaken within me the spirit of inquiry. The few houses thus numbered in that quarter of the city where I had lately been, were not so hard to find but that a morning given to the business ought to satisfy me whether the vision in my mind had its basis in reality.

Tak- ing a cab, I rode up town and into that region of streets I had traversed so carefully a week before. For I was as- sured that if the impression had been made by an actual dwelling it had been done at that time. Following the same course I then took, I consulted the appearance of the various houses to which that number was assigned. The first was built of brick ; that was not it. The next one had pillars co the vestibule ; and that was not it. Irish bull, was no house at all, but a stable, while the fourth was an elegant structure of much more pretension than the plain and simple front I had in my mind or memory.

I was abcul to utter a curse upon my folly and go home, when I remembered there was yet a street or two taken in my zig- zag course of the week before, which I had not yet tested. A dim remembrance, a certain ghostly as- surance that we had reached the right spot? As we neared the number I sought, I could not suppress an exclamation of surprise. For there before me to its last detail, stood the house which involuntarily presented itself to my mind, when my eye first fell upon that mysterious number scribbled at the foot of the page I was writing. It was, then, no chimera of an overwrought brain, this vision of a house-front which had been haunting me, but a distinct remembrance of an actual dwelling seen by me in my former journey through this street.

It was merely this ; that as I rode along the streets on that memorable morning, searching for that mark on the curbstone from which I hoped TJVO AfEy. With that unconscious action of the brain with which we are familiar, I looked at the sidewalk a moment, running even then with the water that had been cast upon it, and then gave a quick glance at the house.

That glance, account for it as you will, took in the picture hefore it as the camera catches the impression of a likeness, and though in another instant I had forgotten the whole oc- currence, it needed hut a certain train of thought or perhaps a certain state of emotion to revive it again.

A noble cause for such an act of unconscious cerebration you will say, a freshly washed pavement: Le jeu ne fautpas la chandelle. And so I thought too, or would have thought if I had not been so interested in the pursuit in which I was engaged, and if the idea had not suggested itself that water and a broom might obliterate chalk-marks from curbstones, and that the imps that preside over our mental forces would not indulge in such a trick at my expense unless the play was worth the candle.

At all events, from the moment I made this discovery, I fixed my faith on that house as the one which held the object of my search, and though I contented myself with merely noting the number of the street as we left it, I none the less determined to pursue my investiga- tions, till I had learned beyond the possibility of a doubt whether my conjectures were not true. A perseverance worthy of a better cause you will say, but you are no longer twenty-five and under the influence of your first passion. The first thing I did was to ascertain the name of the gen- tleman occupying the house I have specified.

It was that of one of ourwealthiest and most respectable bankers, a name as well known in the city — as your own for instance. This was somewhat disconcerting, but with a dogged resolution some- what foreign to my natural disposition, I persevered in my investigations, and learning in the next breath that the gen- tleman alluded to was a widower with an only child, a young daughter of about sixteen or so, recovered my assurance, though not my equanimity.

Seeking out my friend Farrar, who as you know is a walking gazette of New York society, I broached the subject of Mr. She was in- tending to be gone — two weeks, I think she said. Do you know her? Then with a short laugh, meant to act as a warning, I suppose, added as he walked off, " I hope your friend is in fair circumstances and not connected with the fine arts.

Preston's detestation, while Miss Preston though too young to be much sought after yet, will in two years' time have the pick of the city at her command. Well then, I was a greater fool than I imagined. But the fates were against me, or the good angels perhaps, and at the next comer I met an old acquaintance, the very opposite of Farrar in character, who with a long love story of his own fired my imagination to such an extent that in spite of myself I turned down Street, and was proceed- ing to pass her house, when suddenly the thought struck me, " How do I know that this unapproachable daughter of one of our most prominent citizens is one and the same person with my dainty little charmer.

Widowers with young daugh- ters are not so rare in this great city that I need consider the question as decided, because by a half superstitious freak of my own I have settled upon this house as the one I was in the other night. My inamorata may be the offspring of a musician for all I know. Some men would have run up the stoop, rung the bell and asked to see Mr. Preston on some pretended business he could easily conjure up to suit the occasion, but my face is too well known for me to risk any such attempt, besides I was too anxious to win the confidence of the young girl to shock her awakened sense of propriety by seeming to seek her where she did not wish to be found.

