The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-09-16

| hohb nv HAlAt AAllil Ike, ana pretending
TO see nothing of the start ] gave
"Would that be any business OF yours?"
! asked, sharp and short, and looking at
him in a way he couldn't mistake.
Certainly IL would be, y SAYS ne, ga
! cousin OF mine knew Sir Nicholas Steele
in Dublin three years ago. and was
wondering If II was the same"
"Then you should have asked my
| guvnor," says !, while my heart began
| TO Jump 80 taht could hardly hold my
| hand still.
"Oh, no offense, " cries he, and with
that he slid a fve-franc piece into my
hand.
you've been in Paris long, he asks.
"a month or more" says !, thinking
where | could have him.
- Are you going back TO England soon?'
"Me are going back at the end of No
yember. Sir Nicholas has engagements in
London that month"
"Ob, then you are going back"
"Why, what would we be doing all the
winter here in Paris?'
He seemed TO think a while over this,
taking "A drink of the hook and rolling
his bleary eyes as though he was looking
for some one in the garden. Presently
he said:
"Do you like the situation you re IMP"
"Oh, said /, ''it's much the same as
other situations. Here today and gone
tomorrow. "
"Then you travel a good deal?'
"That's so-but travel or no travel, it's
all the same to me. -
''Your master seems pleasant sort of
gentleman?'
81 should call him that. "
he?"
Exactly; he's Sir Nicolas Steele of
Castle Rsth, County Kerry
"a generous man, j should say"
looked at him straight, for Id read
him up by this time.
'lt's cold morning FOR taking in the
open air, SIR" says l, and with that /
turned on my heel and let him.
Now, though i had taken 1t coolly
enough, duller head than mine could
have seen through the mans talk.
''What is in tine wind is this" said /
to myself, when l got back 10 the hotel.
you've heard some gossip, my fine gen
tleman, and You want to get to the bot
tom OF II. III it's true that a cousin OF
yours knew Sir Nicolas Steele in Dub
lin, three years ago, then you'll write to
him, and what you'll learn won't keep
your sister at the Hotel de Lille. Maybe
that cousin is In Europe; more probably
he's In America, which gives us a month.
Anyway, it's you that we've TO play, and
the sooner we begin the better. y
This was my thought, and yet simple
as II seemed, there was sonnet hing hap
pened later ia the day which gave new
turn altogether too IL. I'd been bothering
my head with the matter all afternoon,
making nothing new OF il outside the fact
that the danger signHf had been ruug, So I
to speak, when what should happen but |
that just before seven O'Clock, | met the !
man again face to face in the corridor of |
the hotel. and the sight of him fairly |
took my breath away. / shouldn't have
'ailed him healthy person any time, but
now his eyes were sunken away some
hing dreadful to see--while his cheeks
we're hollow like the cheeks of one lust
sot up from a fever bed. White as his
ACE had been in the morning, the color
)f II was like bit of plaster of Paris in
he afternoon. And what was more than
his the way he walked, feeling his road
With his hands, like a blind man, and
taring before him as though he were
frightened that very step he took might
and him on nothing. Never have seen
he muscles of mans mouth twitch SO
much, or mans fiugers look much
ike claws. II he had been stark raving
mad, he could not have given me a greater
hock-and l stood there before him feel
ng like child that has seen something
horrible on the stairs and does not know
whether to go forward or TO go back.
There was minute when, seeing him
'lutch hold of the banister and ffx his
ireadtul eyes on me, L thought he was
sNAAAc " eAAANN ADE. ilt. NH TnlSeQ his 1
light arm, but let 1t drop quickly again
'nd began to humble something that |
'ould not hear. His speech was thick
Ike that OF drunken man, and yet /
'ould nave sworn that drink was not the
natter with him. Quite otherwise, he
appeared 10 be in great pain, and when he
got his words out at last they came with
sasps like the words OF man suffering.
asked.
whats that?" said 7.
" Your Nicholas Steele, card-sharper and
their he went on, and he took me
more aback than If he'd hit me-
Look here, - said /, I" you're bol
man, but you don't want to be horse
whipped out OF this hotel, don't say that
.wice. - '-"'
Then you mean to say that he isn't.n
"A hundred times A more honorable
gentleman Doesn't breathe in Paris. and
I. WASH I Tor the state you're in,
young man, Ia LET you know IL. too. -
This silenced him a bit. lie stood
ocking on his heels for n minute or
more, and then muttering sometime
between his teeth which / could NOT
make out, he continued his march up the
tairs. A quarter OF an hour later, Sir
Nicolas himself drove up with the young
American, and he hadn't been TO the
lotel two minutes before I'd told him
Vhat had passed and what I'd seen.
TRANCE to say, he took il as calm as
nan hearing OF the weather.
The fellows lunatic; that's what
e is, he cried, while he began to dress
Or the opera; "he's told me his history
oming home. He's a drug drinker, and
that he remembers TO day, he'll Know
othing Of tomorrow, or, perhaps, for a
lonth or more You needn't mind him
o more than toy pistol. ! have her
ne. -
Then his cousin wasn't in Doublin
hree years agO2n / asked.
Indeed and he was and that's the
umor OF II. lie left before my affair
'ye see, and II they write him it's a
retty tale of me he'll be telling. Be
adj couldn't have wished il better
me own hands had the planning OF it,
Il M glad 20 hear that Sir" said $50
ing az the young lady doesn't listen. -
Llsten-not she. It's easy for the
irs to be stnt when the heart is omen.
ure won't be marrying her within the
lonth' She's American you must re-
lember aud tied 20 nobodyis apron
rings. Oh, Il was famous day thai
ept US az the Hotel do Lille -