Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1896-05-21
WITH INTENT TO DEFRAUD
BY LEONARD MERRlCK.

He wished he were dead. 1t was not
a phrase a verbal extravaganza; he
wished it. The only time he was free
from anxiety was when he was asleep.
His days were filled with worries and
,lisappointments, and the ceaseless eff
fort to make civil words do the duty OF
money; and it often occurred to George
Collier, when he lay his head on the
pillow, that if no tomorrow morning
came to disturb him it would be very
restful state of things.
He was literary man. When he mar
led Eva Kingston he thought he had
arrived He was nine and twenty.
and had already won his spurs. His re-
Jews were splendid; he was called
powerful, unconventional" "scholar-
ly," fine" the press cuttings his pub
fishers sent him made his heart glow.
But, unfortunately, the book did not
sell, and he was unable to command
any higher price for his next one
1t seemed an anomalous condition of
affairs. His work commended itself to
the most exacting critics, and yet did
not please the public. Of course he
hoped and Eva was sympathetic, and he
went on writing patiently. But by de-
Erees he saw that his confidence had
been premature; and then he saw that
his marriage had been premature; and
then child was born, and he gave up
h1s ideals and sank to pot-boiling, and
the pot-boiling did not make tie pot
i'oil very violently, either.
A baby addec to his embarrassments
a good deal. The long clothes seemed
Ito sooner bought than it needed short
clothes, and he had hardly recovered
from the cost OF these than it had grown
out of them. The nurse appeared to lie
awake all night thinking what she
could ask for next, and she was su-
pcrior person, with imagination.
To-day there were school fees to be
paid, and Eva was no longer sympa-
1hetic, and their address was Pandora
load, BALKAN. The house to the right
was called 'Fotheringay" and the one
t. the left rejoiced in the name of ''St
OIaph's," and when they moved IN Col
lier, in a fit of moroseness, had labeled
their own abode BOX Cottage" and in
Cured the animosity of the street for
ever.
Yes, Eva's sympathy had WORE out,
like the cheap drawing-room carpet,
which had been so pretty when it was
rev. Pandora road had got OF her
nerves, perhaps, or George, the failure,
was a different man from the brilliant
novelist with whom she had pictured
herself receiving the notabilities of art
tiId literature at musical ''at hcmes,"
where she would be attired in liberty
frocks. Anyhow, when he reflected that
there had been a time when he wrote
poetry about her he turned hot.
She was pale. slight woman with
gray eyes and fluffy hair, and red
flannel dressing-gown in the morning.
After lunch, when she male her toilet,
the gray eyes acquired depth of soul
fulness which was due to black cos
metique, and nobody would have sus-
peeted the tart and vulgar reproaches
that could fail from her lips. Had she
been what she looked, he sometimes
thought, contemplating her wondering
1y when an acquaintance was present.
his courage would not have deserted
him so soon. But if he had confessed
she weighed on him the acquaintance
would have considered him an unappre-
ciative brute; she looked too wistful,
and delicate, and fragile to weigh on
anyone.
He was 40 years of age, and soberly
and deliberately he wished he were
dead. Only one thing deferred him
from making away with himself in
painless fashion, and .hatwas the knowl-
edge that he would leave her and the
..chicl5" unprovided for.
This was his frame of mind when he
came to project what can only be de-
scribed as IA fraud. He saw his way to
diving comfortably and still taking care
that the "chick" and Eva did not want.
That is To say. he would have seen his
way if he could have raised the money
necessary to pay the premium. He pro-
posed to assure his life and then COM
init suicide.
The curious part of it was that he
had always been a singular!y scrupu-
lous man, and 'as honest as the day"
that oft-quoted day which nobody re-
members. People had often asserted he
was ''tco conscientious to get on" He
had never wronged anyone by so much
as sixpence in all his straits, and he
could have stood in witness-box to be
cross-exalnined without tremor. His
record was blameless and his integrity
notorious. Yet now he was meditating
robbery on an extensive scale and bare
ly perceiving his detection.
A man he knew very well, and who
frequently dropped in of an evening.
was Mr.. Horace Orkney, solicitor.
George was not sensible of any strong
derr.ts f,f esteem for him. brt-DerheDS
for that very reason-Orkney looked the
1:keliest person for what he wanted.
and one afternoon he betook himself to
the gentleman's office.
81 have. he said, when greetings had
been exchanged, "come on rather deli
cate business. + needn't tell you that
what am going to say is in confidence
"t2ui.e so.' said Orkney, drawing out
the ends of his mustachA