And yet I must enter that house and see for myself if it was the one that held her on that memorable evening. Pondering the question, I looked back at the door so obstinately closed against my curiosity, when to my satisfac- tion and delight it suddenly opened and a man stepped out, whom I instantly recognized as a business agent for one of the largest piano-forte manufactories in the city. He was not only a friend of mine but largely indebted to me in. You will not be interested in anything but the result, which was somewhat out of the usual course, and may there- fore shock you.

Preston having yielded to the solicitations of his daughter for a new instrument. My friend was to be engaged in the transfer, and at my solicita- tion for leave to assist in the operation, gave his consent in perfect confidence as to my possessing good and sufficient reasons for such a remarkable request, and appointed the hour at which I was to meet him at the ware- rooms.

Behold me, then, at half-past two that afternoon, assisting with my own hands in carrying a piano up the stoop of that house which, four hours before, I had regarded as unap- proachable. Dressed in a workman's blouse and with my hair well roughened under a rude cap that eflFectually dis- guised me, I advanced with but little fear of detection. And yet no sooner had I entered the house and seen at a glance that the aspect of the hall coincided with my rather vague remembrance of that through which I had been ushered a week before, than I was struck by a sudden sense of my sit- uation, and experiencing that uncomfortable consciousness of self-betrayal, which a blush always gives a man, stum- bled forward under my heavy burden, feeling as if a thou- sand eyes were fixed upon me and my cherished secret, in- stead of the two sharp but totally unsuspicious orbs of the elderly matron that surveyed us from the top of the banis- ters.

As it was, I recovered myself and went through my duties as promptly and deftly as if my heart did not throb with memories that each passing hour and event only served to hallow to my imagination. At length the piano was duly set up and we turned to leave. Will you think I am too trivial in my details if I tell you that I lingered behind the rest and for an instant let my hand with all its possibilities for calling out a soul from that dead instrument, lie a moment on the keys over which her dainty fingers were so soon to traverse.

Once convinced of the identity of my sweet young friend with the Miss Preston at whose feet a two year hence, the wealth and aristocracy of New York would be kneeling, I drew back from further -effort as having received a damper to my presuraptious hopes that would soon effectually stifle them.

Everything I heard about the family — and it seemed as if suddenly each chance acquaintance that I met had something to say about Mr. Preston either as a banker or a man, only served to confirm me in this view. But it showed the bent of his mind and it was a bent that left me entirely out of the sweep of his acquaint- anceship much less that of his exquisite daughter, the pride of his soul if not the jewel of his heart.

But when will a man who has seen or who flatters him- self that he has seen in the eyes of the woman he admires, the least spark of that fire which is consuming his own soul, pause at an obstacle which after all has its basis simply in circumstances of position or will. By the time the two weeks of her expected absence had expired, I had settled it in my own mind that I would see her again and if I found the passing caprice of a child was likely to blossom into the steady regard of a woman, risk all in the attempt to win by honorable endeavor and persistence this bud of loveliness for my future wife.

How I finally succeeded by means of my friend Farrar in being one evening invited to the same house as Miss Preston it is not necessary to state. You will believe me it was done with the utmost regard for her feelings and in a way that deceived Farrar himself, who if he is the most pry- ing is certainly the most volatile of men.

In a crowded par- lor, then, in the midst of the flash of diamonds and the flut- ter of fans Miss Preston and I again met. When I first saw her she was engaged ip conversation with some young com- panion, and I had the pleasure of watching for a few min- utes, unobserved, the play of her ingenuous countenance, as she talked with her friend, or sat silently watching the brill- iant array before her.

More blithesome in her appearance, as was not strange considering her party attire and the' lus- tre of the chandelier under which she sat, there was still that indescribable something in her expression which more than the flash of her eye or the curve of her lip, though both were lovely to me, made her face the one woman's face in the world for me; a charm which circumstances might alter, or suffering impair, but of which nothing save death could ever completely divest her and not death either, for it was the seal of her individuality, and that she would take with her into the skies.

