A DEAD MAN’S ROMANCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVIII, Issue 11368, 8 September 1897, Page 2

A DEAD MAN’S ROMANCE.

(New York Clipper.) I was dead. I had not died a natural death. In skating, a little hoy had broken through tho ice, a few steps ahead of me. I had, indeed, succeeded in drawing him out, hut in so doing I had broken through the ice myself, and when I was finally pulled out all attempts at resuscitation had failed to revive the vanished life. So I had parted from this world with a good deed, and that consoled me somewhat for the great journey I had begun. Now I lay there alone on my bed, and no one kept watch with my corpse. Indeed, I had no human soul in the wide, wide world who could have done this. Who was there, pray, who cared enough for me, the orphaned bachelor, to still regard me as worth something as a dead man ? It was still in the room, quite still —the stillness of death. Even the big house, clock bad stopped, as if awed into si lenco. And now it seemed tome as if in tins stillness the voice of the Judge of the world must resound suddenly, demanding that I should appear before His throne and account for my deeds. Confused thoughts, which accused and excused each other, crossed my mind, and I racked ray brains in search of an answer for the immaculate Judge at the last trial. Was it a wonder if my whole life passed before my eyes ? Clearly, with almost terrible distinctness, long forgotten pictures rose before me; I saw people who bad gone to the realm of death long in advance of mo. And if I asked myself honestly I was obliged to admit in my conscience that I had not precisely a great deal to lay in the scale in which my good acts were. A young man of the end of the century, rich, independent, always surrounded by a host of gay friends—whore is he of whom, in such a case it can be said : “ See there a righteous man ?” To be sure, I bad done some deeds of Christian love; I bad given from ray abundance to the poor; I had turned no supplicant from my door ; I had made many donations to churches and'hospitals, and all that must fall into the balance at the weighing. And when I thought over these things well, and in addition reflected on how I had lost my life, it scorned- to me as if I saw the scale in the hands of the world’s Judge sink in my favor, as if I might calmly look for His judgment. But suddenly—and it was as though the sigl\t made my heart jump violently—a young girl entered, hesitating-arid- against her will, but she was obliged to obey the sign of the Judge. And now she stood.before him, breathing fast, with downcast eyes, from which a tear dropped ; and at another sign she laid, with a trembling baud, a curl, .in the balance—and 10, high in tho air flew the scale in which the good deeds lay! And then the girl fell upon her knees before the throne of the judge and, raising her hands to Him supplicatingly, said: “ Do not judge him. Lord, by what he did to me!” Yet there resounded in a voice of thunde!the cry: “ Too lightly judged!” Too lightly judged—for the sake of a curl! Hut this curl weighed a human life, and this life, a fresh, blooming life, I bad almost destroyed in pure wantonness. In death there .is no colonrin o *, no gloss. Severe and inexorable are the truths it discloses. I nere, nothino- can be hushed up any more, nothing argued away. Tho truth stands thoio in terrible nakedness, so that we, overwhelmed, break to pieces before it. 1 So it was with me also. I saw all distinctly, j‘ us fc as ifc had been —niy whole, infinite 'guilt toward this human life as fresh as Spriuo- I saw before me. L One evening in May I walked by Annie’s side through the delightful old park, in

which the trees rustled so strangely and mysteriously as never before.

Wo bad known each other for a long time, and had always, as often as we met anywhere, been merry and unconstrained; had joked and teased one another; and had vied with each other in loquacity. To-day it was different; we did not utter a syllable; we walked on in silence. Annie had put her arm in mine, and I felt how it trembled slightly. Suddenly the moon fell full upon the sweet,lovely little face. I saw it, and at the same moment 1 had drawn her to me and asked:

" Annie, you will he my wife ?” She could find no words in reply. She had started in glad fright, her head sunk upon my breast, and I was allowed to kiss the red lips again and again. Two happy people were alone ; about us was intoxicating, starry night, with the notes of the nightingale trilling in the perfumed air.

And then that other day; it stood before me with frightful distinctness. We had celebrated the birthday of some friend, and in so doing had imbibed more wine than was good for us. The others bad grown exceedingly hilarious, and rallied me about my engagement. “ Pool that you are!” cried one. “ Why do you bind yourself to a poor girl who brings you nothing but a pretty face ?”

“ Silence!” I cried. “ That’s my busines

“ But you don’t seem to know,” continued the other, “that you have become the talk and the laughing stock of the town on account of your folly !” “ That’s all the same to me. I am the master of my actions!” “Well, •well!” cried the whole chorus, laughing. “In any ease you have been guilty of a great piece of stupidity !” said the same individual again. “ The first houses of the town are open to you; every mother longs to have yon for her son-in-law ; the richest girls would pledge you eternal love and fidelity, and you—don’t take it amiss of me —step like a blockhead into the snare that has been laid for you by two pretty hands ?”

“ Go to the devil with your idle talk,” I exclaimed, angrily. “ Be prudent” said the other again. “ Dissolve the bond; there’s yet time. You will find a hundred fold compensation, if you then wish to run into matrimony. Annie may be very spruce and pretty, but she isn’t at all fit for the circle you are accustomed to ; for yon may depend upon it that many houses will be closed to yon if you should really marry her. You have the stuff in you to make gour mark in the high political world; but you will never shine with such a wife to hinder you—for —for—well, yes, for your wife will never be accepted by refined society. Now you know it.”

