Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1885-03-26

eeSis ~ -..ila-Ie, and give her my thanks in
advance
Pierre departed, taking the coat with him.
began turning over the pages Of the English
book, reading a passage here and there, and
trying to reckon the time it would take us to
translate 1t. Raoul was an excellent English
scholar; / could read that language fairly.
We had done this kind Of work once or
twice before.
Every now and then looked across the
room to see whether Raoul was not awake.
But he did not stir. The heavy, regular
breathing continued; heseemed to be sleeping
very soundly.
By chance my eye fell on RaouTs letter,
which had laid on tho table beside me.
stretched forth my hand, took it and looked at
the address; letters in those days were
enough Of rarity TO make one curious. The
handwriting was strange to me. Twas about
tolay the letter down, when noticed these
words on the front of the envelope, ''Odeon
Theatre" Imagine my wonder, my delight
There was but one conclusion to be drawn
from letter which came unaccompanied by
the manuscript. RaouIs comedy was &C
ceptedl For weeks past / had been telling my
self, 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 eccepted!-thGt would change
everythingl No more living in garret for
Raoul-no more dining at eight sous-no
more translating dry English books-and as
many presents on New Years day as he cared
to buyi In q moment was out Of bed, the
letter in ny hand.
"Raouln There was no answer. "Raoull"
in louder voice. Still no answer. "Heav-
ensl how he sleeps! RaoulW-laying my
hand on his shoulder and gently shaking him.
Still neither speech nor molten. "He must
have been very late last night. Where the
devil can he have gone? Raoul, waken, won't
you9 Here is letter from"
Just then / caught sight of his face in the
feeble light of tho snow-obscured window.
Its appearance alarmed me-almost gave me
shock. 1t was fever-fushed, 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 q
natural slumber. Ishook him more violently;
still he did not awake.
Iwent across the room, and looked into q
drawer of the writing-table, where knew
Raoul kept vial containing a solution Of
morphia. He had been troubled at one time
by insomnia, resulting from overwork, and
the doctor had given him this as = sleeping
draught found the vial; it was empty.
This at first frightened mo terribly, until
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. re-
solved on giving him q little time longer to
awake, and meanwhile went to bed again
My clothes were still far from dry, and the
cold was Siberian.
/ had not lain in bed ten minutes before I
was startled by Raoul moaning and restlessly
moving his arms, as if in the act Of climbing
"a singular motion. Then he began to talk
in his sleep, at f1st loudly; ut is the same