But I knew that would not do, so I contented myself with my secret watch over her movements, longing for and yet dreading the advance of my hostess, with its inevitable introduction. Sud- denly the piano was touched in a distant room and not till I saw 'the quick change in her face, a change hard to explain, did I recognize the selection as one I was in the habit of playing. She had not forgotten at least, and thrilled by the thought and the remembrance of that surge of color which had swept like a flood over her cheek, I turned away, feel- ing as if I were looking on what it was.

My hostess' voice arrested me and next moment I was bowing to the ground before Miss Preston. But the ne- cessity of saving her from remark speedily restored me to myself, and foUowng the line of conduct I had previously laid out, I addressed her with the reserve of a stranger, and neither by word, look or manner conveyed to her a sug- gestion that we had ever met or spoken to each other before.

She seemed to appreciate my consideration and though she was as yet too much unused to the ways of the world to completely hide her perturbation, she gradually regained a semblance of self-possession, and ere long was enabled to re- turn short answers to my remarks, though her eyes remained studiously turned aside and never so much as ventured to raise themselves to the passing throng much less to my face, half turned away also.

Presently however a change passed over her. Pressing her two little hands together, she drew back a step or two, speaking my name with a certain tone of command. Struck with apprehension, I knew not why, I followed her. In- stantly like one repeating a lesson she spoke. I appreciate it and thank you very much.

But it is not being just true ; that is I feel as if I were not being just true, and as we can never be friends, would it not be better for us not to meet in this way any more? The honor of your acquaint- ance," I went on, determined she should know just what a hope she was slaying, " is much too earnestly desired, for me to wilfully hazard its loss by saying or doing aught that could be in any way displeasing to you. It has been known to me for two weeks. At the risk of losing by your displeasure what is already hazarded by your prudence, I am bound to acknowledge that from the hour I left your father's house that night, I have spared no effort compatible with my deep respect for your feelings, to ascertain who the young lady was that had done me such an honor, and won from me such a deep regard.

I saw, comprehended her position and hesitated. She -was so young, uncle, her prospects in life were so bright; if I left her then, in a couple of weeks she would forget me. What was I that I should throw the shadow of manhood's deepest emotion across the paradise of her young untram- melled being. Regret, shame, longing flashed in her steady glance. Circumstances can be changed. But not to rest. That I' am a musician by nature, my success with the the public seems to indicate. That by following out the line upon which I had entered I would attain a certain emi- nence in my art, I do not doubt.

But uncle, there are two kinds of artists in this world ; those that work because the spirit is in them and they cannot be silent if they would, and those that speak from a conscientious desire to make appa- rent to others the beauty that has awakened their own ad- miration. Or to speak plainer, the first has no choice, while the latter has, if he has a will to exert it. Now you will say, and the world at large, that I belong to the former class. I have risen in ten years from a choir boy in Trinity Church to a position in the world of music that insures me a full audience wherever and whenever I have a mind to exert my skill as a pianist.

Not a man of my years has a more prom- ising outlook in my profession, if you will pardon the seem- ing egotism of the remark, and yet by the ease with which I felt I could give it up at the first touch of a master passion, I know that I am not a prophet in my art but merely an in- terpreter, one who can speak well but who has never felt the descent of the burning tongue and hence not a sinner against my own soul if I turn aside from the way I am walking. The question was, then, should I make a choice? Had I met her in ordinary intercourse, surrounded by her friends and without the charm cast over her by unwonted circumstances, and then had felt as I did now that of all women I had seen, she alone would ever move the deep springs of my being, it would be different.

But with this atmosphere of romance surrounding and hallowing her girl's form till it seemed almost as ethereal and unearthly as that of an angel's, was I safe in risking fame or fortune in an at- tempt to acquire what in the possession might prove as bare and commonplace as a sweep of mountain heather stripped of its sunshine.

Curbing every erratic beat of my heart, I summoned up her image as it bloomed in my fancy, and sur- veying it with cruel eyes, asked what was real and what the fruit of my own imagination. The gentle eye, the trembling lip, the girlish form eloquent with the promise of coming womanhood, — were these so rare, that beside them no other woman should seem to glance or smile or move 1 And her words!

