The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-06-06
act opposite Of what they are In !. nor

act opposite Of what they are In . nor.
NAL state!"
1t was a curious and perhaps more
than usually merciless irony of fate
that Mephistopheles chould come to
John Sturman in the guise Of his young
er brother. and yet such was literally
the case. The plain facts. az represent
ed in the doctors letter. were that
Cecil had become a victim to the
haschisch habit. and as soon as he had
discovered this he had sent him straight
home, knowing as he did that II he was
to have a chance of rescue he must be
almost constantly under sthe eye OF
some one for whom he had both afrec-
tion and respect.
He had himself suggested his elder
brother, the only near relation he had
left, as soon as the matter had been put
plainly before him, and he had been
told that his one chance of life and
sanity depended on his placing himself
Cnreservedly in the hands of some one
who could bring strong, healthy mind
and an unimpaired will to the task of
supervising the gradual diminution Of
doses which, as 1t We're, marked the
milestones along the only possible road
to a cure.
The doctors letter had consisted for
the most part of precise instructions
as to the course of treatment to be pur-
sued, and II it had not been for that one
fatal sentence which had set John Stur-
man thinking so hard the afternoon he
read it, all might have been well.
INF thara n md tho work that
1t had begun was rapidly completed by
the inevitable conversations which he
had with Cecil on the haschisch and its
works. He kept the drug safely in his
own care, measuring out the doses with
scrupulous exactness. and noting with
a fatally growing interest their effects
| on his patient.
Cecil would come down to breakfast
dull and languid and headachy. He
| would take his three doses-each one
| ever so little smaller than the previous
| one-at ten, two, and six. At lunch he
would be well and cheerful, and at din
ner and all through the evening brill
| liant in thought and expression, and
he would live two lives, his own and
then they would sit over the fire In their
| library and smoke, and Cecil would
| tell him of his visions; and weave stor-
| les splendid with all the gorgeous
| imagery of eastern life, and then when
Cecil had gone to bed he would sit on
alone and think. and. unconsciously to
himself, and before an atom of the drug
had passed his lips, the subtle poison
| worked, and at last the struggle ended.
| and he yielded, almost before he knew
| that it had begun in deadly earnest.
He had been to tea that afternoon at
| the studio, and though nothing direct
or positive had been said, he had intui-
| tvely felt that Sylvia was fast coming
| to the belief that in Marcus Algar she
had at last met the twin-soul, the in
| carnate ideal for which hers had been
waiting, and, from remark or two
dropped, perhaps purposely and with the
kindliest intention, by Sydney. that the
young genius seemed also to have found
his own ideal in Sylvia.
Nay, he had even at the last minute
put back the publication of his new
book, and. with few deft and MASTER
| ly touches, had recreated his heroine In
the living likeness Of Sylvia, and in a
few days more all the world would be at
her feet. drawn there by the MASTER
hand which had painted this other-self
Of hers so perfectly that henceforth
she would live two lives, er own and
| the greater and brighter one that
Algars genius had given her.
1t was this that had brought his
struggle to an end. His rival, as he per-
force regarded him, had drawn the
magic circle Of his genius round his
darling. and so, in a sense, had already
made her his own. What did it matter
then to him. what became Of the life
that was henceforth to be desert for
him?
The enchantment of his hopeless love,
turned all the strength of nature which
should have saved him against him;