Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-04-05


He would rob the dead first, he said, before
he stole from the living; it was good prac-
tice, he said.
Gottnold still came to the house. but not
so often as before-there was restraint In
the fellowship of the two friends. That
winter Jovan left his mother ana travelled
from town TO town seeking employment He
was changing rapidly; he had put off his
wildness and uncouth manners, he was
growing courteous and polished, and observ-
ant OF other men as a woman is. He was
learning success" he wrote to Hagar; then,
at length, he sent to her to join him; he had
obtained what he wanted and was rising
rapidly in his pro iession.
81 have learned good deal since we
parted, little mother; TO drink and TO steal
and to lie, to cheat ones friend and to be-
tray the woman who has loved one. You
were right; one must be what one has to
SEEM" Hagar could not discover If he was
mocking her She looked at him and said
nothing-she saw his father in him.
One night, it was almost morning, COM
ing home. he walked her from her sleep;
there was a gray light from the window
which fell on him. He was flushed, trium-
phant.
Little mother, nv fortune is made or
lost. am to play the devil" He spoke
gayly, confidently.
''Tou will fail,' she said; ''the devil will
be like Jovan."
''I will succeed If the devil is like
Jovan, Jovan must be like the devil" he
said, jestingly.
On the first night of his performance he
again stood by her bed.
Little mother, 1 have succeeded-the
devil has done great things Tor US" He
laughed and kissed her.
"It is i'll to parody Gods holy word. "
Hagar had never before rebuked him. He
smiled at her and lett her. After that sue
cess the managers would let him play no
other part.
Herr Johann is a great artist" people
told each other; they told Hagar so, and
also they said it to Jovan, and be believed
them. No part of him now sat in the front
rows and sneered as he played. no part of
him Knocked his efforts; he felt himself mas
ter of his part and of his audience; he felt
his foothold surer week by week as he
journeyed from city to city, winning every
where new laureIs. Who of his old friends
would have known him now? Self-pos-
sessed, with little quiet scorn for the men
who envied, the women who courted him,
f-controlled-kindiy, courteous to his
chosen associates-his moodiness, his varia-
bility, was gone.
When once again his old friend Gotthold
met him, he did not recognize him. DIR.
Gotthold, too, had prospered; he was rich,
sought after, a coward with principles and
a conscience, a broken, melancholy man,
despite his fortunes. His wife was dead,
and all whom he loved he had lost but
one-the baby girl of old days, the child
whom Jovan had played with and petted,
alone remained to him.
,1, 1, Il 4 fx,a ,,a&
Jovan had noticed her at a crowded recep-
ton given in his honor at a foreign town
where he was f. illing temporary engage
ment. A tall, slight girl, with gray eyes
and fair hair, she leaned hStless and tired
against the doorway of an inner room. She
was for the moment silent and alone.
''She is like-who?" His memory failed
him. He lost sight of her, and shifted his
position to regain it. Some one had ad-
dressed her and she lifted her head to reply.
Her raised eyes met Jovan's gaze; her face
changed suddenly; she broke off in what she
was saying.
"Ah, it is Lise," Jovan thought, and then
he wondered where the likeness lay. won-
dered until he knew.
1t was not difficult for him to guess.
Women loved him now as they had loved
him before, blindly, trustfully, and now as
then. if a woman's heart was broken, no
guilt was his. But one difference there was
between his past and his present; then, if he
had smiled at their folly, he had neyerthe-
less been touched by it, he had given them
what return he could, he was no miser in
kindness nor pity, and for what he gave,
they. as little touDdling Lise, had been con-
tent to live-or to die. This new LIse loved
him; she asked nothing of him, she did not
even know what more might even be hers to
possess. When ne had spoken kindly,
gently, to her, halfjesting, half-serious, as
was his wont with women, the light had
come into her gray eyes, and the color
to her quiet face, and her whole life
seemed to her, as she looked back
over it, but a waiting for that hour.
When he was gone from her side, past had
sprung into existence, the future seemed
filled with memory, memory out of which
she would create a new world. ior the DAYS
of creation are never over in woman's
heart, though the sons OF God do not shout
with joy over them.
That night, as Jovan played, Margaret
seemed to him to have grown like Gott-
holds daughter. How easily he could have
taught Faust to win her, have taught her
to yield to a Faust, he thought.
Yet he was wrong, for in those days at
least Faust would have had to tell her that
he and her father were old friends, and
Faust would have had to have Jovan's voice,
and his eyes, like Jovan's, must have been
gray, with black-rimmed irises.
"You are so cold devil that you would
freeze hell, the girl vino played Margaret.
said to him one evening. "If MepbiStoph-
eleS had been as wicked as you, be would
have damned even Margaret"
Gotthold's daughter was there that night.
Mo
when Margaret yielded and fell, she shiy-
cred and burst into tears, but she came
again few nights after.
Jovan'S stay in that city was over; the
last day came.
ave shall be four tonight, little mother"
he said, ''you and 1, and Gorthold and his
daughter Tomorrow We go; tonight we
part, he and l.
''It is well to have met and forgiven" the
old woman said; she was old now, but her
eyes were blue and bright as ever. He read
suspicion in them.
Little mother" he said, "what people
look for they find. You are like the rest;
they look for the actor in the man-it is a
folly"
Jovan was angered, yet he laughed.
''She loves you," the old woman said.
"She loves'-Jovan mimicked her caress-
ingly-"alI women love-she loyes-Jovan
or another"
'She is young, and she is good-you,
Jovan, are cruel" But Hagar kissed him
all the same-Jovan was her idol.
''You make me wicked" she said, "and
you will break her heart Then she added
quickly, with a strange impulse of fear,
"Jovan, you are not yourself to-day"
In the mirror before him Jovan caught
sight OF his own face-he turned away