The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-12-10
One Of the "Innna0rtal8.
BY JAMES BARNES.

That's just IT." said l. 1t has made
you forget my name for instance"
He looked at me with something APP
preaching amusement
You're right, old chap. ] couldn't tell
your name from ADAM
Try" said L. You remember where
you've seem me-"
20, yes" he said You see I am not
trying to put all that away; but that |
have forgotten your name gives me
hope"
Hope for what?' l interposed.
30, that | cam forget other things"
He had said this in a cynically calm
way without touch of feeling. There
was no trace even of bitterness in his
tone. / saw that it would be foolish to
be offended
What do they say about me over
there?" he asked suddenly, gulping down
the absinthe, the pungent medicinal smell
of which rose strongly in my nostrills.
''Ihey say you are spending your mon
cy as fast as you can. That's all | have
heard-cutting swath. Playing the
very devil, and so forth.
Yes, and ] have had some help at it.
Charlie went on "There are chaps over
itue WHO uOliON llHdt lpI Il DIuIeSoloiI'
I've done a land office business with
Them" he continued half laughing. ''Did
you ever hear of the little Duke de Mar
signi?'
Can't remember said |.
HE ran even with me for three weeks
or SO: then they put him where he
couldn't get away. He will stay there,
too he added with a chuckle. But
somehow / can't make it. Poor little
Maurice! He thinks he is the Caliph of
Bagdad. Odd to remark, that is just
what he's cut out to be. Now, there's
happiness"
1t was apparent to me now that this
was the strangest case that had ever
been brought under my observation. A
man perfectly sane, or at most only
third wasted, wishing to sink, If possi-
bic, the rest of him i'm the oblivion of de-
mentia. an Impending position generally
so frightful to the threatened that 1t
causes them either to hasten their own
defeat by melancholy, or to fight it
bravely and undiscovered, to the end.
| remembered strange thing about
Cummings in college, and what had been
said about him during his first years
after graduation; he had never been
drunk that any one could remember. |
myself had seen him wax mellow, j0val,
enthusiastic and had seen his wit grow
clearer and quicker, as If alcohol We're a
fuel only to his mental machinery. When
the others had reached the period at
which they wished TO sing, fight or 30
to sleep, according to their natures, then
Charlie would arise and Saunter over to
his room to read Schaupenhauer or
Browning, as the case might be, or
sometimes TO swing his imaginations TO
the verge of poetic inspiration.
Even now / saw traces of this in the
effect Of the absinthe upon his nerves.
His mind grew steadier and he had !
stopped the nervous movement of his
foot.
| recollected an occurrence, the facts
Of which were not generally known, but
which in my mind had accounted for
some of Charles later actions. He had
been tremendously fond of am elder
whom, by the way, he
had inherited most of the money that
enabled him to pursue his fancies. The
elder Cummings had inteladed to do
something with his life, and had taken
UP the profession Of surgery. In pur-
suance of his studies. he had gone to
Vienna and there one day had been found
dead in a fiacre with curious stab
wound in his heart. | well remembered
now how his brothers death affected
Charlie He was i'm New York at the
time and had been studying law in de-
sultory sort of a way, but at once he !