Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-10-17

swift, silent and strong his evil power
thrilled through my veins. My little
brother was in my arms, rare occur
renee, for the child feared aud disliked
me, but this night our guardians wife had
requested me to carry him up stairs to
his nurse, which request / was obeying
at the time.
"At the head of the staircase paused
and looked down. During my ascent l
had been thinking, thinking, thinking. p
Twenty high steps lay beneath me-
solid marble. 8fk NIWN H
ut was very dark; the lamps had not
yet been lit in the halls. No one was
near. The child clung to me in fear his
little arms were clasped tightly around
my neck. bis baby face buried upon my
shoulder.
"What followed then? Iunloosed his
arms--I held him over the stone stair
case, and simultaneously with his shrek
Of terror, / dashed him down the steps
bis little body rolled, rolled, rolled, and
fell with sickening thud upon the lower
landing.
"a frenzied horror and remorse came
over me--my brain whirled-my limbs
refused to support my body; one awful
scream issued from my lips, and then
consciousness forsook me. The awaken
ing Of that swoon was the beginning of
the tortured, haunting life, which has
been mine ever since. From the mo-
ment in which | said / tripped and fell,
and he slipped from my arms, my young
soul sbuddering at the ghsstly ,lie, took
up its burden of guilt and remorse, and
turned away from the bitterness of the
world into darkness self-created and
hopeless as despair itself.
AT twenty-five years of age | left
England and came to America with the
illgotten gains which became mine upon
attaining my msjority. TguIfEn
! II hoped in the change from the Old
to the New World, to find pleasure and
excitement which might serve to deaden
the remorse which gnawed necessarily
at my heart.
"In vain The awful shadow of guilt
fell across my footsteps, let me go where
| would. / began to hate my life--for
that which brings oblivion to the ac-
cursed-to pray God to let me die.
Then | met her-Lucia-whom you
knew as my, loving and beloved wife.
God took her from me ere we had been
FIVE years married it was better. did
not grieve for her-I had found in her
noble, trusting love less of happiness
than anguished self-reproach.
After that, the years went by linger-
ingly, and the death for which / prayed
seemed to retreat from me mockiHgly as
| stretched out my yearning arm toward
it.
at has come at last-for this, thank
God, it is meant that should die upon
the anniversary Of the night. when
when
"God have mercy upon me Come
closer to me, James, closer-closer. How
pale you are, and your hands are icy
cold. 1t was horrible story, wasn't it ?
A Cain at ten years of age. ] have
guarded my secret well-thirty-f five years
--thirty-five years"
The servant shuddered and drew back
from the dying clutch of Errold's fingers.
u will ring the bell, " he said in fear
full, husky voice, "and send some one for
Doctor -"
Ere the physicians nams passed his
lips, the death-rattle sounded in MS mas
ter's throat; the head fell back upon its
pillow, and a weird, hickering smile
curved the pallid lips--the guilty man
was dead--and the old servant, with
cry of suppressed fear, fed away from
the still, chastity presence which bore
upon its white, upturned face the impress
of a lost soul.