Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1884-05-22
ealts aud Sketfhes.
from All the Year Round.
fHI FACE IN fME GLASS.
(Continued from yesterday.

1T sometimes think generally-hap-
mans that the presence OF any one who
stands and watches beside a sleeping man
will wake him, unless his slumbers are
unusually heavy. Ii was so now. While
we looked at him, the sleeper awoke very
suddenly, and fixed his eyes upon us. de
nuts out his hand and took the doctors ID
| its feeble grasp. Who is that he asked
next pointing towards me-
sDo YOU wish him to go? The gentle
man knows something of your sufferings,
and is powerfully interested in your case
but he will leave US, if you wish it," the
I doctor said.
mo. Let him stay"
Seating myself out of sight. but where
could both see and hear what passed.
waited for what should follow. DIR. Gar
den and John Massey stood beside the bed.
There was moments pause.
IL want looking-glass said Strange ;
without word Of preface.
We all started to hear him say those
words.
al am dying" said Strange; Twill You
not grant me my request ?"
/ Doctor Garden whispered to old Massey ;
and the latter left the room. He was not
absent long, having gone no further than
the next house. He held an oval-framed
mirror in his hand when he returned. A
shudder passed through the body OF the
sick man as he saw it.
Put. it down." he said. faintly,-'any-
where-for the present"
| No one of US spoke. / do not think. in
that moment of suspense, that we could,
anv of US, have spoken if we tried.
The sick man tried to raise himself a
little Prop me up" he said. 81 speak
with difficulty have something to say"
They put pillows behind him, so as to
raise his head and body.
81 have presently use for it, he said
indicating the mirror. IL want to see"
he stopped and seemed to change his mind.
He was sparing of his words. II want to
tell-all about it, Again he was silent.
then he seemed to make great effort and
spoke once more. eginning very abrupt
ly.
loved my wife fondly. loved her
her name was Lucy. She was English :;
but, after we were married. we lived long
abroad in italy, She liked the country.
and liked what she liked. She liked to
draw. too, and | got her master. He
was an Italian. | will not give his name
w Z always Cdllcu lLC NhdSUCi. n
treacherous, insidious man this was. and
under cover of his profession. took ad-
vantage of his opportunity and taught my
wife to love him-to love him.
Il am short of breath. | need not enter
into details as to how l found them out;
but did find them out. We were away
on sketching expedition when | made
the discovery. My rage maddened me, and
there was one at hand who tomented my
madness. My wife had a maid, who, it
seemed, had also loved this man,-the
Master.-and had been illtreated and de-
serted by him. She told me ALL She had
PLAYED the part Of go-between,-bad car
ried letters. When she told me these
things, it was night in solitary italian
town, among the mountains.
"He is in his room now," she said,
writing to her,
"A frenzy took possession of me as
listened tie those words. | am naturally
dictive, remember that, and now my long
ing for vengence was like thirst. Trav-
cling in those lonely regions, l was
armed and, when the woman said, He
is writing to your wife, laid hold of my
pistols. as by an instinct. 1t has been
some comfort to me since, that l took
them both. Perhaps at that moment,
may have meant fairly by him,-meant
fairly by him,-meant that we should
fight. don't know what meant, quite.
The woman's words, He is in his own
room now rung in my ears.
The sick man stopped to take breath
bly not more than two minutes before he
spoke again.
II managed to get into his room unob-
served. Indeed, he was altogether alb
sorbed in wha, he was doing. He was
sitting at the table in the room. writing at
travelling desk, by the light of single
candle. 1t was rude dressing table,
and-and before him-there was-there
was a looking glass.
Il stole up behind him as he sat and
wrote by the light of the candle. looked
over his shoulder at the letter. and read,
Dearest Lucy. my love. my darling As
read the words, Ipulled the trigger of
the pistol / held in my right hand. and
killed him,-killed him, but, before he
died, he looked up once,-not at me. but
at nv image before him in the glass, and
| his face-such face-has been there
ever Observation-Disclosures facets
gonen'
He fell back exhausted. and we all
pressed forward thinking that he must be
dead. he Law so still.
But he had not yet passed away. He
tried to speak, and muttered indistinctly
from time to time words of which we
could make no sense. We understood
however, that he had been tried by an Ital
ian tribunal. and had been found guilty
but with such extenuating circumstances
that his sentence was commuted to impris-
onment, during, we thought we made out
two years. But we could not understand
what he said about his wife. though we
gathered that she was still alive, from
something he whispered to the doctor OF
there being provision made for her IN his
will.
He lay in doze for something more
than an hour after he had told his tale. and
then he woke up quite suddenly. as he had
| done when we had first entered the room.
He looked around uneasily in all direc-
tons, until his eye fell on the looking
glass.
II want it." he said hastily: but |
noticed that he did not shudder now. as il