But straight upon that conclusion came sweeping down a flood of counter-reasons. Whether I ever won her to my fireside or not, she must always re- main the fairy figure of my dreams, and being so, the gentle eye and tende'r lip acquired a value that made them what they seemed, the exponent of love and happiness. As you will see, the most natural question of all did not disturb me in these cogitations: And that was, whether in making the sacriflce I proposed, I should meet with the re- ward I had promised myself.

The fancies of a young girl of sixteen are not usually of a stable enough character to war- rant a man in building upon them his whole future happi- ness, especially a young girl situated like Miss Preston in the midst of friends who would soon be admirers, and adula- tors who would soon be her humble slaves. But the doubt which a serious contemplation of this risk must have pre- sented, was of so unnerving a character, I dared not ad- mit it.

If I made the sacriflce, I must meet with my reward. I would listen to no other conclusion. Besides, something in the young girl herself, I cannot tell what, assured me rtvo MEN. That I was not worthy but would make it the business of my life to become so, was certain ; that she would mark my endeav- ors and bestow upon me the sympathy they deserved, I was equally sure. No one would ever make such a sacrifice to her love as I was willing to do, and consequently in no one would I find a rival.

The morning light surprised me in the midst of the struggle, nor did I decide the question that day. Pres- ton might not be as determined in his prejudices against musicians as my friends or even his daughter had imagined. I resolved to see him. Taking advantage of his connection with the Club, I procured an introducer in the shape of a highly respected person of his own class, and went one evening to the Club-rooms with the full intention of making his acquaintance if possible.

He was already there and in conversation with some business associates. Procuring a seat as near him as possible, I anxiously surveyed his coun- tenance. It was not a reassuring one, and studied in this way, had the effect of dampening any hopes I may have cherished in the outset. He soften to the sounds of sweet strains or the voice of youthful passion! As soon as the granite rock to the surge of the useless billow. It was an old fashioned stock, full of the traditions of other days, whiU his coat, shabbier than any I would presume to wear, betrayed in every well-worn seam the pride of the aristocrat and millionaire who in his native city and before the eyes of his fellow magnates does not need to carry the evidences of his respectability upon his back.

But the genius that watches over the affairs of true love was with me notwithstanding the unpropitious state of my surroundings. In a few minutes I received my expected introduction to Mr. Pretty poor use for a man to put his brains to, I say, or even his fingers. Sorry to hear we cannot be friends. I would have more respect for my bank clerk than I would for the greatest man of them all, were it Ruben stein himself. And my daughter stoops to make no acquaintances she can- not bid sit at her father's table. He would have more respect for his bank clerk! I began to think he might.

But it was not till after another interview with him ten minutes later in the lobby that I finally made up my mind. That I purpose leaving the concert- room for the banker's office and that henceforth my only ambition promises to be that of Wall Street? Let us see you at the desk, my lad. We are in want of trustworthy young men to take the place of us older ones. And the Rubicon was passed. Once arrived at a settled conclusion, I put every thought of wavering out of my mind. Deciding that with such a friend in business circles as yourself, I needed no other in- troducer to my new life, I set apart this evening for a con- fab with you on the subject.

I have but one more incident to relate. Last Sunday in walking down Fifth Avenue I met her. I did not do this inadvertently. I knew her custom of attending Bible class and for once put myself in her way. I merely wish to say that I have con- cluded to leave a profession so little appreciated by those whose esteem I most desire to possess ; that I am about en- tering a banker's office where it shall be my ambition to rise if possible, to wealth and consequence.

If I succeed — you shall then know what my incentive has been. Only of one thing rest assured, that until I inform you with my own lips that the hope which now illumines me is gone, it will continue to burn on in my breast, shedding light upon a way that can never seem dark while that glow rests upon it. It seemed as if she did not comprehend. If it should never be my good fortune to enter it, you are not to grieve.

Miss Preston, free as this sunshiny air we breathe; I alone am bound, and that because I must be whether I will or no.

But this much I can promise, that whether or not I am ever able to duly reward you for what you undertake, I will at least make it the study of my life never to prove unworthy of so much trust and devotion. Loye is more pleastnt than mArrlaigt, for the same reason that romances are more amusing than history. Young Mandeville having finished his story, looked at his uncle.

