The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1880-12-31
THE GOLD SOVEREIGN.

''Red vins!"
It was the croupier's hoarse cry, again
and again reiterated, only diversified
with that of "red losesp' which broke
the stiffness in the superbly appointed
room at Homburg, with the gaming
table In its center, around which were
gathered its votaries, behind whom were
the scarcely less interested group of
IOOkers-on.
"Come away, my DEAR" said very
lovely woman among the spectators, in a
whisper, to her husband 81 am sorry
that we came. This is no place for Pearl"
indicating with q nod OF the head, as she
spoke, an exquisitely beautiful girl,
scarcely more than child, of some
twelve or thirteen summers, who stood
beside them.
Come. Pearl, the father said. "a,
But the girl stood entranced, her eyes
fixed upon a mans face, seated at the
farthest end of the table. It was a
strikingly handsome face, even when
wearing, as it now did, an expression of
calm, born of desperation. No tinge of
color was in either cheek or lips.
His eyes shone with strange and
hard glitter, and were fixed upon the
balls as they swung round, as though on
the color uppermost hung his hope of
life or death.
And so it was He had sat down pos
sessed OF fortune; he arose beggar!
Fate had steadily pursued him with mock
ing hopelessness, until he had placed his
stake only to see it mercilessly swept
from him.
He half arose from the table. What
morewas to be done, save to go out some
where into the still night air and send
bullet through his heart or brain.
1t was ut this moment the girl, with
flushed cheeks and half-parted lips,
darted up to his side.
"Take this" she pleaded, 'for nv
sake, and pressed gold piece into his
hand.
He turned. To his excited imagina-
ton she seemed scarcely mortal in her
pure child-like loneliness. His first I'M
pulse was to return her offering-he was
not yet an -taker-but again rang
out She croupiers cry of command to
place the stakes.
AAAS SllAiNi oObONt bISdttllGSS Ill Her eager
expectancy, her eyes burning with fever
ish interest.
A sudden impulse overmastered him
Without speaking word, he placed the
gold upon the table.
The next minute small pile of gold
was at his elbow. He staked it all again
And he won. bright spot of scarlet
replaced the pallor in his cheek, which
spread and deepened as Dame Fortune,
who had so persistently frowned
upon him, now reserved for him only
her smiles.
Morning was breaking when he rose
from the tables, no longer o desperate
man, but with his fortune three fold re-
turned to him.
After his first winning ne had turnedto
return to the child her offering, but she
had vanished Should he ever find her,
ever repay the debt? He knewnot but,
standing at last out under the clear, blue
sky, with great weight lifted from his
heart and brain, Harold Clayton vowed
that it should be his life-search, but that
the lesson taught him should never be
forgotten, and the gaming-tables should
know him never more.
Six years passed, and Harold Clayton
was winning name and fame in his own
land, in his profession as an artist.
Standing one night in a crowded as
sembly, some one in passing touched
him lightly on the arm with her fan, and
glanolng around, he met the smiling face
OF his hostess.
Come, she said, 'T want to present
you tony belle. If you can prevail upon
her to give you sitting, and transfer her
colorng to canvass, you will render your
self immortal.
rs she, then, so beautifully" he ques-
ton2d
Judge for yourself" she lightly re-
joined, leading him to little group doing
homage to the fair girl in its center.
Miss Reyburn-Mr. Clayton, were
the formal words of the introduction, as
Harold bowed in acknowledgement be-
Tore the woman whom his artistic eve con-
fessed the most beautiful that in all his
wanderings he had ever met.
Before the evening was ended he might
have added, the first woman he ever
rove6, Since she mad awakened In nm an
interest as new as it was strange.
Through the next week her face
haunted him. Then they met again. and
the charm grew and deepened He could
not define it; he scarcely acknowledged
1t to himself: only away from Miss Rey-
burn ne was restless and uneasy. until he
again found himself within the scope of
her destinations.
Yet her nature renamed an enigma to
him. Although so young in years. so
beautiful in form and feature. she seemed
cold even to haughtiness, reticent almost
to sccrn.
1t was as though some exquisite mar
bic statue had risen i'll his pathway.
which might some day warm into life
She welcomed him whenever they met
with manner which, while it gave him
no cause for complaint, yet chilled the
hope springing within his breast.
One day, on going to her home. the
servant met him at the door with the an
nouncement that she was very i'll. This
knowledge brought other knowledge
the fact that he could no longer conceal
from himself that he loved her, and that
upon his hope q vinning her hung his
LIES happiness