The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1891-09-26
A CONSUMING FIRE.

He is man who has failed in this
life, and saws he has no chance OF
success in another; but out OF the
fragments of his failures he has
pieced together for himself a fabric
of existence more satisfying than
most of us make OF our successes.
1t is kind of triumph to look as he
does, to have his manner, and to
preserve his attitude toward ad-
vancing years-those dreaded years
which he faces with pale but smiling
lips.
If you would see my friend Hay
den, commonly called by his friends
the connoisseur, figure to yourself a
tall gentleman of slXty-fve, very
erect still and graceful, gray-headed
and gray bearded, with fine gray
eyes that have the storm-tossed look
of clouds on a windy March day,
and bearing that somehow I'M
presses YOU with an idea of the
gracious and pathetic dignity of his
lonely age.
myself am a quiet young man,
with but one gift am a finished
and artistic listener. 1t is this talent
of mine which wins for me degree
of Hayden's esteem and a place at
his table when he has a new story to
tell. His connoisseurship extends
to everything OF human interest,
and his stories are often of the best.
The last time that | had the honor
of dining with him, there were pres
ent, besides the host and myself,
only his close friend, that vigorous
and successful man, DR.. Richard
Langworthv, the eminent alienist
and specialist in nervous diseases.
The connoisseur evid entity had some
thing to relate, but he refused to
give it to us until the pretty dinner
was over. Hayden's dinners are al
ways pretty, and he has ideals in
the matter of china, glass, and
napery which it would require a
woman to appreciate. 1t is one of
his accomplishments that he man
ages to live like a gentleman and
entertain his friends on an income
which most people find quite in
adequate for the purpose.
After dinner we took coffee and
refused cigars in the library,
On'the table, full in the mellow
light OF the great lamp (Hayden has
distaste for gas), was bit of white
1,iush on which two large opals were
lying. One was an intensely bril-
liant globe of broken cleaning
| lights, in which the red flame burned
strongest and most steadily the
| other was as large, but paler. You
would have said that the prisoned
heart OF fire within it had ceased tc
| throb against the outer rim of ice.
Langworthy, who is wise in gems,
bent over them with an exclamation
OF delight.
! Fine stones, he said where die
| you pick them up, Hayden?
Hayden, standing with one hanc
on Lansworthy's shoulder, smiled
down on the opalS with singular
expression. 1t was as il he looked
into beloved eyes for an answering
smile.
They came into my possession II
singular way, very singular. |
interested me immensely, and | wan
to tell you about it, and ask you
advice on something connected will
it. | am afraid you people vii
hardly care for the story as much a
| do. It's-it's little too rocco
and subllmated to please you, Lang
worthy. But here it is a:
When | was in the West last sum
mer, spent some time IN a city o
the Pacific slope which has NOR
pawnbrokers' shops and that sort c
thing in full sight on the prominer
streets than anv other town of tn
same size and respectability that
have ever seen. One day, when
had been looking in the bazars tc
something little out of the reguls
, | line in Chinese curios and didn
find it, it occurred to me that
such a cosmopolitan town thei
might possibly be some interestin
things in the pawn shops, 50 | wei
into one to look. 1t was a cOmmo
dingy place, kept by a commo
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