He found him sitting in an attitude of extreme absorption, his right arm stretched before him on the table, his face bent thoughtfully downwards and clouded with that deep melancholy that seemed its most natural expression, " He has not heard me," was the young man's first mortify- ing reflection. But catching his uncle's eye which at that moment raised itself, he perceived he was mistaken and that he had rather been listened to only too well. He had expected some token of approval on his uncle's part, or at least some be- trayal of sympathy.

His looks expressed his disappoint- ment. A woman with faith to reward and soul to understand such unqualified trust as yours. Her looks, her last words prove it. Now, why Wall Street? Preston might have as strong a prejudice against speculation as against the musical profession? Do you know of an opening?

I have always had one I ambition, and that was to be at the head of a bank. I have not said much about it, but for the last five years I have been working to this end, and to-day you see me the pos- sessor of at least three-fourths of the stock of the Madison Bank. It has been deteriorating for some time, consequently 1 was enabled to buy it low, but now that I have got it I in- tend to build up the concern. I am able to throw business of an important nature in its way, and I dare prophesy that before the year is out you will see it re-established.

But no matter about that ; — " as if the other had introduced some topic incongruous to the one they were considering I — " the point is this. Now let any one ask me who is my father, and I will say — " " He was Edward Sylvester's brother. But come, come, this extreme gratitude is unnecessary. You have always been a favorite with me, Bertram, and now that I have no child, you seem doubly near ; it is my pleasure to do what I can for you.

I fear for you my boy. It is an awful thing to stake one's future upon a single chance and that chance a woman's faith. If she should fail you after you had compassed your fortune, should die — well you could bear that perhaps ; but if she turned false, and married some one else, or even married you and then — " "What? Sylvester rose abruptly as if unpleasantly surprised. Turner's voice is very agreeable," she went on, in a rambling manner all her own, " it never interferes with your thoughts ; not that I am considered as having any," she interjected with another glance at their silent guest, '' a woman in society with a reputation for taste in all matters connected with fash- ionable living, has no thoughts of course ; business men with only one idea in their heads, that of making money, have more no doubt.

Do you know, Edward," she went on with sudden inconsequence, which was another trait of this amia- ble lady's conversation, " that I have quite come to a con- clusion in regard to the girl Philip Longtree is going to marry ; she may be pretty, but she does not know how to dress. I wish you could have seen her to-night ; she had on mauve with old gold trimmings.

Now with one of her com- plexion — But I forget you haven't seen her. Bertram, I think I shall give a German next month, will you come? By the way, I wonder if it will be pleasant enough to take the horses out to-morrow? Bird has been obliging enough to get sick just in the height of the season, Mr.

Mr Sylvester looked un- easy, while Bertram searched in vain for something to say. It is an interesting subject and I have a notion to hear what one so well qualified to speak in regard to it — " and here she made a slow, half lazy courtesy to her husband with a look that might mean anything from coquetry to defiance — " has to say to a young man like Mr. Even if he succeeded in mar- rying her there were still possibilities of his repenting any great sacrifice made in her behalf.

Mandeville, I was afraid he might be giving you some homely advice founded upon personal experience. She saw him drop his eyes, and smiled again, but in a different way. This woman, whom no one accused of any- thing worse than levity, hailed every tribute to her power, as a miser greets the glint of gold. With a turn of her large but elegant figure that in its slow swaying reminded you of some heavy tropical flower, hanging inert, intoxicated with its own fragrance, she dismissed at once the topic that had engaged them, and launched into one of her choicest streams of inconsequent talk.

But Mandeville was in no mood to listen to trivialities, and being of a somewhat impatient na- ture, presently rose and excusing himself, took a hurried leave. Not so hurried however that he did not have time to murmur to his uncle as they walked towards the door: Do not I pray ; she is no more like them than a star that shines is like a rose that blooms. My fate will not be like that of most men that we know, but better and higher. It was long past midnight. The fire in the grate burned dimly, shedding its lingering glow on the face of the master of the house as with bowed head and folded hands he sat ilone and brooding before its dying embers.

It was a lonesome sight. The very magnificence of the spacious apartment with its lofty walls and glittering works of art, seemed to give an air of remoteness to that solitary form, bending beneath the weight of its reflections. From the exquisitely decorated ceiling to the turkish rugs scattered over the polished floor, all was elegant and luxurious, and what had splendors like these to do with thoughts that bent the brows and overshadowed the lips of man?

