Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1902-12-19
THE 25.FRANC PIECE.
A Christmas Story by Francois Cop.
pee.

Il
er, and got up from the roulette table
where he had just lost the remainder
of his little fortune which he had
brought there for this final effort. he
was seized with vertigo and narrowly
escaped falling to the floor.
With weary brain and TREMBLING
legs, he threw himself upon a lone
leather sofa which surrounded the
gambling table.
For several minutes he looked
vaguely about these private gambling
rooms where he had spoiled the most
beautiful years of his youth recog
nized the worn features of the differ.
ent gamblers, crudely lighted by the
great shaded lamps, heard the soft
clinking of the gold upon the green
table, felt that he was ruined, lost
and remembered that he had at home
in the drawer of the commode, a pair
OF pistols which had once been the
property of his father, General de
Hern, when he was a captain; then
only worn out with fatigue, he fell
into profound sleep.
when he awakened, his mouth dry
and parched, he ascertained by glanc-
ing at the clock that he had scarcely
slept quarter of an hour and he
felt an overwhelming desire to
breathe the fresh, cool night air.
The hands of the clock pointed to a
quarter of an hour of midnight AS
he arose and stretched himself he re-
membered that it was Christmas Eve,
and with an ironical play of the mem
DRY, he saw himself little child and
putting. before he went to bed. his
shoes in front of the fireplace.
At this moment. old Drouski, a pill
lar of the place, typical Pole, wear
ing rusty, long coat, trimmed with
braid and large ornaments, approach
ed Lucien and muttered these words
through his gray beard:
Lend me five francs, sir. It is now
two days that l have not left the
club, and during these two days I
have not seen seventeen win. You
may laugh at me, If you wish, but |
will cut off my right hand If soon, at
midnight, this number is not the one"
Lucien de Hern shrugged his
shoulders. He had not even enough
In his pockets to give to that beg
gar. that the frequenters Of the place
called Tess cents sous du Polonais."
He passed into the anteroom, took
his hat and coat and went down the
staircase with a feverish agility.
Since four O'Clock, when Lucien
went into the club, the snow had been
falling steadily and the street-a mar
row street in the centre of Paris, with
high houses on either side-was
white with snow. In the calm, black.
blue sky the cold stars scintillated.
The ruined gambler shivered in his
furs and began to walk rapidly, turn
ing over always in his mind those
hopeless thoughts, and dreaming more
than ever of the box of pistols which
awaited him in the drawer OF his
commode; but after having taken
several steps he stopped suddenly
before a heart-rending spectacle.
Upon a stone bench, placed accord
ing to an old custom near the large
door of a private house. a little girl
scarcely six or seven years old
dressed in a ragged black frock. was
sitting in the snow She had fallen
asleep there despite the cruel cold
in n pitiful attitude of fatigue and
detection, and her poor little head
and tiny shoulder had dropped into a
corner of the wall and were resting
upon the icy stone. One Of the old
wooden shoes with which the child
was shod had fallen from the foot
which was hanging down, and lay
drearily before her.
Mechanically de Hern put his hand
to his vest pocket, but he remembered
| that a moment before he did not find
even franc, and that he could not
| give a fee to the club waiter: never.
theless, pushed by an instructive sen,
timent of pity. he approached the lit
| tie girl, and he started, perhaps. to
raise her in his arms and to give
| her a place of shelter for the night
when he saw something glisten in
| the shoe which had fallen from her
foot
He bent over it; it was a twenty
| five-franc piece.
A charitable persona woman, nc
doubt-had passed that way, had seen
on that Christmas Eve that shoe
that had fallen in front of the sleep
| ing child, and recalling the touching
| legend, she had carefully placed there
| a great gift, SO that the little aband
| oned child could believe yet in Santa
| Claus, and should retain, in spite OF
| her unhappiness and misery, some
confidence and some hope in the
| goodness of Providence.
Twenty-Five francs! There was in
it several days of rest and wealth fol-
the beggar, and Lucien was upon the
point of awakening her to tell her OF
it, when he heard near his ear, like
an hallucination, voice-the voice Of
the Pole with his thick and drawing
accent-that murmured low these
words:
ut is now two days that l have
not left the club, and during these
two days | have not seen seventeen
win. l will cut off my right hand
If soon, at midnight, this number is
not the one"
Then this young man, twenty-thret
years old, who was descended from
race of honorable people, who bore
superb military name, and who hat
never failed to be a man of honor
was seized with a horrible thought;
he was possessed with a mad, hysteri
cal, monstrous desire; with one lool
he assured himself that he was really
alone in that deserted street, and
bending his knee and pushing his
hand tremblingly into the fallen shoe
he stole the twenty-five-franc piece.
Then, running with all his strength
he returned to the gambling house
climbed the staircases with a few
| strides, pushed open with his fist the