The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1892-09-14

"A Complete Iis5 ct the Victims.
It was this list that fixed the ladv's at
tention, and eagerly she scanned the
names.
Yes, it was there!
Mildred L. Cleveland, wife of Eugene
Cleveland"
Dead! All! that was more than she had
hoped for. That was almost too good to
be true. Where was Oscar Slyme? How
dare he stay away so long, when he must
know she was dying to learn exactly what
had happened?
Once more she looked at the heading,
and then slowly and carefully read the
article through from beginning to end.
If there is no mistake-if the girl is
! really dead, nothing could have happened
better" she murmured. Luck will have
played into my hands wonderfully;
A discreet knock at the door attracted
attention.
Come in" she called eagerly, and the
stranger of the Grand Central depot OF
the train. and Of the scene of the accident.
slid, rather than walked, into the room.
Oscar Slyme was the private secretary
of the Hon. Sherwood Elliston. He was
man Of, it may be, thirty-five years of
! age. He had been called handsome, and
by some even distinguished looking, and,
perhaps, in certain degree, he was 80.
He, at least, believed in his own good
looks. and secretly fattered himself on
certain resemblance to the august person
age whose secretary he was. Partly from
nature, and partly from the constant imi-
tation to which he submitted himself, this
idea had some foundation, for he re-
sembled the stately Mr.. Elliston as much
as a vulgar man can resemble one OF high
polish.
He was the son of a small manufacturer
in Connecticut; had received from his
father an honestly acquired fortune, and
had dlsspated it in the various enter
prises of his adventurous life.
The influence of his college, however,
obtained for him place in the Depart
ment of State Al Washington. He left it
to come to New York and study law;
placed himself with an attorney; attempt
ed literature without success; gambled at
one of the most fashionable dens, and
lost there.
He had successfully knocked with fever
ish hand at all the doors of fortune, and
none had opened to him, because, though
his ambition was great, his capacity was
limited.
The subordinate positions, for which
alone he was fit, he did not want. He
would have made very good schoolmas-
ter. He sighed to be poet.
He would have been respectable vii
lage rector. He pined to be bishop.
Fitted for an excellent private secre-
tary, he aspred to be q mem Der Of the
Presidents Cabinet. In fine, he wished
to be q great man, and consequently was
failure as little one.
But he made himself hypocrite; and
that he found much easier. He fortified
himself on the one hand by fraternizing
with the free thinkers of the Ingersoll
school: on the other, by joining the
orthodox people of certain very religious
community.
By these influences he contrived to se-
cure the secretaryship to the Hon. Sher-
wood Elliston, who, in his efforts 10 bring
about his election to the United States
Senate, needed the services Of person
possessing certain qualifications. and in
his general contempt Of the human
species he judged Slyme would answer
his purpose quite as we'll as another.
Now, as doubtless the reader under
stands, Sherwood Elliston was anything
but what is called really good man;
hence, familiarity with him was morally,
fearfu,lv prejudicial to the secretary. IT
had, it is true, the effect Of stripping off
his devout mask, which he seldom put on
before his employer. but it terribly in
creased in venom the depravity which
disappointment and wounded pride had
secreted in his liberated heart.
Of course Mr.. Elliston never took the
trouble to demoralize his secretary; but
contact, intimacy and example suficed to
do this.
A secretary is always more or less
confdant. He divines that which is not
revealed to him, and SLIME could not be
long in discovering that his employers
success in life did not arise, in morals,
from too much principle-in politics,
from excess of conviction-in business,
from q mania for scruples!
tTo pr c0NTINI-En-1