The master him- self seemed to feel this for he presently rose and put them out, after which he seated himself as before, only if possible with more abandon, as if with the extinguishing of the light some eye had been shut whose gaze he had hitherto feared. What were the thoughts which could thus detain from his comfortable bed a man already tired with manifold cares? It would be hard to tell.

The waters that gush at the touch of the diviner's rod are tumultuous in their flow and rush hither and thither with little heed to the restraining force of rule and reason. But of the pictures that rose before his eyes in those dying embers, there were two which stood out in startling distinctness. Let us see if we can convey the impression of them to other eyes and hearts. First, the form of his mother. Ah grey-bearded men weighted with the cares of life and absorbed in the monot- onous round of duties that to you are the be all and end all of existence, to whom morning means a jostling ride to the bank, the store or the office, and with whom night is but the name for a worse unrest because of its unfulfilled promises of slumber, what soul amongst you all is so callous to the holy memories of childhood, as not to thrill with something of the old time feeling of love and longing as the memory of that tender face with its watchful eye and ready smiles, comes back to you from the midst of weary years!

And the garret-chamber under the roof, the scene of many a romp with Elsie and Sonsie and Jack, neighbors' children to whom the roan of to-day would be an awe and a mystery! And the little room where he slept with Tom his own blue-eyed brother so soon to die of a wasting disease, but full of warm blood then and all alive with boyish pranks.

He could almost hear the wild clear laugh with which the mischievous fellow started upon its travels, the rooster whose legs he had tied a short space apart with one of Sonsie's faded ribbons, a laugh that became unrestrained when the poor creature in attempting to run down hill, rolled over and over, cutting such a figure before his late admirers, the hens, that even Elsie smiled in the midst of her gentle entreaties. And Jocko the crow, whom taming had made one of the boys!

And the church up over the hills! The same road, the same river of Monday and Tuesday but how different it looked to the boy ; almost like another scene, as if Sunday clothes were on the world as well as upon his rest- less little limbs. How he longecj for it to be Monday though he did not say so ; and what a different day Saturday would have been if only there was no long, sleepy Sunday to fol- low it. She did not dread that day. Her eyes used to brighten when the bell began to ring from the old church steeple. They seemed to fill the night.

What a sparkle they had, yet how they used to soften at his few hurried caresses. He was always too busy for kisses ; there were the snares in the north woods to be looked after; the nest in the apple-tree to be inquired into ; the skates to be ground before the" river froze over ; the nuts to be gathered and stored in that same old garret chamber under the eaves.

But now how vividly her least look comes back to the tired man, from the glance of wistful sympathy with which she met his childish disappointments to the flash of joy that hailed his equally childish delights. A simple picture with a simple villager's daughter for its centre, but as he mused upon it to-night, the success and triumph of the last ten years faded from his sight like the ashes that fell at his feet, and he found himself questioning in vain as to what better thing he had met in all the walks of his busy life than that young child's innocence and faith as they shone upon him that day from her soft uplifted eyes.

He had been sitting the whole warm noontide at the side of her whose half gracious, half scornful, wholly indo- lent acceptance of his homage, he called love, and enervated by an atmosphere he was as yet too inexperienced to recog- nize as of the world, worldly, had strolled forth to cool his fevered brow in the fresh autumn breeze that blew up from the river. Indeed he was about to in- quire when she turned and he caught a glimpse of her eyes and knew at once without asking.

Yet in those days he was anything but quick to recognize the presence of feeling. A face' was beautiful or plain to him, not eloquent or express- ive. But this child's countenance was exceptional. As he gazed on it, he felt the stir of something in his breast he had never known before, and half dreaded to hear her speak lest the charm should fail or the influence be lost. Yet how could he pass on and not speak. Laying his hand on her head, he asked her what she was thinking of as she sat there all alone looking off on the river ; and the wee thing drew in her breath and surveyed him with all her soul in her great black eyes before she replied , " I do not know, I never know.

