The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1894-02-21

escaped falling to the floor.
With weary brain and trembling
legs, he threw himself upon long
leather safe which surrounded the
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
clinking of the gold upon the green
table, felt that he was ruined, lost,
and remembered that he had at home,
in the drawer of the commode, pair of
pistols which had once been the prop
erty of his father, General de Hern,
when he was captain; then, only,
worn out with fatigue, he fell into a
profound sleep.
When he awakened, his mouth dry
and parched, he ascertained by glsnc-
ing at the clock that he had scarcely
slept quarter of an hour, and he felt
an overwhelming desire to breathe the
fresh, cool, night air. The hands OF
the clock pointed to quarter of an
hour of midnight. AS he arose and
stretched himself, he remembered that
it was Christmas eve, and with an
ironical play of the memory, he saw
himself little child and putting, be.
fore he went to bed, his shoes in front
of the fireplace.
At this moment, old Drouski, O
| pillar of the place, a typical Pole,
wearing rusty, long coat, trimmed
with braid and large ornaments, APP
preached Lucien and muttered these
words through his gray beard:
'Lend me five francs, sir. 1t is now
two days since 1 have not left the
club, and during these two days
have not seen seventeen win. You
may laugh at me, if you wish, but
will cut off my right hand if soon, AT
midnight, this number is not the
one.
Lucien de Hern shrugged his shoul-
ders. He had not even enough in his
pockets to give to that beggar, whom
the frequenters of the place called
''les cents sous du Polonais. He
passed into the anteroom, took his hal
and coat and went down the staircase
with feverish agility.
Since o'clock, when Lucien wen
into the club, the snow had been fall
ing steadily and the street-a narrow
one in the centre of Paris, with higl
houses on either side-was white witt
snow. In the calm, black-blue sky
the cold stars scintillated.
The ruined gambler shivered in hi
furs and began to walk rapidly, turn
ing over always in his mind thOs,
hopeless thoughts and dreaming NOR,
than ever of the box of pistols whicl
awaited him in the drawer of his com
mode; but after having taken severa
steps, he stopped suddenly before
heart-rending spectacle.
Upon stone bench, placed accord
ing TO an old custom near the larg
door of private house, little giI
scarcely six or seven years old, dresse
in ragged black frock, was sitting i
the snow. She had fallen asleep ther
despite the cruel cold, in pitiful al
titude of fatigue and detection, an
her poor little head and tiny shoulde
had dropped into corner OF the wa
and were resting upon the icy stone
One of the old wooden shoes wit
which the child was shod had falle
from the foot, which was hangin
down, and lay drearily before her.
Mechanically Lucien de Hern pu
his hand to his vest pocket, but he II
} membered that moment before i
did not find even a franc, and that h
could not give fee to the club waiter
nevertheless, pushed by an instinctiN
sentiment of pity, he approached ii
little girl, and he started, perhaps,
J raise her in his arms and TO give her
place of shelter for the night, when !
saw something glisten in the she
which had fallen from her foot.
He bent over it; it was a twent.
hYe-franc piece.
| A charitable persona woman, l
doubt-had passed that way, had see
on that Christmas eve that shoes tn
had fallen in front of the sleepiI
, child, and recalling the touchiI
legend, she had carefully placed the