The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-03-29

upon MS ROUNDS Tor the day.
CHAPTER XII.
EMERALD.
But, though he passed as usual through
Bean street, he received no good morning.
She who alone had been wont to greet this
old beggar- man-for to such a pass as this
he had almost come now, seeing that the
whole of his breakfast had been crust of
bread dropped by one of his enemies, the
children of the gutter-was herself break
fasting upon sunshine in Soho Square
Not that he thought much about the mat
ter; his mind was TOO full of the Emerald
to think much of the Pearl; But still he
was almost conscious of a sensation with
which his want Of food had nothing to do,
and of missing his days one transient
CLEAN of sunshine. But the only result
was that his waking visions of the night
were more vivid, more wildly Intoxicating
than ever. Whether they were simply
induced by an exhausted condition of body,
or whether they actually and in sober truth
streamed out of the Emerald, may be an
open question; but it is certain that on this
occasion the stone had to do double duty,
and to make up for the now unbroken
wretchedness of the day. Not only so, but
the knowledge that he might now, at any
moment he chose, by DESERVING the mis-
tress of his life, cast all such wretchedness
to the winds and become ag ain rich man
even among rich men, added in no slight
measure to the indescribable fascination
that she had by this time come to exercise
over this slave of the stone. No, he could
not surrender this most glorious creature
to unapnreciative hands. There were mo-
ments, indeed, when he was ready to sink
down with exhaustion, at which lie even
went so far as to make up his mind to do
so; but when the moment came for put
ting his resolve into execution, his heart
failed him. Why should he do SO at this
particular moment, when any other mo-
ment would do just as we'll? Why
should he not retain his empress for just
one instant more? He would, at all events,
put off the evil day as long as he could
! But the result of this continual procrasti-
| ton was that every moment of delay riv-
eted more strongly the chains in which he
was bound. Everybody is the slave of
| some inconsistent monomania; and he was,
| after all, no more inconsistent than the
| drunkard who knows that brandy is kill
ing him, who VOWS to give it up, but can
| not do so without just one glass more
Every one knows that that last glass never
comes.
That night he seemed to be not. as
usual, in some recognizably Eastern quar-
ter of the world, but in the very depths of
the earth, though the pale, clear, green
light was the same. But the light was not
| SO uniform or SO steady as before. The
spot in which he found himself was one of
which no pick-a1e had as yet sounded
And yet the countless heaps of jewels that
cleaned above, below and around were as
| perfectly bright as if they had come fresh
from the hand of the lapidary, and as if
they were shons upon by the sun at noon
day. In size and in form, however, they
were such as no earthly eye had seen or
any earthly hand fashioned. The smallest
diamond there was of the size of an ostrich's
egg, and there were rubies like roses, sap
plires like blue hyacinths, and emeralds
| like festoons of green leaves, from which
hung, for dew drops, long stalactites, that
cleaned with all the colors of the opal, and
whose drops, as they slowly formed and
| fell, hardened, some into amethysts, others
| into pearls. 1t was cavern of wealth
| beyond conception, and it was infinite
There was no end to the long corridors
that, branching out to every point Of the
compass, appeared to lead into boundless
space, and to honeycomb the whole earth
with labyrinth of catacombs. Sound was
whelming silence; even the drops as they
| fell made neither splash nor echo. 1t was
the very heaven of avarice, in which he
enjoyed at once all the wealth of tho world,
|
alone! When he laid his hand upon the
emerald itself, he seemed to grasp it all
to enjoy it luxuriously as mere wealth, for
its own sake, was surely never enjoyed
before. Vast as it was, he, standing there.
was able to hold it in the hollow of his
hand. 1t became meat and drink, life and
love, fame and beauty, and filled him with
satisfaction such as cannot be given by any
of these. No wonder that he could not
bring himself to part with the fountain of
such supreme beautitude; no wonder that
men should have lost ere now the king
doms of earth and of heaven in order to
gain or to keep it, if it brought to others
such visions as it brought to him. Grad
ually, as he was reveling in this luxury of
universal possession, faint, grayish CLEAN
of light appeared, like an tgnis futuus, at a
distance along one of the longest corridors,
which had been thrown into comparative
darkness by heavy mist that e1haled
from banks of rudy gold. This faint, dis
tant light he instinctively followed, still
grasping hard his talisman, and was slowly
overtaking it-indeed he was within arms
reach-when it resolved itself suddenly
into something resembling the unsubstan-
tial likeness of human form floating in a
pearly vapor of moonlight that served it
for veil. At the same time he emerged
through the side of the mountain into open
day, and, standing on the edge of sheer
height, saw lying beneath him vast plain,
above which the sun was shining in noon
tide splendor. 1t was as if he were looking
down upon the Kingdoms of the world and
the glory of them. The yelled form that
he had followed began to hover upward
with the doubtful, tremulous movement Of
young bird just essaying to try itsnewly'
f fedged wings, while its moonlight gray.
ness changed in the sunshine into the un
defined rainbow hues that attracted his
eyes from the prospect below. At last, al
at once, as though its strength of wing hac
come, it fairly lost all human semblance
and, like a flash of white flame, made