The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1908-03-04

lhc tlCotu upubiN
came the faint strains Of a languor-
Gus waltz.
A grim smile curled slowly round
the corners of his mouth. 1t really
was rather comic to make ones exit
from the world to the sounds, not
of "Marche Funebre," but of dance
music!
He touched almost affectionately
the revolver lying on the table In
front of him. 1t was expensive, the
best of its kind, like everything else
in this expensive house, 1t would not
blunder, it would do its work well.
Just one pull at the trigger, and
hen-ah!-respite from misery,
freedom from care-eternal sleep.
He leaned back in his chair and his
eyes strayed, half mechanically, to
the little Sevres clock on the mantel-
piece. Half past eleven. In another
thirty minutes-at midnight--he had
made up his mind to die.
Leaning back with half closed
eyes, he thought over his past life.
II is said that the Gying-and he,
surely, was practically that-some-
times see their whole lives pass be-
fore them in full review, and now
he was seeing his. He saw 1t all
from the very beginning. The child
hood in his grandmother log cabin
on the bleak Irish bog; the fight, as
la1 of gt fA I'm GLAND hnnnrcn
IN his miserable home he had been
treated worse than a dog; the pov-
erty, the hardships, the marriage,
when he was barely twenty, to girl
Of seventeen, and then, just as If the
young wife had acted as a mascot
as, laughingly, in those days he had
often told her that she had-the
gradual turning of his luck He had
"struck ile," as the vulgar saying
expressed it, and the man who had
been little better than beggar at
twenty had, at forty, become a mil
Monaire.
A millionaire! He opened his eyes
and glanced-the grim smile still on
his face-round the splendid room.
Who would have thought that the
poor, beaten, half-starved little
urchin of the log cabin was going to
blossom out, some day, into busl-
ness genius? And who would have
thought, too-and the smile grew
grimmer-that the man who had
proved himself to have such a splen-
did talent for organization, such
wonderful grip" of his trade, would
be fool at gambling, and fritter
his vast fortune away?
His fingers strayed again to the
weapon which was to bring him his
freedom. Tonight nobody knew any
thing; tomorrow it would be in all
the papers that John Dolan, the mil
lionaire, was ruined.
His ruin had been creeping upon
him stealthily for years. He had
ambled-foolishly heartlessly, reck-
lessly. He had seen everything, all
the money that he hai striven for, in
swest and blood, slipping from his
grasp-and he had not cared! And
why had the wealth, which he had
spent the best years of his manhood
In striving for, proved such dust and
ashes to him that, when he lost it,
he did not mind?
A look of intense bitterness crept
into his eyes. All! he had loved her,
the pretty village maiden he had
made his wife! They had been happy
ir the poor little poverty-stricken
home-happier far than he, at any
rate, had ever been in Grosvener
square. And then? Then the money
had begun to come in, and they had
drifted apart. Mary had such a big
house now to attend to-she had her
visitors, her gayeties, her numerous
rounds of what she called her duty"
calls. 1t takes three generations to
make a gentleman, they say; it only
takes about three years, he reflected
half humorously, half bitterly, to
make lady. He had never been a
gentleman-never would be one, he
nS' ohu hC iSuiSlllDcIcu Ills Suu-
den feeling of amazement, of shock.
when he had seen his wife on the
occasion of her presentation at court.
Mary, at twenty, had been shy, awk-
ward, typical country miss, nothing
more; at thirty, she had the ease and
graciousness of young queen. She
had carried herself superbly; her
Uttle head--on which the diamond
Gsra had seemed to him to twinkle
with mocking derisive eyes-was
poised proudly on the slender throat.
She wore her court train, her feath-
Srs, as if she had been accustomed
TO such gorgeous raiment all her life
Mary had very soon adapted herself
to the role of grand dame.
And then the children! In the cot.
tage home they had been a never.
ending source of delight. Well he
remembered how he came back in the
evenings tired from his work, they
would meet him in the doorway
these four beings whom he loved
the baby Growing on Mary's shoul
der; Harry, the boy; Molly, the eld
est pirl c1inpinp IN har ckirfc Than