Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1896-06-26
WITH INTENT TO DEFRAUD.
BY LEONARD MERRlCK.

BY LEONARD MERRlCK.
He wished he were dead. It was not
'phrase,'' verbal extravaganza; he
wished it. The only time he was free
from anxiety was when he was asleep.
His days were filed with worries and
disappointments, 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
lied Eva Kingston he thought he had
'arrived.'' He was nine and twenty.
and had already won his spurs. His re-
views 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 all 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.
grees he saw that his confidence had
been premature; and then he saw that
his marriage had been premature; and
then a child was born, and he gave up
his ideals and sank to pot-boiling, and
the pot-boiling did not make the pot
l,oil very violently either.
A baby addec to his embarrassments
good deal. The long clothes seemed
no 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 SUI
pcrior person, with imagination.
To-day there were school fees to be
paid, and Eva was no longer sympa-
lhetic, and their address was Pandora
road, BALKAN. The house to the right
was called "Fotheringay" and the one
t. the left rejo;ced in the name of 'St.
Oiaph's," and when they moved IN Col
lier, in fit of 1noroseness, had labeled
their own abode BOX Cottage" and in
Cured the aninosity of the street for
ever.
Yes, Eva's sympathy had worn out
like the cheap drawing-room carpet
which had been so pretty when it was
rev. Pandora road had got on hei
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
c1ld literature at musical ''at homes,
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 a rec
flannel dressing-gown in the morning
After lunch, when she made her toilet
the gray eyes acquired a depth of soul
fitness which was due to black cos
metique. and nobody would have sus.
pected the tart and vulgar reproaches
that could fail from her lips. Had she
been what she looked, he sometimes
thought, contemplating her wondering
" 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 or
anyone.
He was 40 years of age. and soberly
and deliberately he wished he We're
dead. Only one thing deferred him
from making away with himself in a
painless fashion, and that was theknowl
edge that he would leave her and the
''chick" unprovided for.
This was his frame of mind when he
came to project what can only be de-
scribed as fraud. He saw his way to
dying comfortably and still taking care
that the Chick and Eva Gidshot want.
That is to say, he would have seen his
way il he could have raised the money
necessary to pay the premium. He pro-
posed to assure his life and then COM
NIT suicide.
The curious part of it was that he
had always been singular!y scrupu-
lOus man, and las honest as the day.
that oft-quoted day which nobody re-
members. People had often asserted he
was too conscientious to get on" He
had never wrongeti anyone by so much
IS sixpence in all his straits, and he
could have stood in witness-box to be
without n tremor. His
.ecord was blameless and his integrity
aotosious. Yet now he was meditating