San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-11-04
AT THE LAST MOMENT.

What savage that old man must be-"
muttered an eminent New York doctor,
issuing with flushed face from a splen
did room in one of the largest up town
hotels late on the same night that wit
messed "Never-die Joe's" resurrection.
His relations, if he has any, ought to be
glad to get rid of hin-as they will pretty
soon, for he can't live through the night.
If this is fair sample of the British
aristocracy, | shall be more than ever
thankful that I'm an American"
And well might he say so, for these
words, uttered by a voice harsh and
broken with pain, followed him through
the doorway:
You doctors are quacks and impos-
tors, every man of You! What did those
wretched fools know who sent me over
here to die, instead of regaining my
health, as they said | should do? And
as for you, have you any medicine that
can soothe this pain for moment, or re-
tard my death for a single hour? Not
you! Be off with you, then, and leave
me to die unmolestedv
The hired nurse, dismissed in the same
polite fashion, had hurried out of the
room likewise, glad to escape, and the
doomed man was left alone with his own
black and bitter thoughts.
With what were those thoughts busy
as he lay there in his lonely WEAKNESS
and pain beneath the deepening shadow
of the grave? Did he look back for half
a century through the gloomy vista of
wasted life to see himself once more the
handsome, dashing, reckless young Wis
count who had been the widest and
wickedcst rome at the evil court of
George "? Did he live again through
the cruel disappOintments and mad de-
baucheries that had doomed him to
premature age and a tOrturing death?
Did he stand once more by the deathbed
of his only daughter, cut off in the first
bloom of her girlhood by cruel disease?
or did he see in fancy the handsome, i'm
parious face of his only son, banished
from his home forever for daring to
thwart his tyrant fathers plan of good
match" for him by giving his heart to
the beautiful but penniless American
orphan, who had been his sick sisters
teacher, companion and only friend?
And was this the end of it all? What
did all his wealth and all his rank profit
him now? Surrounded by useless luxu-
ries, which seemed only to mock his
misery; old, worn out, childless, hated
by all who knew him, ne was dying the
death of a wounded wild beast in its
den. All his life long he had been bent
on having his own way, and this was
whittier his own way had led him.
How all my tenants will clap their
hands" he growled, land shout that the
devil has got his own at last! And how
the next heir, curse him! will chuckle
over all the rich lands that the old bear
has had to leave behind him! By
Heaven, if | could blow up the castle
and burn the whole estate, and leave |
him nothing to inherit but dust and |
ashes, I'd do it! All! if Arthur had not |
disobeyed me should not be left to die |
like this, alone and uncared for! Per
haps may have been to blame too, but |
it is too late to think of that now-too |
late!"
Never too late!" said clear, sweet |
voice behind him; and in the doorway |
stood a young girl, looking down upon
him with a deep, -womanly pity in her |
bea-..E:fful face which made it seem love