Ah it was an exquisite scene, a rare scene, mountain melting into mountain and meadow vanishing into meadow, till the flow of silver waters was lost in a horizon of azure mist. Somehow he felt as if a talk with this innocent one would restore him more than a walk on the hills. As if some- thing here was hungry, don't you know? He did not know, but he smiled upon her notwithstand- ing, and made her talk and talk till the gush of the sweet child spirit with its hidden longings and but half understood aspirations, bathed his whole being in a reviving shower, and he felt as if he had wandered into a new world where the languors of the tropics were unknown, and passion, if there was such, had the wings of an eagle instead of the siren's voice and fascination.

Her name was Paula, she said, and before leaving he found that she was a relative of the woman he loved. This was a slight shock to him. The lily and the cactus abloom on one stalk! How could that be? Strong enough to be called such, soon passed. As the days swept by bringing evenings with light and music and whis- pered words beneath the vine-leaves, the remembrance of the pure, sweet hour beside the river, gradually faded till only a vague memory of that gentle uplifted face sweet with its childish dimples, remained to hallow now and then a a passing reverie or a fevered dream.

But to-night its every lineament filled his soul, vying with the memories of his mother in its vividness and power. O why had he not learned the lesson it taught.

Why had he turned his back upon the high things of life to yield himself to a current that swept him on and on until the power of re- sistence left him and — O dwell not here wild thoughts! Pause not on the threshold of the one dark memory that blasts the soul and sears the heart in the secret hours of night.

Let the dead past bury its dead and if one must think, let it be of the hope, which the remembrance of that short glimpse into a pure if infantile soul has given to his long darkened spirit. One, two, three, four ; and the fire is dead and the night has grown chill, but he heeds it not. He has asked himself if his life's book is quite closed to the higher joys of existence? If anything will save me — " But here the shadow settled again; when it lifted, the morning ray lay cool and ghostly over the hearthstone.

Snow-piled hills stretching beyond a frozen river. On the bank a solitary figure tall, dark and commanding, standing with eyes bent sadly on a long narrow mound at his feet. It is Edward Sylvester and the mound is the grave of his mother. It is ten years since he stood upon that spot. In all that time no memories of his childhood's home, no recollection of that lonely grave among the pines, had been sufficient to allure him from the city and its busy round of daily cares. Indeed he had always shrunk at the very name of the place andnever of his own will alluded to it, but the reveries of a night had awakened a longing that was not to be appeased, and in the face of his wife's cold look of astonishment and a secret dread in his own heart, had left his comfortable fire- side, for the scenes of his early life and marriage, and was TWO MEN.

But tender as were the chords that reverberated at this sight, it was not to revisit this tomb he had returned to Grotewell. No, that other vision, the vision of young sweet appreciative life has drawn him more strongly than the memory of the dead. It was to search out and gaze again upon the innocent girl, whose eloquent eyes and lofty spirit had so deeply moved him in the past, that he had braved the chill of the Connecticut hills and incurred the displeas- ure of his wife.

Yet when he turned away from that simple headstone and set his face towards the village streets it was with a sinking of the heart that first revealed to him the severity of the or- deal to which he had thus wantonly subjected himself. Not that the wintry trees and snow covered roofs appealed to him as strongly as the same trees and homes would have done in their summer aspect. The land was bright with verdure when that shadow fell whose gloom resting upon all the landscape, made a walk down this quiet road even at this remote day, a matter of such pain to him.

But scenes that have, caught the reflection of a life's joy or a heart's sorrow, lose not their power of appeal, with the leaves they shake from their trees, and nothing that had -met the eyes of this man from the hour he left this spot, no, not the glance of his wife as his. But for all that he was determined to traverse it, ay to the very end, though his steps must pass the house whose ghostly portals were fraught with memories dismal as death to him.

On then he proceeded, walking with his usual steady pace that only faltered or broke, as he met the shy eyes of some hurrying village maiden, speeding upon some errand down the snowy street, or encountered some old friend of his youth who despite his altered mien and com- manding carriage, recognized in him the slim young bank cashier who had left them now ten long years ago to make a name and fortune in the great city. It was noon by the time he gained the heart of the vil- lage, and school was out and the children came rushing by with just the same shout and scamper with which he used to hail that hour of joyous release.

