Year: 1879

mad resolved TO Kill myself; there
was no longer any doubt that Amelia
i was faithless to me.


Let me be sure about twas it Ame-
| liza her name was? To think that she
once held my life as it were, in her
little hand, and I can't recollect, to
save my soul, what her name was.
Anyhow, whoever she was, she had
proved false to me, and. as I was very
young at the time, had promptly
come to the resolution to destroy my
self. My first intention was to go and
blow out my brains all over her stair
carpet, bnt then reflected that every
one wonld know that Henrietta-come
| to think of it, her name was Henrietta
had infatuated me and turned my
head. s'No," said I to myself. ''no
publicity, no scandal! Let me initiate
the wounded stag, which. seeking to
| hide its fatal hurt, betakes itself to the
secret thicket, there to perish far from
all human eyes"


In this elegiac disposition I took the
| $40 train for Melun, which sat me
down just at dusk within few steps
of the Golden Lion, very well kept
| inn, with clean beds and capital ta-
BILE.


"What will monsieur have for sup
| PERI" said charming little mistress.


Nothing-supper would be mock
cry. Show me to my tomb-my room,
I mean"


I retired to my couch, but not to
sleep. In my fevered dreams beheld
l ok0
| la after all-passing, leaning upon the
arm of my hated rival. I clutched at
his throat and seized--the iron railing
| of the bedstead, or the marble slab of
the little table by my bedstead. I rose
unrefreshed, but what matters that
was about to die-ha! ha! to die.
Having dressed myself, I went in
search of rope. You may think that
when person wants to hang himself
nothing is easier than to find a rope,
but had to hunt the hotel, high and
low before could find one.


''What on earth do you want of
rope, monsieur" said the pretty little
mistress when finally she found me one.
With the precious bit of hemp in my
pocket, took my way towards thick
ct not far from the hotel, in little
wood whose paths were familiar to me.



there where / well knew my hfeless
was discovered.


Upon the road I thought of Bertha
was wrong before; come to think of
it, it was Bertha-and cursed her with
all the bitterness of which my soul was
capable. I then tested my cord It
was not such an agent of self-destruc-
ton as would have chosen had I had
an assortment from which to make
selection It seemed to me both short
and not up to my weight. I was an
noyed. You cannot tell how trife
like that will affect persons temper at
such a moment.


A further disappointment was in store
| for me. On arriving at the spot I had
selected in advance, / was disagreeably
| surprised to find some one else there.
An individual whose back only I could
see, was occupied in fastening a rope
to the most eligible branch of my tree.
"Hello! what are you doing there?"
! I cried.


He turned round. ''What business is
it of yours, anyway" he said.


"Bah: don't You think I know what
you intend doing?


'sWell, and supposing Iwant to hang
| myself-it is my own funeral suicide,
/ mean.


I regarded him narrowly. He was
a handsome and manly young fellow of
about my own age, with frank and
winning countenance. He was deadly
pale.


ssThis young man." said I, lifting my
hands to heaven, 1'is going to take his
life-h own precious life, all for the
sake of worthless jilt.''


"Sirr' he cried.


"Poor silly fool" I went on COM
muning with myself aloud, she would
undertake to defend her. All lovers
are the same. Will you,' I continued,
1 wisher? Just leave that cord there, lit
was stouter rope than mine, had
observed, and go quietly home like a
good fellow, When you are yourself
| you will thank me for having given You
such good advice.


He shook his head gloomily. 81 de-
sire to die," he muttered.


'sDon't let yourself be goaded into
taking a step that if you were alive
you would regret tomorrow. 7 went
on with benevolent persistence (you
see, the fellow had pre-empted the only
really eligible bough in the wood)-
"When you are dead it will be too
late to change your mind"


ssYou speak to me without knowing
what misfortune has happened to me, y
he said.


i ST can guess it,"


s.No, you cannot guess it. Sir, a
woman that I loved; a woman for
whom"


i And he went on to tell me his story
which, singularly enough, was precisely
like mine. The coincidence made me
pause moment to collect my thoughts.
: v.


81 see,'' said Charles Che had told me
in the course of his painful story that his
name was Charles), ssthat your silence
iustifies me.


ssBy no means," I cried. (You will
observe that it wouldn't have been digni-
i fed for me to abandon at once my former
position on the subject of suicide J


sThere is nothing, whatever, in ali that
you have told me to justify you in taking
4 your life. Come, my friend, said I, be-


coming really interested in his case,
"come, let us reason the matter out.
\ Why should you complain because you