“ What do I care ” I exclaimed, grating my teeth. But a terrible tumult raged within me.

“ Were there real love potions,” continued the other, laughing—and all the rest laughed with him in chorus —“one would believe you had received one, that you might not see all the misery into which you throw yourself by such a marriage ! But Annie leads you by strings like a boy—that’s it!”

Then I flew in a passion. “You fools!” I cried. “No one leads me by strings! And in order to prove to you that I am free, if I wish to be so—entirely free ”

Cutting myself short, I jerked my engagement ring from my finger and flung it out through the open window into the snow, which lay deep in the street. For a moment a deathlike stillness reigned in the room, then all clapped their hands, crying: “ Well done! Well done!_” And I stood there like one who has glorified himself by a great deed. The next day Annie naturally knew what had happened; good friends had speedily informed her of it. Without a word she sent my ring back to me. And that ended the matter.

But no, not quite yet: Annie’s brother came to me and wanted to call me to account. I, however, told him that I had acted as prudence and foresight demanded of me, and that Annie would know how to console herself.

But he gave me a pitiful look, and remarked that there was a time when he had supposed I was something more than simply a “ prudent ” man. With that he went away, very earnest, as he always had been. ■Richard and Annie were orphans. He was the only support of his sister, and I had really always liked him very well. But now I hated him.

All that passed before me as I now lay on my bed, dead, and an uneasy feeling took possession of my heart. This crime could not be forgiven me; the curl, the one curl weighed too much —a broken heart hung on it. The hours rolled endlessly away —every one an eternity. I still awaited the call that would summon me to the last court. But it did not come yet. Then another thought shot through my head, whether my friends, my good friends, would come to take the last leave of me.

They had sung and caroused with me day in, day out, so they would now certainly bid me a last farewell. To be sure, the way to the death bed is harder, more uncomfortable than the one to the drinking bout—but, yes, they would come for all that. I hoped and waited. None came. They sent wreaths, but they themselves did not put in an appearance. Indeed, what was the dead man to them ? Had the living one been anything

to them—save for his money’s sake—for the conviviality it afforded them ? But, yes, some ono was coming. The door was opened. I heard a light step, which was followed by a firmer one, and immediately after, an earnest, dissuading voice; “ He isn’t worth it, Annie!” Like the trumpet call or the Day of Judgment this earnest voice sounded in my ears, so that I trembled to my innermost heart. n And directly thereafter I heard another voice. Oh, I knew it well, for it often whispered words of love to mo! “ Leave mo alone, Richard,” said tills voice. “Ho one comes to him to bid him farewell. And yet he died like a hero!” “But he did not deserve to have you to come to him!” replied the other, and harsh and sharp sounded what he said. I heard a soft, suppressed sob. Then someone stepped to my bed, and a shower of flowers fell upon it, while that voice, that gentle, melodious voice, full of conciliation and forgiveness, said: “ And if they all forget you, your good friends —I cannot forget you! Not in life, not in death! Sleep in peace, you, my only love!” I felt two warm lips burn on mine. There, what was that! A stream of warm life seemed to flow through my veins. Was I not dead, then P Or was that the air of the higher world that I felt blow about me ? But at the same moment I heard a cry: Richard, come here! For God’s sake! I-Ie isn’t dead—he’s alive ! He moved his hand!” A painful silence prevailed for a moment. Then the masculine voice said; “ The doctor must be sent for at once 1 Quick —hurry there, yourself, Annie! Help is possible here yet!” I heard the girl hasten away with flying steps. ft seemed to me, however, as if a new life had come over me, and behind me, swallowed up in gray night, I saw the other, old, vicious life. I could open my eyes now. By my bed stood Richard, very earnest, as always. I saw a bright light burning, and through the open window the cool, fresh air blew on me. The doctor came. His face took an astonished expression when he looked at mo. Then he put on a very learned air, and said: “Hum! Hum! He’s alive! A. strange case. But such a thing can happen. We call that asphyxia.” He examined me, gave a few directions, then departed. Asphyxia—so he had said, the wise man. Yet his cold, sober science would almost have scared the warm life out of my heart agoin, had not Annie been active arounb mo. I felt as if I must draw her to me, beg her for forgiveness, tell her that 1 still loved her. But 1 could not do it, for I could not find words for it: I only looked once into her eyes, and that must have told her more than all words, for she remainad by mo and did not retreat from my bed. And so it came about that I said to her one day; “Do you believe the doctor is right with his—his asphyxia ?” She smiled quietly. “ It is probably so,” she said. I seized her hand. “ No,” I said, “it isn’t so! Let him enter the strange case in Ms dairy, and add his learned comments to it—l know better. I was dead, but love, Annie—love vanquished death. “ Isn’t it so, Annie ? ” She made no answer, but only smiled at me in a happy way, and two hot tears from he spai’kling eyes fell upon my hand.