Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1899-08-18
THE PASSING
OF MANDEVIL

"Spasm of the Cloths" said the colo
mel, "is good enough for a jury, but what
Mandevil was quite clear he was going
to die Of that night and what am quite
clear l saw him die of was just simply
strangulation. There came that which
took him by the throat and clutched the
life out of him between pretty little
thumb and four ca fingers. | saw the
marks"
Now, as Mandevil had come to an end
in the midst of the supper crowd at the
Savarin hotel the colone's presentment
of the matter appeared somewhat steep.
Still, as a rule, his perceptions were pro-
fessional. He was unacquainted with the
use of the imaginative faculty, and to
produce any very marked psychological
impression upon him you would have to
operate. His auditors took the steepness
without impertinent comment. How was
he going to get over it, thought
"Ah," the narrator said, going back
again into the depths of his chair, now
you're asking me! or course there's that
story of the family curse, you know. Be
lieve in that sort of thing? They did.
Don't much wonder either. And, | sup.
pose, if you do believe you've got fam
lily curse upon you you're apt to do things
that help it along and make it all the cas-
Ter for the next lot to believe in it too
Well, the trouble began in the first kir-
tons tme-our chaps granduncle. over
a woman it was, as per usual.
"An extremely fascinating little devil
this Lady Lilith, by all accounts, but not
nearly careful enough, with a lord and
master like that When he found her
out, he took her in hand so seriously that
the next thing was n funeral. However,
she must have had considerable interest
somewhere, because you are bound to be.
lieve she certainly came back. Her hus-
band was found dead on the floor of his
room one morning, with the look Of de-
spair ON his face and her sign manual on
| his throat-same as | saw ON his grand
| nephew's, il you like. That was her lead
off. There have been nothing but male
| Mandevils born since, and not one Of 'em
has died in his bed, they tell you. Don't
say that l stick out particularly for dy-
ing in mine, you know. Three genera
tons of it, though, seems to mean some
thing And that's not all. The first kir-
ton had two younger brothers. Nothing
| happened to the second who succeeded
! till he had seen all his sons wiped out
! except the last-another Kirton. Then
! the father was shot in a duel, and within
| the year the son was come for, just like
his uncle. That let in the son of the third
brother. who was the father of our man.
He and ! were commissioned in Ours the
same day. Crimea, India, Africa and
the rest of it, lie never got a scratch
A year and two days ago he put himself
ut-accidentally. they printed it, Well.
there you are.
After all that do you wonder our John
nie-the last Kirton-felt that he was
down to be come for like the other two?
IL he didn't, what's the use of heredity!
You say this sort of thing is all rot So
do lin our case. We haven't been born
with the terror in our blood. Ii was no
good telling kirton that he was fool.
He knew more atSut himself than |
could. Shoot himself! You bet. he'd
thought Of that, and what stopped him
wasn't prejudice nor want Of pluck nei-
Their. Well. the life he lived that last
year would have been enough in the case
of the average man. He saw II out,
though, mind you, if nothing had hap
pened to him after all he'd be in luna
tic asylum tonight.
Friday he'd asked me TO dine with
him here. Then we were to go to the
Empire and end up with a partie carree
at the Savarin. | noticed we dined not
at my regular table in the corner, but
right in the middle of the room, with
other tables all round us. Same at the
Empire-kept in the crowd all the time.
Same at the Savarin-centered the whole
show. What's more, he'd get his man
Somers behind his chair. What did
think was going to happen? Well, II
struck me that Kirton was so internally
sober, considering that it might all be
| ANa
late sitting down. Kirton faced the door
He had Lady Blanche on his right and
mamma on the left. and l faced him. II
was close upon II before we'd got to cot
fee. I'd kept an eye on Kirton all along
You know the Mandevil sort of face
about the color of a new drum head
Then he was staring right through me al
the door, and his face had got to be the
color of that cigar ash. Behind me there
seemed all at once kind of commotion
When ! looked round, the people between
us and the door were getting out of theil
chairs.
"All the chatter and the clatter seemed
to stop. ! fancy one or two womeI
squeaked. | heard one woman back Of
me cry out What's thatT to the chap shC
was with. Then everybody seemed to bC
staring straight at us. There was Kir
; ton, sort of pinned back in his chair-iT
, fit. you'd have said-his hands close t.
, his throat, at grips with nothing; his eyes
half out of his head and his face-well
, like no other fellows face that / evel
saw going through till then. There wa
! a sort of stampede. Somers actually told
me afterward that he felt it every tint
) he tried to get near his master-felt some
5 thing between 'em like death, he said, til
2 It was all over. Somers' idea was tina
t Kirton was at grips with this something
, all the time. He's pretty matter of fact
as a rule, too.
< "When | got back. after seeing the wo
5 men off the premises, Mandevil was ly
: ing limp in his chair, with his head OF
( the back of it, dead as Julius Caesar.
e "'Look at that, sir Somers whispered
= to me. Well, certainly, there they wer'
on his, throat, plain enough-the littl'
/ thumb and the six and a quarter fingers
t did | feel anything unusual myself
Well, | remember feeling an unusual sor
S of draft at the back of my neck, just be
5 fore it began, and telling the waiter t
see if there wasn't a window opel
e | somewhere