American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-11-14
VOL. NNIV.

. no help for it but to recognize him an &C
quaintance, at any rate. Finding each othe
so frequently face to face in the same place
beneath the same roof and even at the SAM
table, what could we do, eventually, but laugh
and nod, and say, what, yoU here" An'
then we shook hands.
Still | protest that l knew little Of hin
beyond what he told me. But then wha
does one really know of any man beyont
what he tells one of himself? And certainly
that is not always to he relied on. did not
| may add, like Stercker; still less did ] re
spect him; although had perhaps no specia
reason for not respecting him beyond mere
prejudice of a fanciful, and possibly of an un
warrantable, kind He was, by no means
however, the man should have selected for
friend or even for an acquaintance had choice
been permitted me in the matter But il
wasn't / was doomed to meet Sterickcr in.
cessantly and so it CHANGED that we came to
be almost terms of intimacy with each
other. At least he came to be on terms OF
intimacy with me. And he called me g old
| fellow" did not approve of this; indeed
though. it liberty; but what could / do:
| was not really DID, at any rate, not very
| old. But no doubt | had arrived ut that
| period of life when the question of age in
| its relation to oneself is rather to be avoided
than discussed lest there should arise per-
sonal application which could hardly be 9TH
| crwise than inconvenient
And now had occurred this accident at the
1
| quaintance with Stericker and converting it
almost into a friendship He expressed
great gratitude for the assistance had rem
dered. him, although, in truth, it had been
| little enough. But again and again he
thanked me, and presently, his wounded head
having been skillfully dealt with and re-
ieved by the application of strips Of plaster,
| found myself at his lodgings in Half Moon
street, sitting in an easy-chair smoking Il
| cigar and drinking temperate mixture Of
| brandy land water. Until then / had never
really known where Stericker lived.
And SO you saw her throw down the
opera glass ~ he said, returning to the sub
ject of the accident. / corrected him. had
seen no such thing. But he did not pay
much attention to what said.
And how did she look? Handsome, of
course. She was always that; though she
certainly is not now nearly so young as when
l first met her-and loved her. For what
could do then but love her. Have you ever
been in love, old fcllow:' he demanded, alb
ruptly-
said 1 thought I had. For 1 felt at the
moment that it was not thing a man could
be quite certain about, and rather objected
to the question; and on that account pre-
ferred to give a somewhat evasive answer. |
did not wish painful memories to be awak-
ened; they had been asleep and very still for
Il good many years.
If you doubt about it why then you never
have" said Stericker, oracularly. There
can be no mistake about an attack of love any
more than about fit of the govt. / have
suffered from both Affections. In my time l
have loved d good deal, and 1 have, in
turn, been loved very much indeed. say it
without vanity"
But he said it with vanity, and it was to
that l objected. He outstretched his right
arm, bringing an expanse of wristband into
view, and raised his hand to his head
though about tc pass his fingers through his
hair and crest it up, after the invariablc man
ner of the self-satisfed and vain glorious.
For the moment he had forgotten how bald
plaster that cross-barred his crown, In dis
covering anew these infirmities he evidently
experienced considerable modification.
I had heard Stercker described as hand
some but that had never been my opinion of
him. No, he was never, he never could have
been, handsome. He was always well dressed,
although inclined to make an excessive, and,
therefore, a rather vulgar, display of the
jewelrv he possessed. His teeth, it is true,
were superb but was never quite convinced
that they were the natural products of his own
gums-ind his nose was of that large, tleshy
Roman form which has always Obtained, to
my thinking, an extravagant measure OF ad-
miration from the world in general (My own
nose | NAV mention, is altogether of smaller
and of totally different PATTERN
Then he was very upright, carrying before
him his protruding waistcoat with consider
able dignity Moreover, there was something
imposing about his sspect and manner, arts
ing I think, from his imperturbable and
deeply rooted self-confdence and his fixed
upon them if he possibly could, his own
estimate of himself. Still, there was some
thing decidedly sinister about the expression
of Stericker's face; and especially when he
smiled. 1t was singularly wicked smile,
that wrinkled his nose curiously, produced
strange dents and dark flush upon his fore
head and brought down the inner corners of
his eyebrows close to his eyes after a decided
ly ominous fashion.
have loved and been loved" he repeated
d" and don't mind owning, have in my time
lifted and been Tilted" He said this with a
sort of morbid Don Giovanni air that |
thought particularly Objectionable " Arabel-
la Tilted me- he resumed, and has never
forgiven herself for it, nor me either. How
fair she in those days. She's fair still,
tor that matter, though she uses more pearl
powder now than she did. Fair but false.
Women are often that, you know. Shall |
say alwaps"
i deprecated such an assertion. According
to my experience it was far too sweeping. He
that | was right, possibly. Yet, 1t
seemed to me, he despiscd me for my modera-
ton.
''You remarked this stud" He produced
the stud we had searched for at his request,
g 1t would have panied me very much if had
lost it. / regard it a precious relic. 1t
belonged to Arabela once. In fact-why |
should disguise the truth from you.-that
stud is formed out of one of Arabella's front
teeth"
to contemplate. His confession had certainly |
startled me. There was something dreadful |
about it, and he had the air of Indian |
brave exhibiting a scalp. He gloried in the |
possession of Arabclla's front tooth! How |
had he obtained it? ventured to demand. |
Was it q pledge of affection? Could they |
possibly have exchanged teeth as ordinary |
lovers exchange locks of hair? hardly knew |
what was saying, or Of what was thinking.
g / a dentist in those days" he said |
What he had been before that, and since; |
what profession he followed at the moment |
of his addressing me, j really had no idea |
% And Arabella was one of my patients. But |
she was no ordinary patient. She was some |
thing more, much more than that. She was |
for while my affianced bride. / loved her,
and she loved meat least, we thought that |
We loved each other"
" And you didn't!'
We'll, we didn't, as it happened, love each
other quite so much we thought we did.
In fact, both were disappointed, and, perhaps,
a trife deceived She thought I had money;
hadn't. | had been told that she was an
heiress. Well, she was nothing of the kind.
Still, l am a man of integrity, though you
may not think it. l had promised marriage;
l, fully proposed to be as good as my word:
The idea Of terminating our engagement did
not come from me. But Arabella's temper
was imperfect; she was far from patient; She
was ambitious and, j must add, avaricious
and deceitful. She triiled with me. She still
held me enchaincd, but she encouraged the
addresses Of another and Il Weather suitor.
She designed to employ me merely
means of irritating his jealousy and OF stiInU
latng him to declare himself. Then / to
be flung aside as something worthless, be
cause it had served her purpose, and was done
with In good time ] discovered her treach-
cry. | had intercepted her lctters--no matter
how-and ] knew all. But Of that she enter