Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-12-22

the honeymoon. IN the west: Tnen the
dreams of dreamer, the thirst for bound
less wealth, the schemes, the great specu-
lation, the burst bubble, the weak remorse
drowned in worthless dissipation, the de-
serted wife, the divorce.
The clippings were all there in that little
leather wallet. just the mention Of the
divorce secured by the wife of the ex-finan-
cier who had gone to smash and vanished
five years before.
And that was all ten years ago.
Christlnastide had come around and Cy-
ril Thompson had brought an invitation to
the major. How was he to know that his
strange friend feared the face of society as
a scalded cat dreads water? He only knew
that he pitied him, and in his pity hoped
that some day he might kick a little ambi-
tion into the majors dead soul.
"You see, major, Pm going to marry her
anyhow" he had explained, land when
we're married you'll have to make friends
with her, SO it's just as well to do so now
as later"
The major shook his head.
II know you're misogynist, and hate
women, and all that sort of thing" per
sisted the boy, but you'll have to love
Louise if you care for me, and-well, as
said, it will only be family party. LOUIS
q half orphan, you know, but her mothers
a brick and her cousins are awfully nice
people, and you're sure to like them ALL
Well only ourselves be there, and it will
be regular Christmas dinner, with holly
and ivy and mistletoe."
Oh, how the major hated Christmas, its
gladness and its festivitiesl The very
memories of those happy Christmases OF
the dead past accumulated that hate and
imbittered it., 1t was on Christmas day
that he had first dared to kiss the woman
he had afterward deserted. They had
brought down from New York the mistle
toe from the other side of the sea. He had
dared to snatch the kiss she was dying tc
give as she stood beneath its white berried
branches. All the rest of the merry even
ing he had sat drinking in her sweetness
with all his eyes, and later on in the night,
when only the two Of them were together,
he had built the first of his dream castles
as he sat beside her and kissed and caressed
her again.
1t all came back when Cyril mentioned
the mistletoe. There she stood in loose
white muslin, the sunny beauty of the
south. The candle light seemed laughing
in her golden hair as he approached her;
the red flush rose in her cheeks at his touch.
All, that was love
But now love was all dead, all withered,
all gone in the long ago.
The major cursed himself up and down
for recalling it, and angrily tapped the
loose sole of his boot against the register.
Cyril was gone. The major hardly no.
ticed his absence, but calculated, "You're
a brick, Cyril, my boyw as though he
thought the lad were near by.
In the dim light of the afternoon Cyril
had not noticed that the lines in his friends
face were more drawn than usual; that his
eyes were brighter than they had ever
seemed before, and that there was strange
pallor over his gray features. Neither did
he notice much the maid of all works in.
quiry, 'Is himself all right, sir?" But
then, you see, he had not learned that it
was now three days since the major had
stirred from his room.
As the evening wore on the major never
altered his attitude, though he mumbled
strange things to himself.
First he called himself driveling idiot;
then hectic flush would mount his face
and he extolled himself as penitent mar.
tyr.
Serves you right you coward; serves
you right" he muttered, and his eyes
cleaned exultingly. "Who's to pity you
now? What good are your dreams, you
idiot? Starve, d. you'll Starve, starve
you dreamer of dreamsl"
He had not eaten anything for five days
1t was the oath of December, and he knew
he would have no money wherewith tc
purchase even a roll before the advent OF
the new year. Yet he gloried in it-gloried
fiendishly.
"Tomorrow's Christmas!' he chuckled.
well, you loafer, you can dream of its
dinners and blissl You've dreamed be.
fore, you dreamer; dream now. Fill your.
self, glut yourself with dreamsl''
And again he tapped the register with
his broken shoe and crooned over it, and
though the darkness had settled like a
pail he still forbore to light the gas or stir
from his seat in the corner.
Presently he saw one of the most fantas.
tic dreams of bygone folly take shape
outside in the gloom and creep in through
a chink in the window. It was once a
beautiful dream-a vision of endless fame
and millions. 1t crawled in through a
chink and stealthily crept behind him. He
begged of it to go away, but it only jeered
at him and then disguised itself in the gart
Of horrible shroud. The shroud was
fetid and damp and black and froze his
soul with terror. 1t came and wound itself
all around him, and stifed and choked him
with its weight and clamminess. He tried
to shrek out, but the ghost of another
dead dream came and strangled him and
gagged his mouth with a gag. Then
another dream of glory came and meta
morphosed itself into a redhot spike and
ground itself into his head, and all the
other dreams his fancy once had painted
came disguised as cold Jumps of lead and
pounded themselves against the inside Of
his stomach.
On Christmas morning the maid of all
work found him there, limp and uncon-
scious, a asenseless lump of humanity jun.
bled up in heap beside the register.
%sA
1t was charming Christmas party. A
bit old fashioned and unpretentioust fol
people of wealth and fashion perhaps but
then, as it was purely family affair, they
none of them minded looking ffee and
easy.
The coffee merchant himself was there
with his son, and he seemed pros1a az the
hoz as he watched him hoxerinR affer the