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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 7, 1896)
,v If THE DEVIL DISMAYED. The room was dense with the smoke of tobacco and Bilent with the intensity of the game. For hours the play had been fast and f uriouB, and the men wore a flushed, strained look born of the heat ana excitement. Most of them had re moved their coats, but Gerald Wade kept up an appearance of respectability and leaned back in his chair, one leg flung over the arm, in an attitude of ex asperating comfort. (lis ability to pose had always been of great service to him, and now, though he was consumed by an inward fever of recklessness, he played his game with an outward calm that was baffling. Only the day before he had discussed the evils of gambling with the woman he loved. She supposed he played as many men play, in a general sort of way, but sho had no notioa of the time he had given over to it. Many a night ho had left her, exalted for the moment by the purity of her love, vowing he would be worthy of her ideal of him; but the uplifting was transitory, and he bad commonly ended the night, which was more nearly the day, at hia old haunts. The instinct of gambling was bred in Wade's bone. His mother, a famous Creole beauty, was known among her intimates to have unusual skill at poker, in consequence of which she dressed like a princess royal. His father, a naval officer of most puritanical stock, was drowned, after a brief honeymoon, at New Orleans, and died in the strong consciousness of his wife's beauty, and with no knowledge of the pleasures which she found indispensable. But Gerald reaped the full measure of his mother's passion, though she bad not lived to see its complete development in him. It was a curse and he knew i, though he loved the bonds that held him, until he fell in love with Vera, and then he hated then. It was at a ball he met her. She was not dancing that night, she said, when he was presented. Several men hung about her and the repartee flashed like brilliant fireflies through the air. He got her away finally, and in the corridor she stopped suddenly. "I have been refusing to dance right and left, but if you were to ask aie just for a moment away from the crowd" His arm went around her, and they glided away to the seductive music. How they had danced! Like two spirits wafted away into dreamland! It might have been an eternity, in reality it was a few seconds, for fearing lest were she seen she should give offense, Vera stopped as suddenly as she had begun, and they passed on to the con servatory. That was the beginning, and events .shaptd themselves after that. At first Wade met her often in society, but as the season advanced she went out less, -and he saw hermore often at home. "Another affair on," the men at tne club caid whenever they missed him, but they were used to having him drop out now and then. He had known so many women, and he always came back. They had no conception of the struggle he was making as his love for Vera grew. In all his rollicking existence, Wade had never known a woman like her. He had suppos.d there were but two classes, the seriouB, prudinh women, whom he avoided, and the gay women, of whom he quickly tired. But Vera was different; she seemed to com bine all the purity of one with the gay ety of the other. She was a woman -ho looked life very squarely in the face, with a thorough knowledge of its manifold temptations, and until Wade oved her, she had never been b waved by any of the men about her. - In a conscious sort of way Vera recog nized Wade's influence long before she acknowledged it. He had a most ascinaticg personality certai winsomeness of manner that few persona could resist, or even attempted to, for the matter of, that. It swept Vera along until her love for Wade grew to be the dominating factor of her life. In the early spring they were en gaged, but though Wade urged with all his eloquence, Vera would have no talk of marriage. She wanted to live in tho present, she said, and bo blissfully happy, with no thought of ceremonies and trousseaux and wearisomo details. All that could wait. So they idled through that lovely spring, driving and sometimes walking in the park, doing the theatres, for which there was so littlo time during the season, and occasionally, as a mark of high favor, Vera let Gerald go down with her to ihe college settlement and remain there while she went "upon her round of visits. It had taken her somo time to convince him that ho could not escort her about the slums that his appearance there would hinder and not help her work; but, as a concession to him, she asked one of the college men to go with her, and in a measure Wade was pacified. The manysidednees of Vera's life was a revelation to Wade. Women are wonderfully versatile, be thought. As for himself,-" he had taken life rather easily since his coming to New York. He had stopped there two years before on his way back to New Orleans from Europe, and had stayed on, mak ing it his headquarters, with a run down to hiB old homo for the Mardi Gras by way of keeping himself in re membrance. He had known New York people more or lees on the other side, and his father had relatives there who were socially prominent and welcomed so attractive a kinsman with open arms. The past week had been an unlucky one. On Tuesday stocks in which Wade had largely invested had slumped, doing him out of 740,000, which he could ill afford to spare. On Wednesday hiB favorite mare strained her shoulder while rolling in her box, and would be disabled for some time. On Thursday a note came from Vera sayirg she was suddenly called out of town- to- see an aunt who was dying. Wade began to feel himself in a procession of disastrous events in which little devils marched waving triumphant banners. For a month he had avoided the club, but that night, with Vera far away, he wandered aimlessly through its portals and up to the card room, where he was greeted with loud acclamations -of de light. Wade sat down and played a few hands indifferently, then he began win ning a little; the old instinct awoke and took complete possession of him. And the men knew that at last he had come back again. A clock on the mantel struck 2, but it was not heeded. Wade had been los ing heavily the past hour; unless he could make a grand coup he would be utterly ruined. The jack pot opened for a thousand; only two men stayed in. Wade drew to a king aud got it; the betting rose from five to ten and then twenty. The men laid down their cards Wado was beaten by an -ace. He pushed back his chair and gulped down the remainder of a mint julep that stood at his Hbow. You're in running luck, old man." he said to his opponent. "Will you take an 1 O U? It's great work we've done tonight." "Splendid!" the other mau said, in the full triumph of his victory. "The game's never tho same thing, Wade when you're not here to take a hand." The rest of the men echoed tho senti ment and there was a general stirring of chairs as the party broke up. Gerald left the club, and. jumping in to a hansom, told the man to drive to the park. He wanted time to think, and the night air was refreshing after that stifling atmosphere. He was hopelessly in debt, and in that one night he had drifted so far from Vera that she seemed to him some beau tiful spirit beyond his reach. Ho groaned aloud at the thought of his own weakness, and the cabby. Imagining himself called, pulled la his horse and leaned over for orders. "What in aro you stopping for? Drive on," Wado said. A hundred impulses surged through the man's brain as the hansom swung along over tho smooth roads. In the darkness tho foliago boked black and dense, as of a forest, except whero tho electric lights suddenly converted it into delicate fairy like tracery. Gerald leaned his head on his arm heavily; he had drunk very little and hiB mind worked clearly, but with a distorted view, as he contemplated his financial ruin. Thcro was an easy way out of it, he thought, and instinctively his hand went up to the pocket whero a tiny weapon was concealed ho always car ried it, after the southern fashion but his hand dropped again to his side. It would be an insult to Vera. Had ho not done enough? With the thought of her a great wave of etreegth seemed borne in upon him. He would find a way of retrieving himsslf honorably and not utterly disgrace that better part of him which she knew and lovod. (Concluded next week.) NOTICE. Know all men by these presents tlmt tho undersigned have this day formed a coriwrn tion to be known by the name of Tho Nebraska Pant and Bait Company, with the principal place of doine business at tho city of Lincoln, in the state of Nebraska. The nature of said business shall be tho making of pants and salts generally, and tho doing of all thincs necessary for tho prosecution of said business. The capita stock shall b $3,000, diriilcd into shares of 1C0. each all fully subscribed ami paid for. Tho hUbeat amount of indebtedness shall not at any time exceed the sum of $1,000. Said business shall be conducted by a board of three directors, chosen at the annual meeting prorided for in tho articles of incorporation and until each timo tho incorporators afore said shall constitute such board. Oscak K. Oaklet. I.E.THOMFSOX. Isabella A. Oaklki. Not. 28. Canon City coal atthe Wbitebreast Coal and Lime Co. 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