The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-09-17


or the gospel according TO Dostoiefsky'
into my life ! mentally set myself 10
the task of rescuiug this outcast from the
jaws Of spiritual death and smuggling
him once more into decent society through
some back door, for | held that every
fallen man is better than he fancies him
self ] am of the same opinion still, only
l would now adolf not good deal
worse.
Il suppose you don't mind my asking
you something about your antecedents,
just enough to guide me in my choice OF
ways and means of helping you ! said
as [ pushed the second tumbler Of piping
hot tea toward him, the delicious fra
GRANGE of which he speedily dispelIed
with a thin slice of lemon, and was about
to annihilate utterly by adding suspicion
Of rum-a very heavy suspicion 1t seemed
to me at the time.
"Ah, batyaoshka" Qittle father, he ex-
claimed, waving his hand despalrlngly,
'the mere thought Of disturbing the
ghosts of the past makes my flesh creep.
They seem to stare at me like deserted
images of myself, and they often haunt
and mock me till death would seem re-
lief if l was sure of not meeting them as
torturing iends down there. The moth
eats stuffs, and sorrow gnaws the heart
of man. says the prOverb, and some mems
hearts were made only to be gnaWed per
petually, like Prometheus' liver. Mine is
one of the number. l never had what's
known as luck, but an invisible luck-con-
ductor instead. The pleasant thing that
l saw only in dreams happened every day
to other people when they were awake. "
And having emptied his glass he pushed
the saucer on which it stood so violently
toward me and the samovar that the
tumbler fell out and stained the
white tablecloth / cut short his
apologies by ignoring the incident al
together and returning to the previous
question. "You are pessimist, Nikolai
Stepanovitch, l exclaimed, land"
believe me,'' he broke in, I'D gladly
win the game, but have neither trumps
nor long suit, as the saying is, and must
needs let things slide. When the lemons
squeezed dry it's high time the peel be
flung away and that's my case"
"Well, tell me how it all came about,
anyway. You say you were at the uni
versity. Did you take your degree?"
Not l. l never took anythink worth
having My lot has been that of the Tar
tar in the story. When he saw the de-
hcious kissell "a kind of of jelly in his
dream he had no spoon to eat it with, and
when he went to bed with spoon he saw
no kissell. left the university when my
father lost his fortune, of which we were
ignorant until he lost his life, too. My
sister and myself were then for turning
our hands to some lucrative work so as to
keep the mill turning. But my mother
would not hear oft. She adored me as an
icon, and she wanted a golden frame to
put me in. l was TO enter high society
and play a lions part therein. The short
est cut in the saloons being through the
officers messroom of cracking regiment,
l entered the Preobrashensky regiment as
a volunteer, AMI in fourteen months had
passed my examinations aud won my
epaulets. Life there is an expensive lux
ury; ones pay falls short of ten pounds
year and money must never seem a CON
sideration to an officer. My mother had
little annuity of her own, not enough to
support me alone, and how she managed
to scrape together the money squandered
was mystery which l did not seek to
clear up. Her life, l could see, was It's
sue of physical privations; my sister also
limited 1t was also a series Of moral tor
lures. OF that, however, l never saw any
signs But il was balm to her heart to
know that I was invited to every big
function in the city, beginning with the
court ball in the Winter Palace and end
ing with the private theatricals at Prin-
cess x. IS. Being an untiring dancer and
a fair talker was in great demand every
where. That was the first point in the
programme drawn up by my mother, who
lived on the tales of my success
''In time was booked through for the
haven of matrimony to take in precious
cargo there, and that was my mothers
second and last point. The girll Like most
girls of her age and position, only not
quite so fresh, perhaps, not quite so Gull
tured, and not quite so highly connected.
One evening shortly before the day fixed
for our wedding, while petty annoyances
I trf.A
a letter from my sister, asking me to
call On her at once. | seated myself in
sleigh and glided noiselessly away to my
mothers, full of a presentiment that Il
fresh stroke of misfortune was about to
fall One trouble breeds another, as the
saying goes, but every sorrow bears seven!
LeepotshlIa, my sister, made no attempt
to break the news. The preestav, she
said, was coming to seal up everything we
possessed for the creditors. If wewould
raise the amount in time, the calamity
might be averted. 1t was a large sum,
but got it that night from the father of
one of my comrades in return for a receipt.
My promise to pay by a certain date was
verbal.
Then l made some attempts to tap va
rious sources of honest income compatible
with an officers dignity l might as well
have tried to press oil from a rock.
called on editors OF newspapers ana re-
views. They received me with smiles, but
as soon as they knew what [ wanted
seemed to feel on pins and needles till the
thickness of the door was between them
and me This drove me into the clutches
of a swindling money-lender. A jew No.
l wish he had been. He was what Chi
naman would call a Christian devil He lent
me money readily more than once. Then
he assaulted my ears with Uaceasing talk
about bills of exchange, initiating hand
writing, acquiring untold wealth, etc.
didn't know exactly what he was driving
at: but l was satisfied that the public
prosecutor would know, and his vocabu-
larry afforded a very ugly word for it.
That alone should have made
me cautious, but it didn't
Anyhow, it's silly to fight against
fate. AS the proverb has it, Move slowly
and you will not elude sorrow; quickly
and you will overtake misfortune A bird
is caught by food and man by precious
words. l yielded, and wrote name which
, belonged to an absent millionaire who
was not even my friend. Next morning
awoke to the fact that | was a criminal.
"Then the scoundrel rubbed his hands
and smiled and wiped his greasy forehead
with greasy handkerchief and said he
would never tell He would not even use
| the document. He would sacrifice his
own money for my sake; but, on my mar
riage, l must undertake to give him
100, 900 roubles in installments One
| morning, after he had been running on