Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-04-26

body IN the hospital ward, Stlrs the heart
of the world. They who read the police
report without pity will weep bitter tears
over the romance before the foot-lights'
Hagar knew life if she knew little else
"There is flaw in your mind, little
mother" Jovan only Knocked and kissed
her when she spoke earnestly to him. The
two go well together, mocking and kissing
So the weeks wore away, and a cloud
settled on Jovan's brow.
Course the life" he said bitterly one
night; "my mind is forge; it can only
turn out tools for other zen to use"
Your father used the tools other men
made-and then he threw them away, that
was worse" Hagar told him.
In those days she learned that Gotthold
had made a great discovery in science, and
had won the highest prize that fame could
accord him; then she guessed what had be-
fallen Jovan, that he had forged the tool
and his friend had used it; but of it, or OF
his friend who had cheated and defrauded
him, he said no word. Only he studied
his friends studies no more; he studied his
friend instead.
81 want to act thief's part" he told
her.
"Then you had better steal,a she an
swered. 'Jovan, you are no actor; once
you were mimic, like me; now you are
not even that. You have but one chance
of success left You-be what you act"
'You are a wise woman, little mother"
said Jovan, thoughtfully. perhaps you
are right; perhaps | will"
He took to his books again, play-books
now; he studied the dramas of old writers.
He would rob the dead first, he said, be-
fore he stole from the living it was good
practice, he said
Gotthold 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 and travelled
from town to town seeking employment.
He was changing rapidly; he had put off
his wildness and unco2th manners, he was
growing courteous and polished, and OBJ
servant of other men as a woman is. He
twas 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 profession.
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 me- You
were right; one must be what one has to
SEEM" Hagar could not discover if he
was hooking 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 :;
here was a gray light from the win
dow which fell on him. He was flushed.
triumphant.
Little mother, my fortune is made or
lost: | am to play the devil" He spoke
gayly, confidently.
You will fail" she said; "the devil will
be like Jovan"
II 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, | have succeeded-the
devil has done great things for u.s." He
laughed and kissed her.
SIT is i'll to parody Gods holy words"
Hagar had never before rebuked him. He
smiled at her and left her. After that
success the managers would let him play
no other part.
Herr Johann is great artist" people
told each other; they told Hager so. and
also they said it to Jovan, and he 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
master 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 laurels. Who of his old
friends would have known him now
Self-possessed, with little quiet scorn for
the men who envied, the women who
courted him, controlled-kindly. cour-
teous to his chosen aSsociates-his moodi-
ness, his variability, was gone.
When once again his old friend Gott-
hold met him, he did not recognize him.
DIR. Gotthold, too, had prospered; he was
rich, sought after, coward with princi-
pies and conscience, a broken, melan-
choly 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.
1t was through her the two old friends
met. Jovan had noticed her at crowded
reception given in his honor in foreign
town where he was fulfilling a temporary
engagement. A tall, slight girl, with gray
eyes and fair hair, she leaned listless 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 re-
ply. Her raised eyes met Joyan'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 Law:
wondered until he knew.
II was not difficult for him to guess.
Women loved him now as they had loved
him before, blindly, tluthfully, and now as
then, If 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 nevertheless been touched by il, he
had given them what return he could, he
was no miser in kindness and pity, and for
what he gave, they, as little founding
Lise, had been content to live-or TO die.
This new Lise loved him. she asked moth
ing of him, she did not even know what
more might even be hers to possess. When
he had spoken kindly, gently, to her, half
jesting, 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 waiting for that hour.
When he was gone from her side, past
had sprung into existence, the future
seemed filed with memory, memory
out of which she would create new
world, for the days Of creation are never
over in a woman's heart, though the sons
of God do not shout with ioy over them
That night, as Jeyan played, Margaret
seemed to him to have grown like Colt
holds daughter. How easily he could
have taught Faust to win her, have
taught her yield to Faust, he thought.
Yet he was wrong, for in those days at