Checkmate

illy. He rolled his coat about him with a kind of violence, and threw himself into a corner. The

! It has seized my brain somehow. Am I in a fever, or going mad, or what? That cursed smoking-room! I can't get out of it. It is in the centre of the earth. I'm built

fully still was the great city at this hour, and the descent of the rain went on with a sound like a prolonged "hush" all round. He paid the man, and stood for a while on the kerbstone, looking up and down the street, under the

e glass in the sun, I daresay," said he to the man, who was fumblin

rain than I fancied; very pleasant though. When did the rain begi

e past t

ain't they? Never mind, I don't care. He can

o get in, Sir?" in

g of something else; the rain still descen

run his fare up to something pretty. So cabby had thoughts of clapping a nosebag to his horse's jaws, and was making up his mind to a bivouac.

devising ways and means to keep his seven cubs in bread and butter. I should have gone away when the game was over. What earthly reason led me into that d--d room, when I heard the fuss there? I've a mind to go and play haza

The servant who opened the door, though he knew his business, stared a little, for

's Fra

hings in you

call in the morning; if I should not be down, show him

e. "Franklin!" he called, as he mounted th

s,

t I mean to ring for you by-and-by." He was in his dressing-room by this time, and looke

etch your

y bell, you come back, and you must sit up here till eight in the morning. I shall leave the door between this and the next room open; and should you hear me sleeping uneasily, moaning, or anything li

harge Frank

ched the dressing-room door; but there he heard his master still busy with his preparations, and withdrew. It was not until nearly half-an-hour more had passed that his bel

le; and although he made belief to wet his temples with it, and kept it at his bedside with that professed design, it was Mr. Franklin's belief that he drank the greater part of what

ep, and Mr. Longcluse, with a

ank

Mr. Franklin sto

'clock

truck t

e Times." T

al. I'm coming down. Open the shut

looking for something else. Just under this piece of news, he found it-"Murder and Robbery, in the Saloon Tavern." He read this twice over, and then searched the paper in vain for any further news resp

!" he muttered, after a careful

who had made a debauch, or was worn ou

he. "What a confounded, sinful old fog

her, most men indulge in. Perhaps it should teach us to take them more kindly when other people crack su

ight on his face, gave place suddenly to a dark fatigue; his feat

ly in the face. Nothing more trite and true than the omnipresence of suffering. The possession of wealth exempts the unfortunate owner from, say, two-thirds of the curse t

enviers. Had any one of all these uttered such a sigh th

ub, I shall be quite

usual fillip; on the contr

ced some changes. "I remember when a scene or an excitement produced no more effect upon me, after the moment, than a glass of champagne

ry careless toilet, and looking ill, went do