A CONTENTED MAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11196, 17 October 1899, Page 3

A CONTENTED MAN.

They had discussed the question in the smoking-room until their tempers had risen as high as the thermometer, when, at the psychological moment, Gherki opened the door. Being a newly-arrived South African millionaire, his entrance was opportune, and was greeted with a shout of welcome. " Silence!" roared the autocrat of the club, an old Indian colonel. "Let me put the facts before Gherki." He glared angrily round, whilst the newcomer looked m surprise from one to the other. "The fact is, Gherki, we've been arguing as to whether any man, rich or poor, is ever contented. Most of us can answer for the poor, but we wanted to hear what you others thought of it." They all liked the plutocrat, for, although a thing of yesterday, he was a gentleman to the tips of his fingers. His tanned face grew a shade paler as he listened, and the slight shiver which seized him was visible to every cne of the men. He dropped with a sigh into a chair, and took out a cigar-case. " You men make me wonder," he began, carefully choosing a cigar as he spoke. " Is there ono of you who knows what poverty is? I guess not. I mean, by poverty, not having a penny in your pocket to buy bread with, and wanting food with a fierce intensity which burns. No. I see not one of you lias been poor; but I have, and it was in those days I met the only contented man I have ever come across." Outside, through the drawn blinds, the roar of the traffic sounded dully through the room, and every man felt. cool. Grim want, which they had read so much of, seemed to be close to them even in that palatial room, and they felt a little cold! " I had landed in London with tho titledeeds of the Great Morgiana gold mine in my bag, and a few pounds in my pocket." Glierki's voice was low, but everyone could hear it. "I thought that my fortune was made. I alone knew of the vast potentialities of that great mine, and I expected to find financiers tumbling over each other in their eagerness to assist me. But they did l.ot, gentlemen, and pound by pound my resources dwindled until I was within touch of destitution. I laid my views before many men, but they all put me off, until my heart grew sick within me. I had to appear well turned out, but no one knows how I suffered to keep a brave face showing to the world. Watch, rings, chain, everything went, until ono day I owned but the clothes I walked in. aid my precious papers. " That day began my good fortune, for a great financier nibbled at my bail, and finally swallowed it! ' Come in the day after tomorrow,' he said, 'and I will complete the necessary papers.' How could I tell him I was penniless, and had not tasted food for 2+ hours? 1' left him without a word, for I was ashamed to confess my condition, and stood out in St. Swithin's Lane almost desperate. Think of it, gentlemen, my share of that mine has since brought me two millions of money, and I wanted bread then with such awful eagerness that it makes me sick even now to think of it. I drifted along until I came to a largo dwelling with a sliopfront filled with substantial food at bed-rock prices. On the window was a huge placard: " ' WHY STEAL, STARVE, OR "COMMIT SUICIDE? " CO.ME TO US AND WF WILL HELP you: "There were two men standing by in the Salvation Army uniform, and, seeing me look at the notice, one came towards me. "' Would you like to soo our shelter, sir?' he asked, for my frock coat and tall hat made me appeal well-to-do. 'It's well worth seeing.' "'Good God, man!' I replied, 'I'm starving. in spite of my clothes. I've had no food since yesterday.' " He didn't betray the least surprise, but lie held out his hand to me. " ' Come right in to the office and make yourself at home,' he said, and I followed him. 'Now sit down whilst I see the adjutant.' No questions, mark you, but they fetched me in—don't forget that! Then two more came, and I told them my story, and they fetched me a bowl of onion soup!" A man close beside Gherki— young man, it may be said in —murmured: "How dreadful!" " Curse you!" snarled the millionaire, so fiercely that the youth almost jumped. " Thank your God you've never wanted, and pray you never may. Excuse me, gentlemen, for breaking out like that: but I don't often toll this story, and it stirs me, as you may | inwsrine," lie added, contritely. " That food was strength and life to me, and I begged for work to repay them. They gave me letters to address, and that afternoon I earned sixpence by work, which made me feel a man again. Then they lent me an old suit of clothes, and I went about eight o'clock into the chief living-room. Tliero must have been nearly two hundred men collected there, and there wasn't a smile or a' laugh amongst the lot. Black despair seemed to be brooding over everyone, and they looked hopeless. Listlessly they lounged brail, and hardly one spoke above a low growl, for they were life's flotsam, and not I a man trusted his neighbour. I was sitting half asleep on a bench when a wretched, . sordid-looking man sat down beside me. | What time can we go up to bed?' I | asked, and wondered to see the flush which 1 flooded his face as I asked. "' In half a:i hour, thank God, we can go up. What's vour number?' "'loß.' "'Good! you're next to me. Say, is this your first night here?' "'Yes,' 1 replied; 'I pray it may be the last.' " ' Well—well,' he muttered: ' we don't all think so. Some of us find the place well enough." " 1 His voice was an educated one, and there was a something about him which seemed to suggest that at one time ho had known better things. " ' To me it is a hell,' I said, decidedly. "'To mo it is a heaven,' was his answer. 