Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1886-01-29

street, walked quickly, walked for minutes
without any other purpose but to walk
and think.
II there vera such a fond as the in
triguing gentleman in che opsra Of Faust"
moving along with him and inspiring his
thoughts, n could imagins such a Mephis-
topheles pausing now and then to rub bis
invisible hands.
It was a fright summer night, with a
lofty. far-away sky, IN which a few stars
shone brightly. Needsam walke1 as far
as the park, sat in a seat for some tins, re-
turned along Oxford street, and back to
Portland place, opened his door with his
latch key, went into his room again, and
finging himself into his chair remained in
an attitude Of intense thought.
MANY a man comes to London" he said
presently to himselE ''and is heard of no
more. He is on his way to a foreign land;
it Is thought he has gone thither, but he re-
mains in London; sometimes he is dead and
sometimes he lives People are missing
daily; they are advertised in the papers;
they dom wish to return; they are dead,
or wish to be thought SO. A man leaves
home to go to America, Australia; he is in
earnest, but doesn' t arrive; or if he does, it
is months before he can be heard from;
months must elap3e if no letters come be-
fore he can be followed up. What is one
life more or less, his or mine, or anybody'sl
Life is a battle; it has its wounded, its
killed, and its missing"
He paused, and lighted another cigar;
the one in his hand was only half consumed
lie slipped a little brandy AMI water.
GtHJpu li1 bo all ,oa CO u,,,ol, aIo,,A ts~,
self Why did everything he said seem to
drive a nail into my first thought as if to fix
it into my mind-a nail in his coffin! |
asked myself a while ago before his exis"
tence was made known to me if l were mad.
and the conclusion I arrived at was that I
had begun to come to my senses | had
been mad, l thought-mad to do what / had
done, mad TO forge, and lie, and cheat, and
now that had resolved to end it ali ] was
sane. And now9 Is it the demon that has
possession Of me, or a guardian angela !
once read a German legend Of q man who
was two, one invisible except to himself
and that they were never separated, Is IL
], alone, who have seen this other self? No,
other men at the club talked to him. Why
did l keep away from him until I found an
opportunity to be near him-he in the light
Of the lamp, l in the shadow, so that they
should not see the likeness! 1t is a mystery.
| was already In the valley and shadow OF
DEATHS he one of the mysteries OF the
valley? We have our doubles in the spirit
world, theysay-a familiar like ourselves,
who, if seen, would be our very image. Is
this my spirit materialize1, my familiar
come to my rescue?"
The clock of an adjacent church struck
two. He paused on this last thought to
listen.
1.-TWO" he said, and looked at his watch.
'Ill sleep on it-if / can, if l can"
He heard the same clock strike three, and
four, and five, and fell asleep at last, to
dream that he had taken poison; that it
had parolyze1 all his physical powers; that
he was laid out and conscious Of the prep
arations for his burial; saw his brother
and his father and his mother stand by
him; heard them say it was better thus
after %all-better than transportation for
life; heard the voices of a great crowd out
side the room believing for his corpse-for
the scoundrel who had ruined them, for the
fend who had robbed the widow and the
orphan, and their cries awoke him.
He started up in alright, leapad' from
the bed, stood painting in the middle of the
room, went to the window and looked out.
A party Of ladies and gentlemen were leav-
ing the opposite house in Incorporating cos
tune. Thsro had been a fancy ball, and
the last OF the merry guests were being
banded into their carriages.