Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-05-06
A LOCK
OF HAIR.

At the age 1f 10 he WAS old and was not
pretty He was bald. His face was thin
and meager, though his waist measure
ment was extensive. His memory played
him tricks, and his gait was little curl
GUS The doctor who had just driven
away in his brougham found him INFER
esting as congiOmeration of diseases,
but did not respect him He was coming
rapidly TO the end of his luxurious though
somewhat disordcrly life There was 10
disorder in il now. His cellar slept undis-
tUfbcd, and they measured his whisky
twice q day in a graduated glass. and they
never filed the tmnbler more than half
full, because his hand shook badly. His
two plain nieces kept his house for him
and would inherit it when he died They
found him occasionally bad tempered and
always a little eccentric. but put up with
it because he was SO i'll. Whenever he
called one by the name Of the other or for
got both names, as sometimes happened
nowadays, they slipped out of the room,
giggled in their handkerchiefs in the pas
sage and came back with their faces COM
posed.
This afternoon after the doctor had gone
he sat contentedly smiling at the fire. He
had been told that in all probability he
would not last much longer, and on the
whole he was heartily glad of it. Suicide
would be scandalous-he did not dream of
! it-but death was welcome enough. Aft
! er all, there was no more fun to be had.
| lie decided to set about his preparations
for leaving
| He found Ethel in the drawing room
/ She was the elder of the two nieces..
81 want you to get my keys for me, Ag-
mes, he said. Bring them to the study. :"
She vanished to get the keys and to
laugh because she had been called Agnes
by mistake. When she got back to the
study, he had dragged out an old deed box
which stood in one corner of the room and
| placed it beside his chair in front of the
fire unlock it, he said.
(which key?" she asked.
Don't know
She tried several. unlocked it and was
about to raise the lid.
Leave it aloneI'' he snapped out.
"You can GO Don't interrupt me for a
couple of hours. shall be busy"
When she had gone, he opened the box
and began on the letters first The box
belonged TO his Romeo period, which had
been excessive and variegated The old
wreck had been handsome once. Some of
the letters he read How all these wo-
men had atlored him-for a time, or half
a time! They were unquestionably letters
which he did not intend TO leave behind
him for the perusal of the girls. Soon the
big fireplace was mass of charred paper.
He observed, making the experiment for
the first time in his life, that a woman $
satin shoe does not burn well. Hair, on the
other hand, burns excellently. The black
hair he rememberd distinctly. That
was Dora's Emily's had been dark, but
not so dark as that. Dora was assooiated
in his mind with the river Thames. He
recognized that the lump of decayed yege-
tation round which the long tress was
wound Lad been riverside forgetmenots.
Yes, he had loved her with a great part
of his heart for nearly six weeks. The red
hair, frankly red, was Kitty's. What
wonderful Skins he thought to himself,
these red haired women had He looked
anxiously in the box to see If there were
any more letters of Kitty's left by chance.
They were letters which, more than the
rest, needed the ordeal of fire. What a fool
her husband was and what Il pity it was
that she drank! Bah the whole thing
disguised him. Every souvenir was full
of poison, and the remainder of the con-
tents of the deed box were pitched on the
fire in handfuls without further examina
tion. When all the rest was burned, lit
tie envelope, which had fiuttered away on
the floor by itself, attracted his attention.
He picked it up. Tn it was curl of alb
solutely golden hair. Now whose, he
thought to himself, could that have been?
At this moment Ethel opened the door
and said brightly, GIVE brought you your
beef tea, uncle. p"
"Git out!" said uncle.
When she had vanished, he resumed his
examination of that fascinating golden
curl. twas not Marians. She had light
hair, but hers was straighter and not such
a deep gold. Besides, he had burned Mar
ians hair already with the letter which
had accompanied it when she sent it to
him Could it have been anybody that he
met abroad? He had Travelled good deal
when he got tired of English women, but
at that period, he remembered, he had
found it impossible to fall in love except
with the mystic type with dark hair and
eyes. 1t was pretty curl. The hair was
like spun silk, and, unlike the other SOU
venirs that he had destroyed, it did not
awaken in him the least feeling of disgust.
1t must have been some rare idyl, possibly
the one piece of poetry in life which had
been grossly materialistic.
lie spent good deal of time in the
course of the next few weeks in meditat-
ing over that curl of golden hair, and he
imagined things about it. Ten minutes
later he would forget whether he had i'm
agined them or whether they had really
happened. He was getting into shock
ing condition. He somewhat accelerated
his death by neglecting the prohibitions of
his doctor. He knew that in any case it
was matter of weeks, so he had the
champagne and the old port and the very,
very old brandy, and broke the graduated
glass, and refused pills and farinaceous
puddings, He had just helped himself
liberally TO Strassburg pate when death
took the plate away.
Ethel and Agnes, who did not keep on
crying when they were quite alone, were
looking over the papers they had found in
his pockets and came across the curl of
golden hair in the envelope
II know that envelope" said Agnes;
that is the sort grandmamma always
uses"
"Oh, yes, " said Ethel, ''and there is the
hair! Don't you remember, she sent it to
him for fun about month ago? Just
imagine that when he was little boy of
3 he had curls like that!'
"Hello!" said Agnes "What is this
he had written on the envelopef'
In an exceedingly shalky hand were the
words:
"Whom alone really loved
"Oh, he was too eccentricl'' said Ethel
st. Louis Republic
Try Aliens Foot Ease.
A powder to he shaken into the shoes. At
this SensOn NOur feet feel SMOllen. ncrNOnS