Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-04-11
Obe SUICIDE CLU B
PARTIT
.Ssory cf fbe FbYSician and roe .SarofoS0 Trunk

{ K@ eyN his credit as he came
 from New England, \ quarter of the new world not precisely famous for these qualities. Although he was exceedingly rich, he kept note z of all his expenses in little paper # pocketbook, and he had chosen to study # the attractions of Paris from the sev.. ] enth story of what is called fur = ufshed hotel in the Latin quarter. s There was a great deal of habit in his ] penuriousness, and his virtue, which was very remarkable among his asso- ciates, was principally founded upon fii6ldence and youth.
 The next room to his was inhabited by a lady, very attractive in her air and very elegant in toilet, whom on his first arrival he had taken for countess. In course of tirne he had learned that she was known by the name of Mime. Zephyrine and that whatever station she occupied in life lt was not that of person of title. Mme. Zephyrine, probably in the hope of enchanting the young American, used to Haunt by him on the stairs with a civil inclination, word, of course, and a knockdown look out of her black eyes and disappear in rus tic of silk and with the revelation of an admirable foot and ankle. But these advances, so far from encouraging MT. Ecuddamore, plunged him Into the depths of depression and bashfulness. She had come to him several times for a light or to apologize for the imag- lnary depredations of her poodle, but his mouth was closed in the presence of so superior a being, his French promptly left him and he could only stare and stammer until she was gone The slenderness of their intercourse Es did not, prevent him from throwing out { insinuations of very glorious order when he was safely alone with few males.
 The room on the other side of the { American's-for there were three rooms on floor in the hotel-was tenanted by an old English physician of rather <-doubtful reputation. Dr. Noel, for that { was his name, had been forced to leave London, where he enjoyed large and increasing practice, and 1t was hinted that the police had been the instigators of this change of scene. At least he, who had made something of a ngure in earlier life, now dwelt in the Latin quarter in great simplicity and solitude and devoted much of his time to study. MT. Scuddamore had made his ac- quaintance, and the pair would now and then dine together frugally in a restaurant across the street.
 Silas o. Scuddamore had many little vices of the more respectable order and was not restrained by delicacy from f indulging them in many rather doubt fuI ways Chief among his foibles stood curiosity. He was a born gossip, and life, and especially those parts of it in which he had no experience, in- terested him to the degree of passion. He was pert, invincible questioner, pushing his inquiries with equal per- tinacity and indiscretion. He had been l observed when he took letter to the post to weigh 1t in his hand, to turn 1t over and over and to study the address with care; and when he found flaw In the partition between his room and Mime. Zephyrine's, instead of filling it up, he enlarged and improved the open Ing and made use of it as a spy hole on shis neighbours affairs.
 One day, in the end of March, his curiosity growing as it was indulged, he enlarged the hole little further, so that he might command another corner M the room. That evening when he went as usual to inspect Mime. Zephyr he's movements he was astonished to { ind the aperture obscured in an odd manner on the other side and still more lbashed when the obstacle was sudden ly withdrawn and litter of laughter reached his ears. Some of the plaster lad evidently betrayed the secret of his ypy hole, and his neighbor had been re turning the compliment in kind. Mir. scuddamore was moved to a very lcute feeling of annoyance. He con- lemned Mme Zephyrine unmercifully
 Be even blamed himself, but when he sound next day that she had taken nc means to balk him of his favorite pas nme he continued to profit by her care
 essness and to gratify his idle cur1os. ky.
 That next day Mme. Zephyrine re.
 peiyed long visit from tall, loosely built man of fifty or upward, whom
 Eilas had Tot hitherto seen. His tweed
 utt and colored shirt, no less than his
 ihaggy side whiskers, identified him as
 Britisher, and his dull gray eye af.
 tected Silas with sense of cold. He
 kept screwing his mouth from side tc
 k1e and round and rouno uurlng rne
 Thole colloquy, which was carried on
 D whispers. More than once 1t seemed
 D the young New Englander as if
 heir gestures indicated his own apart
 bent, but the only thing definite he
 ould gather by the most scrupulous attention was this remark made by
 he Englishman in a somewhat higher
 ~, as if in answer to some reluctance
 opposition:
 sT have studied his taste to a nicety,
 nd tell you again and again you are
 hs only woman of the sort that can
 Ax nv handa on"