The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-10-05

necteu. One evening Shor..y before the
day fixed for our wedding, while petty
annoyances were making my life a mis-.
cry, received a telegram from my sis.
ter asking me to call on her ut once. |
seated myself in q sleigh and glided
noiselessly away to my mothers, full of
presentiment that fresh stroke of
misfortune was about to fall. One trou.
BILE breeds another, as the saying goes,
but every sorrow bears seven.
"Leepotshka, my sister, made no Mt.
tempt to break the news. The preestav,
she said, was coming to seal up every.
thing we possessed for the creditors. II
we would raise the amount in time, the
calamity might be averted. It was a
largo SUI, but 1 got it that night from
the father of one of my comrades in re.
turn for receipt. My promise to pay
by certain date was verbal.
"Then made some attempts to tar
various sources of honest income com.
patible with an officers dignity. might
as we'll have tried to press oil from a
rock. called on editors of newspapers
and reviews. 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 swindling money lender.
A Jew? No. Iwish he had BEEN He
was what Chinaman would call n
Christian devil.
HE lent me money readily more than
once. Then he assaulted my ears with
unceasing talk about bills of exchange,
initiating handwriting, acquiring untold
wealth, etc. l didn't know exactly what
he was driving at, but l was satisfied
that the public prosecutor would know,
and that his vocabulary afforded very
ugly word for it, That alone should
have made me cautious, but it didn't.
Anyhow, it is silly to fight against fate.
AS the proverb has it, Move slowly
and you will not elude sorrow; quickly,
and you will overtako misfortune" A
bird is caught by food. and man by
specious words. yielded and wrote
name which belonged to an absent mil
lionaire, who was not even my friend.
Next morning 1 awoke to tho fact that
was criminal.
"Then the scoundrel rubbed his hands
and smiled and wiped his greasy fore
head with greasy handkerchief, and said
he would never tell. He would not even
use the documents. He would sacrifice
his own money for my sake, but on my
marriage must undertake to give him
100, 900 rubles in installments. One
morning, after he had been running on
like this for an hour, | got up and
knocked him down, then l shook him
till he was blue in tho face, and 1 was
GI.l him fO fbn Inn, 10 l.,
when he called me dashed forger and
threatened to send me along the Via
deemer road Ia synonym for exile to ST.
beria l then pushed him violently into
the anteroom, where two comrades Of the
regiment stood looking in spcechless hor-
ror at the scene.
II was allowed to send in my resigna-
ton. Otherwise should have been n
pariah from the beginning, instead of IL
slow process of evolution. For Il man
who quits the army as 1 did, the only
branch of public service open is the po-
lice. applied for position in the gen
darmerie and obtained it. The letter
which brought that welcome news was
put into my hands on my return from
my mothers funeral. How she died:
For heavens sake, don't ask me. Even
now cannot trust myself to speak of
that. My bride? She is now tho wife
of Count Y. and one of the leaders of
fashion"
Il have put the iron bedstead in the
kitchen, master, and they (the Russian
way of speaking politely of third per-
son who is presently can go to bed when
they like" said my servant girl, eying
furtively my guest as she entered and
left the room.
Il have little more to add" concluded
Nikolay Stephanovitch. "For IL time was
dazcd and mopcd about. Then | tried
to realize my position by considering
from every conceivable point of view
| the fact that was IL criminal, forger,
the murderer of my poor old mother,
who adored me, the destroyer of my sis
ters happiness, n human devil, in n
word. There seemed TO me to be n mys-
| terry as to how it had all come about. |
felt like Gdipus and SO many Of his
| countrymen, who drifted into crime in
spite Of themselves, as it were, and ]
loathed my surroundings, scorned my
coarse companions and cursed my fate.
Then, little by little, grew accustomed
to everything and forgave myself and
forgot my crime in the end-assimilated
it, in fact.
After this took to cards, drinking
and kindred 'pastimes,' and might be
playing game of 'vint' this very mo-
ment had 1 not taken pity on day
dreamer who was in danger of transpor-
tation. He was a crack Drained literary
man, who believed in God and the pow
er of ideas, cared about every one but
| himself and had an excuse for the worst