Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1885-12-04

oat 70 Madame and give her my thanks in
! advanm.n
Pierre departed, taking the coat with him.
Ibegan turning over the pages Of tho English
book, reading a passage here and there, and
trying 70 reckon the timei 1t would take US to
translate it. Raoul was an excellent English
scholars l could read that language fairly.
We had done this kind Of work q c OF
twice before.
Every now and then I looked across the
room to SEQ whether Raoul was not awake.
But he did not stir. The heavy, regular
breathing continued; hoseened to DO sleeping
very soundly.
By chance my eye fell On Raoul's letter,
which l had laid on the table beside me /
stretched forth my hand, took it andIookeda at
the address; letters in those days were
enough Of a rarity to make one curious. The
handwriting was strange to me. 1 was about
to lay the letter down, when l noticed these
words on tho front Of the envelope, "Odeon
Theatre" Imagine my wonder, my delight!
There was but one conclusion to be drawn
from q letter which came u~naccompanied bv
the manuscript. Raoul's comedy was ac-
cepted! For weeks past l had been telling my
self, l had been assuring Raoul, that nothing
was more certain to happen than this. But
now, when it had actually happened-for the
letter seemed sufficient evidence of that
could scarcely realize at first that it was true.
The comedy a~ccepted!-that would change
everything! No more living in a garrett for
Raoul-no moro dining at eight ous-no
more translating dry English books-and as
many presents on New Years day as he cared
to buy! In a moment | was out of bed, tie
letter in my hand.
"Raoul!" There wasno answer. "Raoulln
in a louder voice. Still no answer. "Heay-
ems! how he sleepsl Raoulr'-Iaying nv
hand on his shoulder and gently shaking him.
Still neither speech nor motion. HE must
have been very late last night. Where the
devil can he have gomez Raoul, waken, won't
you? Here is a letter from"
Just then / caught sight of his face in the
feeble light of the -snow-obscurcd window.
Its appearance alarmed me-almost gave me
a shock. 1t was fever-dusned, and tinged
with purple under the eyes; the lips were
tense; at the corners of the mouth something
like foam had gathered. The breathing was
slow, deep-drawn; this did not seem to me a
natural slumber. Ishook him more violently;
still he did not awake.
l went across the room, H1a 1JoheG into q
drawer of the writing-table, where I knew
Raoul kept a vial containing p solution Of
morphia. He had been troubled at one time
by insomnia, resulting from overwork, and
the doctor had given him this as u sleeping
draught. found the vial; it was empty.
This at first frightened me terribly, until I
remembered that there could not have been
much more than one dose left in the bottle
certainly not enough to be dangerous. Still,
Raouls feverish look made me uneasy. l re-
solved on giving him a little time longer to
awake, and meanwhile went to bed again.
My clothes were still far from dry, and the
cold was Siberian.
l had not lain in bed ten minutes before /
startled by Raoul moaning and restlessly
moving his arms, as if in the act of climbing
singular motion. Then he began to talk
his sleep, at first loudly; ut is the same