Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-30

waylaid, and so at length gained an in
terview. which taught him many things.
He found the Lady Catharine Knolys
changed from a light-hearted girl to a
maiden tall, grave, reserved and sad, offer
ing no reproaches listening to no protesta-
lions. Told of Sir Arthur Pembroke's hor-
ribe death, she wept with tears which his
survivor envied. Told at length of the little
child, she sat wide-eyed and silent. APP
preached with words of remorse, with ex-
postula tons, promises, she shrank back in
absolute horror, trembling, so that in very
pity the wretched young man left her and
found his way out into a world suddenly
grown old and gray.
After this dismissal Law for many
months saw nothing, heard nothing of this
woman whom he had wronged, even as he
received no sign from the woman who had
forsaken him over seas. He remained away
as long as might be, until his violent ma
ture. geyser-like, gathered inner storm and
fury by repression, and broke away in wild
eruption.
Once more he sought the presence of the
woman whose face haunted his soul and
once more he met ice and adamant stronger
than his own fires. Beaten, he fed from
London and from England, seeking STILL
after the ancient and ineffective fashion Of
man, to forget, though he himself had con-
fessed the lesson that man can not escape
himself, but takes his own hell with him
wherever he goes.
Rejected, as he was now by the new
ministry of England, none the less eyery
capital of Europe came presently to know
John Law, gambler, student and financier
Before every ruler on the continent he laid
his system of financial revolution and one
by one they smiled, or shrugged, or scoffed
at him. Baffied once more In his dearest
purpose, he took again to play, play in such
colossal and audaclous form as never yet
had been seen even in the gayest courts of
time when gaming was vice to be called
national No hazard was too great for him,
no success and no reverse sufficiently keen
TO cause him any apparent concern. There
was no risk sharp enough to deaden the
gnawfng In his soul, no excitement strong
enough to wipe away from his mind the
black panorama of his past.
He won princely' fortunes and cast them
away again. With the figure and the air of
prince. he gained greater reputation than
any prince OF Europe. Upon him were spent
the Establishments of the fairest women of
his time. Yet not this, not all this, served
10 s.eady ms energies. now unbalanced,
speeding without guidance. The gold,
heaped high on the tables, was not enough
to stupefy his mind not enough though he
doubled and trebled It, though he cast great
golden markers to spare him trouble in the
counting of his winnings Still student. still
mathematician. he sought at Amsterdam.
at Paris, at Vienna. all new theories which
oHered In the science Of banking and
finance even as at the same time he deIyed
still further into the mysteries of recur
rences and chance.
In this latter such was his SUCCESS that
losers made complaint. unjust but effectual.
to the king. so that Law was Obliged to
leave Paris for time He had dwelt long
enough In Paris, this doubie-natured man.
this student and creator. this gambler and
gallant. to win the friendship Of Philippe of
Orleans, later to be regent of France: and
gay enough had been the life they two had
ied-so gay, so intimate that Phiiippe gave
promise that. should he ever hold in his
own hands the government Of France, he
would end Laws Punishment and give TO
him the opportunity he sought, of proving
those theories of finance which CONSTITUTED
the absorbing ambition of his life
Meantime Law, ever restless, had passed
from one capital of Europe to another.
dragging with him from hotel to hotel the
young child whose life had been cast in
such feverish and unnatural surroundings.
He continued to challenge every hazard.
fearless. reckless. contemptuous, and Withai
wretched, as one must be who. after years
of effort. found that he could not Danish
from his mind the pictures of a dark-fioored
prison. and of a knife stab in the dark. and
of raging awful waters, and of eIrI hean-
tifui, though with sealed lips and heart of
Ice. From time to time, as was well known
Law returned to England He heard of the
Lady Catharine Knollys, as might easily