Wilmington daily commercial. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1866-1877, 1872-08-17
From AEEieton's 5Ournq
4 LITTLE CONSPIRACY.
by ALBERT WEBSTER, JR.

vollnn man in such II way that the story shall
uossrss IL tolerahle interest requires, first that
,hr fortunes shall he either marvelOusly good
ar maryellnusly bad, and, then, that the hero's
r;.r or fall he directly contingent upon his
,irtucs or bascness. How, then, must that
biorraphcr despair whose subject is passive,
a rrsisless football, II happy-go. lucky, whose
fnith lies in chance, whose pride would per-
nit him to beg thousand pardons rather
Than starve, and whose subsequent career
WINS in nowisc made better or worse by his
,rrsonni trials! One is tempted to stop and
soy 'Thcre is nothing to relate;" but, when
thr present sory-tcllcr is forced to consider
tLr incident which brought his friend to his
y,n4rs il at once seems necessary to make the
hest possihle exhibit of his failings.
Wien Eugene emerged upon the highway,
lac turned to the right, for he knew there was
a railway in that direction, and that he had
lint To ret into the first train of cars to be
carried off somewhere.
At nightfall he was in New York. He
walked across Madison Square, still humming
ia himself lie felt ravenOusly hungry; there
fore he went 10 DelmonicOs 1t never came
into his head to go TO one of the FOurlh-Ave-
irnr restaurants but he had salad, n tilet
of beef with mushrooms, cantaoupe, and n
moi of chOcOlate--all of which cost two dol
lars and twenty cents, and he gave thirty
cents 10 the waiter lie looked at the theat-
rcal advertisements.
ALI" shaid he, 'thcy're playing THE
School for Scandal at Wallacks. Charles
Surface is in that. Hes "a good fellow. I'll
go and see him.
The character was congcnlal. At the
theatre he was amused. Ills enjoyment was
pure: II was not intCrmiXed with awkward
surmiscs regarding the future, or annoying
reflections upon the past. There was pretty
girl. attended by her father and mother, in
one Of the prOScenum boxes; and Eugene
lanccd he caught her eye. lie placed his
hat and gloves in an adjacent unoccupicd
srat, and then threw himself into Il position.
Thus, with beauty ON one side and satire ON
the other, lie became totally isolated from
1hcrrse and his grandmoiher and even the
anatomical glories of Pipin's body disap-
pcarcd from his memory.
However carclcssly and unhecdingly he
dilted along, his good genius had an eye to
his welfare and sent him friend, a school
fellow who happened to be in the theatre.
This friend presently asked him where his
lodgings were
"l.odgingsg" whispered Eugene. sob,
don't know anywhere ] think shall go
To the 81. james; | believe ii is clean and
gcntccl."
1T will cost you about ten dollars day,
whispered the friend.
xviii it, said Eugene.
al think you had better 90 with me to my
chambers, " continued the other. "You can
live very well for quarter of that sum, and
yon can use the rest for your expenses about
town"
VERY well, responded Eugene; "iust as
You like"
That nrht he looked into his wallet. There
was enough to last him week lie was glat
of it, and felt merry. Had there been only
sufficient TO have lasted twenty-lour hours
he would have felt equal ease and content.
lie was elegantly shiGtless and superbly
Indifferent. lie lay in bed late, and arose ii
time 10 read the newspapers before lunch
After lunch he took little black cane, ant
strullrd out To look at the pictures and tn,
people. lie always had a capital dinner, ant
in the evening he invariably went to thu
theatre
One day his friend looked at him with
pcrpeXed expression, and said:
''Bul, my dear boy, how long can yOl
keep this upY You don't earn anything, AM
you are at daggcrs-drawn with all your fam
lily Where is the 'wherewih' to come lromI
"Oh," responded Eugene, "out of the air
supposc-0ut Of the earth, the dust, wher
came from myself If Nature evolved mt
she has got to evolve something to suppOl
me. This cvolvcC is an irresponsible insiru
mcnt.
Ills friend loaned him the linen he required
and Eugene wore it without II blush
1t must not he supposed that he carried
heavy heart beneath Ills seeming indifference
This young man saw nothing, realized notl
inc, uslircd to nothing. lie was like blat
der in rapid, now tossed up, now submerged
Knocked hithrr and thither, but still preserN