The Opelousas courier., 1894-05-19

tM KWm 1tj Tie fortune which
NR NNNymH he had brought
lIf ~ there for his fna
vi l!-- effort, he wa
y1lD seized with verti
~ go and narrowl,
escaped falling to the floor.
With a weary brain and trembling
legs, he threw himself upon a long
leather safe which surrounded tht
gambling table.
For several minutes he looked
vaguely about these private gambling
rooms where he had spoiled the most
beautiful years Of his youth, recog-
nized the worn features of the differ.
ent gamblers, cruelty lighted by the
great shaded lamps, heard the soft
blinking of the gold upon the greer
table, felt that he was ruined, lost.
and remembered that he had at home,
in the drawer of the commode, a pair o.
pistols which had once been the prop.
erty of his father, General de Hern,
when he was a captain; then, only,
worn out with fatigue, he fell into
profound sleep. r.
When he awakened, his mouth dry
and parched, he ascertaiAed by glanc-
ing at the clock that heShad scarcely
slept a quarter of an hour, and he felt
an overwhelming desire 10 breathe the
fresh, cool, night air. The hands OF
the clock pointed to a (l~uarter of an
hour of midnight. As .e arose and
stretched himself, he remembered that
it was Christmas eve, A,ad with an
ironical play of the memory, he saw
himself a little child and, putting, be-
fore he went to bed, his shoes in front
of the fireplace.
At this moment, old Drouski, q
pillar of the place, a typical Pole,
wearing a rusty, long coat, trimmed
with braid and large ornaments, APP
preached Lucien and mtttered these
words through his gray beard:
sLend me FIVE francs, sir. II is now
two days since l have not left the
club, and during these two days I
have not seen seventeen. win. You
may laugh at me, if you. wish, but /
will cut off my right hani if soon, at
midnight, this number is not the
one.
Lucien do Hern shrugged his shout
ders. He had not even epough in his
pockets to give to that bsggar, whom
the f~requenters of the place called
ssies cents sous du Polonais." He
passed into the anteroom, took his hat
and coat and went down the staircase
with q feyerish agility.
Since 4 o'clock, when Lucien went
into the club, the snow had been fall
ing steadily and the street-a narrow
one in the centre Of Paris, with high
houses on either side-was white with
In the calm, blssck-blue sky
the cold stars scintillated.
The ruined gambler shivered in his
furs and began to walk rapidly, turn
ing over always in his smind those
hopeless thoughts and dreaming more
than ever of the box of pistols which
awaited him in the drawes of his COM
mode; but after having taken several
steps, he stopped sudde0iy before a
hea%rt-rending spectacle.
Upon a stone bench, placed accord
ing to an old custom near the large
door OF a private house, = little girl
scarcsi y or seven yearsold, dressed
in black frock, was sitting i'll
the snoa. She had fallen, asleep there
despite the cruel cold, in D pitiful at
titude of fatigue and detection, and
her poor little head and tiny shoulder
had dropped into corner of the wall
and were resting upon the icy stone.
One of the old wooden shoes with
which the child was shod had fallen
from the foot, which Was hanging
down, and lay drearily before her.
Mechanically Lucien de Hern put
his hand to his vest pockeb, but he re.
membered that a moment before he
did not find even q franc, and that he
could not give a fee to the club waiter ;
nevertheless, pushed by an instructive
sentiment of pity, he approached the
little girl, and he started, perhaps, to
raise her in his arms and 10 give her .
place Of shelter for the night, when he
saw something glisten in the shoe
which had fallen from her foot.
He bent over IL; it was q twenty
fve-franc piece.
A charitable persona woman, no
doubt-had passed that we.y, had seen
on that Christmas eve that shoes that
had fallen in front Of the sleeping
child, and recalling thu touching
legend, she had carefully placed there
d great gift, 50 that the little aban-
doned child could believe Yet in Santa
Claus, and should retain, in spite Of
her unhappiness and misery, some
and some hope in the good
ness Of Providence.
Twenty-Five francs! There was in
it several days rest and wealth for the
beggar, and Lucien was upon the point
Of awakening her TO tell her Of il,
when he heard near his ear, like an.
Authorization, y voice-tLe voice of
the Pole with his thick aid drawing
accent-that mnrmured low these
tlt is now two days that I hare not
LETT the club, and during these two