1 Listen. I haven't told another human being, but I will tell you where real happiness is to be found when you drift down hero, and thai is in sloop.' ""Til sleep?' I asked. '"Listen! Five years ago I was a journalist having a good connection, and making ftn«d money. T don't look like it, do I? But I am speaking the truth.' " His ragged clothes, his matted beard and hair, and his emaciated face seemed to give him fit" lie, but I let him alone. " 'Perhaps it was fate or chance that gave me the idea,' my neighbour begun, ' hut day and night it took shape in my brain. " Write me," it seemed to say. " Don't waste your time 011 this ephemeral stuff, but lay me as your finished work on Fame's j altar." I resisted the temptation for long, I but at last I yielded, and began little by little to give time to my book which belonged to my daily work. Then I met a girl, foolish like myself, who seemed my ideal of womanhood, and we married. Absolutely happy in our union, content in the work which grew visibly before my eyes. I let everything slip away. I had money saved, and we lived on it, secure in the future suc- , cess of my book. Ono cver-to-be-remom- | bered day my magnum opus was finished, and like two children we gazed reverently at its snowy typed pages. We built glittering I chateaux d'Esptigne, and peopled them with our fancies, while Fate was spinning her well around us. Secure in my knowledge cf a great publisher, I took my work with confidence to him, and then rushed back to build other castles with the girl I loved. The memory of the next three months is blurred; but two great facts stand out clear. One day I received a letter from my publisher, which took all the life from mo. By a coincidence, so it appeared, another author, far more famous than I, had 1 treated of the same subject. and his hook had been brought out the day before my friend wrote to me. " I fear 'Resnrgam' is dead." lie wrote, " and I regret it most sincerely, for I should have been glad to have published it." That was not all, for within a week my wife was fighting for her life with pneumonia. She, like me. had lost heart, and she died in spite of all our efforts. Bowed to the ground I took my punishment; but I had no strength to struggle, and little by little, bit by bit, I drifted here. It was hard at first not to wash or shave, to eat coarse food, and mix with the dregs of society, but you get used to it all in time. Then one night, Fate, which had dealt me such buffets, gave back royally with both hand? that which she had taken away. I fell asleep, and, as I slept, the hard, matter-of-fact world slipped away, and in my dreams I lived again the days that had gone. I seemed to wake, and there was my wife with a sheaf of press notices spread out before her. I had taken London by storm, and there was not one discordant note in my happiness. That was six months ago, and we are now living in a lovely house in Surrey, and I am trying to satisfy the demands of the publishers who at once flocked 1 round me on my success. We pass our days together, happy in our trust and love. It is all a dream, I know, but what do I care? You others live by day, I by night. Can anyone take one iota from my happiness, or add one thorn to the rose of my pleasure. And sc 1 lose not one moment of my dreamlife, for I am the first to 50 to bed, and the last to rise in the morning. To earn my necessary bread I sell bootlaces in the street, but what matters it,' I don't care. Ha! now we can go up!' lie exclaimed, rising at once. I heard this story in silence, and followed' my guide up to the enormous! •dormitory, where, on tho floor, not ujs

inches from each other, were ranged rectangles of wood six feet six inches long by two feet broad, and six inches high. Each had a blaok leather-covered mattress and pillow on it, with a neatly-folded! blanket laid upon it. " ' That's the way to oblivion,' said my guide, as he took off his broken boots, and rolled himself in his blanket; ' good night!' "I tossed from 6ide to side, sleepless and miserable, but the gaslight shone on that wretched, upturned face beside me, and on it was a smile of quiet happiness. I felt savage that such content was denied me, and turned my head away in anger. I must have slept, for I awoke suddenly, hearing voices beside me. Sitting up, I found iny neighbour's 'bunk screened by two night officers, who wore kneeling beside him. "'What's the matter?' I asked. " He's dead,' was the reply, and," Gherki added, '. will you believe me, gentlemen, on the dead man's face was a smile which one caQ imagine on the visage of an angel, so much did it transfigure that poor mask of clay. "Yes, lie was the only contented man I have ever known, and well, I envy him sometimes."