How it carried him back to the days when those four red walls towered upon him with awful significance, as with books on his back and a half eaten apple in his pocket he crept up the walk, conscious that the bell had rung its last shrill note a good half hour before. He felt half tempted to stop and make his way through the crowd of shouting boys and dancing girls to that same old door again, and see for himself if the huge LATE which in a fit of childish revenge he had cut on its awkward panels, was still there to meet the eyes of tardy boys and loitering girls.

But the wondering looks of the children unused to behold a figure so stately in their simple streets deterred him and he passed thoughtfully on. What a fool I have been," thought he. But with the stern resolution which had carried him through many a difficulty, he prepared to advance, when he was again arrested by seeing the door of the house he was contemplating, suddenly open and a girlish figure issue forth.

Could it be Paula? With eager, almost feverish interest he watched her approach. She was a slight young thing and came towards him with a rapid movement almost jaunty in its freedom. If it were Paula, he would know her by her eyes, but for some reason he hoped it was not she, not the child of his dreams. At a yard or two in front of him she paused astonished. Scarcely realizing what she did she gave a little courtesy and was proceeding on when he stopped her with a hurried gesture.

O no," she returned, surveying him out of the comer of a very roguish pair of brown eyes, with a certain sly wonder at the suspense in his voice.

Old Miss Abby and her sister live there now. I don't know anything more about them, sir. Halting at the door of that small cottage, Edward Syl- vester reasoned with himself. Spiritual children do not always make eamest-souled women. Let jne beware what hopes I build on a foundation so unsubstantial. Sylvester I am sure! I thought Ona would re- member us after a while.

And though her vocabulary was thus made to appear somewhat small, her sincerity was undoubted. It may seem foolish to you, sir ; but Paula is growing so fast and Belinda says is so uncommon smart for her age that we did think that it was time Ona knew just what a straight we were in. Do you want to see Paula? Is my niece well? He replied as in duty bound, and presently by the use of a few dexterous questions succeeded in eliciting from this simple-minded old lady, the few facts necessary to a proper understanding of the situation. Miss Abby and Miss Be- linda were two maiden ladies, sisters of Mrs.

Fairchild and Ona's mother, who on the death of the former took up their abode in the little cottage for the purpose of bring- ing up the orphan Paula. She had therefore written to Mrs. Sylvester concerning the child, in the hopes that that lady would take enough interest in her pretty little cousin to send her to boarding-school ; but they had received no reply till now, all of which was per- fectly right of course, Mrs, Sylvester being undoubtedly occu- pied and Mr.

Sylvester himself being better than any letter. Sylvester upon the receipt of this information. You will never regret anything you may do for her," she went on in a hurried way with a peep now and then towards the door as if while enjoying a momentary freedom of speech, she feared an intrusion that would cut that pleasure short. But there is Belinda," she suddenly exclaimed, rising with the little dip and jerk of her left shoulder that was habitual to her whenever she was amused or excited. Sylvester is in the parlor.

Every man, woman, and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness. Philosophicall Rudiments concerning Government and Society. The Fall of Max Payne ; E.

6 Historical Figures Who May or May Not Have Existed

Divine Cybermancy ; Ryse: Son of Rome Ancient Greek religion and mythology. Dragons in Greek mythology Greek mythological creatures Greek mythological figures List of minor Greek mythological figures. Aphrodite Aphroditus Philotes Peitho. Empusa Epiales Hypnos Pasithea Oneiroi. Angelia Arke Hermes Iris. Apate Dolos Hermes Momus. Circe Hecate Hermes Trismegistus Triple deity.

6 Mythical Monsters

Acherusia Avernus Lake Lerna Lake. Bident Cap of invisibility. Ascalaphus Ceuthonymus Eurynomos Hade's cattle. Agon Panathenaic Games Rhieia. Greek mythology in popular culture. Retrieved from " https: Greek mythology Mythological swords. Pages using citations with format and no URL CS1 Latin-language sources la Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from October Articles containing Greek-language text Commons category link is on Wikidata. Views Read Edit View history. In other projects Wikimedia Commons. This page was last edited on 7 November , at By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

In Richard Westall 's Sword of Damocles , , the boys of Cicero 's anecdote have been changed to maidens for a neoclassical patron, Thomas Hope.

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