, 1889-07-12

NAAe NAN VI AAhaN "AAA I'll LLlG
to the colonies as a marine for five years
at least, and l leave my mother without
resources, and with my father, who has
never drunk as he drinks now, or been so
wicked. Poor people are certainly ac-
cursedr
"Ah-h! NJ. lie Cure, the horrible night
l have passed! The twenty years efforts
Of this poor mother destroyed in a single
instant by the turn of a chancel the sim
pie rummaging of n hand in a sackl the
Withdrawing of a lettered scrap!
at was barely daylight when arose
this morning and returned TO the build
ing which l am helping to construct
on the Boulevard Arego. Works. the
only relief for suffering, and 1 climbed
to my place-the walls are already to
the fourth story-and began to lay the
bricks. Suddenly q hand touched my
shoulder; l turned; it was Philippe,
working today through q caprice, and
the patron, under contract for a certain
time, had accepted him-the first conner.
Il had not seen Philippe until this
morning for a long, long while, and /
had difficulty to recognize him. Burned
and withered away by eau de vie, with
gray hair and shaking hands, he was an
old man, a hideous and bloated ruin.
"'And So l said to him, for my heart
was full, the lad has drawn n bad num-
BERT
IA bad number, sayT he repeat
ed, in n rough voice and with n wicked
look, and why n bad number, pray? Are
you, too, rs stupid as the rest-as mother
and son? Camille should serve his coun-
try as the others serve her, though /
know very well what it is that both of
them wish; If / was dead, you see,' and
he leered Mt me with n hideous grin on
his bloated lips, if l was dead he
wouldn't go. But-and SO much the
worse for them-Tm solid as a post still,
n Camille is not the son of n widowr
1.-THE son of a widowl
"Ah-h, NJ. 10 Cure, why did he say
those words before me-in thai spot of
all others? l, whom he had outraged in
every way whom he had made to suffer
SO much, and who still suffered so much
under the suffering he inflicted upon
others? Like n flash a bad thought came
into my mind-a thought hat stayed
with me all day long, as side by side /
worked with this mani That poor Cath
erine-what torture he would infict
uDOi Itl htI Bin Il1ll no longer u son
to protect her against n miserable drunk
ard, always ugly, always evil under the
lash of liqnor, and capable of being
more.
-Four o'clock struck and 1 was still
thinking of this; then . o'clock, then
$3.50. The men had all descended; Phil
ippe and i were the last to start, and in
the very act of disappearing in his turn
he stopped an instant to look above him
and to say-God knows what possessed
him-to say with n sneer that was simply
devilish:
al have always a sailors foot, you
see; Camille isn't near to being the son
of q widowr
IN. 10 Cure, for a moment l was mad
with anger and revolt at the fate which
this man had drawn upon us all. had
only to stretch out a hand to end every
~thing-only to seize the ladder to which
Philippe chung and to send it whirling
into space; l had only to do this, l say,
and NJ. 10 Cure-I did it'll
"He was stone dead when they picked
him up. There was no one to say it was
not an accident, and Camille-wen, Ca
mile is the Vol of n widow now and he
will not gol 1t is | who will 60, who
will emigrate to America, for l dare not
stayl
II have told the truth to you and to
the good God, and l repent, but should
stay and see Catherine in her black robe,
and SO happy and proud on the arm of
her son, her own at last, 1 know that /
should repent no longcr-that 1 should
cease to regret my bad action.
"As for a penance, NJ. lie Cure, take
you this, n golden trinket l bought for
Catherine when she should be my wife,
and which l have always treasured. Sell
it now. and divide the money among the
poori"
Did Jacques rise up absolved of his sin
by the Able Faber? Who knows? But
that which Is certain is this-the priest
did not sell the golden trinket given him
by the hand of n murderer under the
seal and shadow of the confessional. He
turned the price of it, or as near it as he
could guess, into the Golfer of the church,
but he suspended it like an ex vote upon
the altar of the chapel of the Virgin, be-
fore which he daily prays for the soul of
the poor mason.-Translated from the
French of Francois Coppee by E. c.
Waggener for The New York Mercury.