Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1898-11-19
THE PIECE OF GOLD.

w uSu huclCH 1eU saw MS last
hundred franc note gripped by the
bankkeeper's rake, and rose from
the roulette table, where he had lost
the last fragments Of his little for
tune, collected for this supreme
stuggle, he felt giddy snd thought
he was going to fall.
With dizzy head and to.tering
legs he threw himself down upon the
broad leathern settee surrounding
the play table.
For some minutes he gazed va
cantly on the clandestine gambling
house, in which he had squandered
the best years of his youth, recog--
nized the ravaged faces of the gam.
blers, crudely lighted up by the
three large shaded lamps; listened to
the light jingle of gold on the cloth
covered table; felt that he was ruined,
lost; recollected that he had at home
the pair of regulation pistols which
his father, Gen. Hem, then a simple
captain, had used so we'll in the at
tack of Zaatcha; then, overcome by
fatigue, he sank into profound
sleep.
When he arose, with parched
mouth, he saw by the clock that he
had slept for barely half an hour,
and felt an imperioas need for
breathing the night air. The clock
hands marked quarter before mid
night.
AT that moment old Dronski-a
pillar of the gambling-house, the
classic Pole wearing the threadbare
hooded wooden cloak, ornamented all
over with grease stains-approached
Lucien, and muttered few words
in his grizzled beard.
"Lend me five-franc piece, mon
sieur. It's now two days since I've
stirred out of the club, and for two
days the ~ has never turned up.
Taught at me if you like, but I'll
suffer my hand to be cut off if that
number does not turn up on the
stroke of midnight
Luciem Hem shrugged his Shout
ders. He had not even enough in
his pocket TO meet this tax, which
the frequenters OF the place called
ste Poles hundred sous" He passed
into the ante-chamber, took his hat
and fur coat, and descended the
stairs with feverish rapidity.
Since four o'clock, when Lucien
had shut himself up in the gaming.
house, snow had fallen heavily, and
the street-a street in the centre of
Paris, very narrow, and built with
great houses on either side-was
completely white:
In the calm sky, blue black, the
cold stars glittered.
The ruined gambler shuddered TN.
der his furs and walked away, his
mind still teeming with thoughts of
despair, and more than ever return
ing to the remembrance of the case
OF pistols which awaited him in one
of his drawers; but after moving for.
ward a few steps, he stopped sud-
denly before heart wringing sight.
On stone bench, placed accord
ing to old custom near the door of a
mansion, little girl ofsix or seven
years of age, dressed in a ragged
black frock, was sitting in the snow.
She was sleeping, in spite of the
cruel cold, in az attitude of fright
ful fatigue and exhaustion; her poor
little head and tiny shoulder pressed
as if they had sunk into an angle of
the wall, and reposing on the icy
stone. One of her wooden shoes
had fallen from her foot, which hung
helplessly and lugubriously before
her.
With a mechanical gesture Lucien
put bis hand to his waistcoat pocket,
but q moment after he recollected
that he had not been able to find
even a forgotten piece of 30 sors,
and had been obliged to leave the
club without giving the customary
'tip" to the club attendant: ret,
moved By an instructive feeling of
pity, he approached The little gill,
and might, perhsps, have taken her
in his arms, and given her a nights
lodging, when in the wooden shoe
which had slipped from her foot he
saw something glitter.
He stopped. It was a gold coin.
Some charitable person, doubtless
some lady, had passed by, had seen
on this night the little wooden shoe
lying in trout Of the sleeping child,
and, recalling The touching legend,
had placed there, with a secret
hand, magnificent offering, so that
this poor abandoned one might be-
lieye IN presents made fsr the infant