, 1889-10-26
A STRANGE COMPACT.

~ WAS uFedIJ HlRut III tine Winter Oh
IL. Outside a heavy fog filed the mar
row unsavory streets Of the metropolis,
and the lungs and eyes of such u~nfortu-
mates as CHANGED to be abroad. 1t ever
invaded the small wooden sanctums of
the night Waterman, interfering with
slumbers to which the inmates were both
by age and office entitled. Across the
river. in the dingy, i'll paved lanes of the
borough, the fog seemed at its worst, a
light warmish haze being the only indi-
cation Of the presence Of those shops
which still remained open, and round
which small i'll clad urchins with the
most unmistakable intentions persistent
ly lowered
"a sweet night for footpads," NUT
tered young DR.. Mostyn, as he disen-
gagged himself from a chance rencontre
with a post, and felt his way along by
tapping with his stout stick at the house
walls, a proceeding by which he had al
ready severely damaged the legs of three
of his suffering fellow creatures, and
poked a large hole in the kitchen window
of.a fourth. "And now" he continued,
talking to himself for the sake of COM
pany. 'for home and supper and n fire.
All, and a patient or two, perhaps. Who
knows?"
At this cheering prospect his spirits
rose. and he banged nightly at the wall
with his stick in consequence, until at
length, coming to a small street on his
right, he turned smartly down, and hav-
ing made sure of his own door knocked
briskly at 1t.
who's therey' cried a shrill female
voice in response.
Its /, Bet" said her master. "open
the door, my good girl"
Not il l knows it," was the cheering
reply. you take yourself off, young
man, whoever you are. There's two
bulldogs and three men with loaded guns
standing by me, to say nothing
open the door, Beti' roared her mas
ter through the keyhole. Don't you
know mey'
sis it nine o'clock or is it elevenY' pro-
pounded the damsel; because If it's
eleven O'Clock my eyes deceive me, and
If it's nine o'clock your voice deceives
me; for the doctor said he'd be home at
eleven and not before, and considering
the fog l should say a good deal AFTER"
open the doorf" said the surgeon,
sharply. I'm back already because my
patients dead. Come; open at oncei"
There was a creaking and shooting Of
bolts as he finished speaking, and the
door being cautiously opened discovered
an angular woman of some fve-and-
thirty years, whose nervous face cleared
directly she saw her master.
"Tm asking your pardon for keeping
you long, sir" said she; but one lever
knows who's who. and, judging by the
noises and %runnings, there's been rare
doings round the corner tonight"
Anybody been, Bet?' asked the sur
geon, rs ten minutes later he sat down
to n carefully grilled chop.
mot n soul, 4" replied his handmaiden.
And u nice person you would be TO
open the door If an accident had ar.
rived"
"oh, l should have opened it ut once"
said Bet, with decision. Directly they
used the word accident l should have
opened it and CHANGED it."
Her master, smiling Mt her devotion,
drew his chair to the fire and, having
carefully filled a long clay pipe, fell to
smoking with an air of great enjoyment
and content. Then, thinking it extreme
ly unlikely that he would be disturbed
ut that late hour, he dismissed his re-
tainer to her quarters in a ~neighboring
house, and, being left to himself, lapsed
into a brown study.
1t might have been the fog, or it might
have been the unexpected death of his
patient; whatever the cause, his thoughts
took n very gloomy direction indeed, and
he shook his head despondingly as he
thought of his future prospects. His
mood was not made more cheerful by the
room, which was large and dark, and
paneled with oak, and ornamented with
oil portraits of dead and gone worthless,
with whom he claimed some kinship
more or less remote, who seemed to stare
at him tonight in a particularly ghostly,
not to say wooden manner. Besides all
this, he was in love; and he had no sooner
built a magnificent castle-in the air
and placed her in it, than an ANYTHING
but airy landlord called for the rent, and
the dream was spoiled.
He had been sitting thus for some
time, nursing his woes. and slipping a
glass of hot cognac which he had pre-
pared, when he was disturbed by a loud.
imperative knocking at the front door,
whereat lie snatched up one of the gut
tering candles and marched down the
narrow stairs to open it. The feeble
light OF the candle, when he had done
so, showed him a tall, strongly built man
of middle age, whose naturally fine pro-
portions were increased by the fog,
which chung to them and exaggerated
them. The surgeon noted that he was
richly clad, and also that the embossed
hilt OF n sword protruded from the skirts
of his coat, while his face, from some
powerful emotion, was pale and drawn.
"Are you the surgeon" asked the new
conner abruptly.
AT your service" was the reply.
Come in"
The stranger obeyed, and waiting unit
III surgeon had secured the door fol-
lowed his up stairs.
Examine mei' said he, taking of his
laced coat and standing pale and erect
before him.
"Unfasten your shirt" said the other,
Bsekse.is Arpica saIve.