A YOUNG LIFE WRECKED.

Evening Post, Volume XLVII, Issue 94, 21 April 1894, Page 2 (Supplement)

A YOUNG LIFE WRECKED.

" You shall not go." " I must go. I must. It's nearly five." The two young men, bo dissimilar, stood facing each other, the younger, but stronger-looking of the two, with his back against the closed door of the handaomely-f urniahed room. The elder man, his alight form clothed in correct afternoon fashion, clutched nervously at the back of a chair as if for support. It was a strange scene. One brother barring th« door to the other. What a difference in the faces. In the eyes of one could be read unflinching determination, tinged with gleams of pity. The other's told of entreaty, piteous entreaty, and abasement. The Swiss clock on the wall ticked the seconds away as the brothers faced each other. There was a click, and the doora of the ornamented chateau on top of the timepiece opened, and a bird, bearing the features of an administration senator, appeared and cuckooed five times. Tho slight man sank into an armchair. "Let us talk sensibly," said the other, as he placed a chair against the door and sat on it. " For the sake of your family, for the sake of your friends, for your own future, cannot you break loose from this horrible habit, that is sapping your ' energy and brain ? Three years ago I left you well and happy, and now I find you in this terrible condition." " It's all of no use. Of no use. I have struggled madly, wildly." ''BuC how did you, a sensible young man, cumo to fall so far ?" " It was our parents' fault." " What ?" " Oh, you may say ' what ' as much as you please, but it's true just the same. You were all right. You were lucky. They called you Bill, and there you were. What did they christen me ? Why, ' Herbert Edwin,' and from that day I was doomed. " We didn't realise what it meant, but you can remember how things were. Your name was Bill, and your hair was cut when you put on your first trousers. My name was Herbert Edwin, and they put me in Fauntleroys, and let my hair grow, and tried to curl it, although it had no more curl to it than an Indian's. " That was the way it was right ulong through school and college. Why, I might have been in the football team if the captain had not said ' Herbert Edwin ! Well, I guess not.' That settled it, and all the honours I got was a place on the Sophomore Reception Committee, which was worse than nothing. " Honestly, Bill, when I graduated *rom college and came home, I firmly determined to do the right thing. I said to myself, 'I will show these people an example of a man becoming a credit in spite of adverse circumstances. I will live down my name, or rather, I will rise superior to its baloful influence.' That was what I said, but it was of no use. "In a moment of careless foolhardiness I went to an afternoon cea. No thought of my terrible danger came to me. Through the waving petals of the chrysanthemum on my coat I could catch occasional glimpses of the dim wintry sun, and 1 went calmly to my fate. On the sidewalk in front of the house a benevolent looking old gentleman handed me a tract with a pleading, warning look. It was headed, • The Terrible Curse, or Why Thomas J. Bippus became T. Juniper Bippus.' I thrust the tiact in my pocket. Ah! if I had only read it then and taken heed. •'As I went up tho otepß a man pushed me, putting on his coat as he went. I recognised him. His name was Ebenezer Isaac. ' Where's the nearest bar ?' he said, wildly. ' I've been poisoned.' With a happy smile the tract man pointed to the corner, and Ehenezer disappeared "Inside there were twenty-six ladies and one man. His name was L'eginald Algernon, and he owned t lie place. I was introduced as Herbert Edwin, and was made much of. I drank tea. and then I drank m<»o ton, and I ate little combinations of air and sugar called in flitteiv cakes. That night I went homo uith no apputite fur dinner, l>ut thoroughly steeped lit tea and small talk. The next morning I awoke with an utter loathing for tea I f the Chinese nation could have had only one pig tail, I would have spent hours tweaking it. But I recovered aud went again. • <: It is needless to speak of the steps in my downfall. You see the ruault. lam a confirmed 5 o'clock tea'er. I make afternoon calls, and as soon as 5 o'clock comes if I cannot get to a tea I nearly go frantic Bill, if you love me, if you have any remembrance of your boyhood days, you will make me some tea, rustle the furniture about, and talk to me of the curious complexion and perfectly lovely lace Miss McSwatt wore at the reception yesterday." Herbert Edwin staggered across the room, and fell weeping on a divan.