Part 14 (2/2)

”No.”

He sighed, a trifle sadly, as if I had rejected the only favor he could bestow. I saw at once that he had been under frequent exhibition to the doctors, and that he was, perhaps, a trifle vain of this attention.

This perception was corroborated a moment later by his producing a copy of a medical magazine, with a remark that on the sixth page I would find a full statement of his case.

”Could I serve him in any way?” I asked.

It appeared that I could. If I could help him to any light employment, something that did not require any great physical exertion or mental excitement, he would be thankful. But he wanted me to understand that he was not, strictly speaking, a poor man; that some years before the discovery of his fatal complaint he had taken out a life insurance policy for five thousand dollars, and that he had raked and sc.r.a.ped enough together to pay it up, and that he would not leave his wife and four children dest.i.tute. ”You see,” he added, ”if I could find some sort of light work to do, and kinder sled along, you know--until--”

He stopped, awkwardly.

I have heard several noted actors thrill their audiences with a single phrase. I think I never was as honestly moved by any spoken word as that ”until,” or the pause that followed it. He was evidently quite unconscious of its effect, for as I took a seat beside him on the sofa, and looked more closely in his waxen face, I could see that he was evidently embarra.s.sed, and would have explained himself further, if I had not stopped him.

Possibly it was the dramatic idea, or possibly chance; but a few days afterward, meeting a certain kind-hearted theatrical manager, I asked him if he had any light employment for a man who was an invalid? ”Can he walk?” ”Yes.” ”Stand up for fifteen minutes?” ”Yes.” ”Then I'll take him. He'll do for the last scene in the 'Destruction of Sennacherib'--it's a tremendous thing, you know. We'll have two thousand people on the stage.” I was a trifle alarmed at the t.i.tle, and ventured to suggest (without betraying my poor friend's secret) that he could not actively engage in the ”Destruction of Sennacherib,”

and that even the spectacle of it might be too much for him. ”Needn't see it at all,” said my managerial friend; ”put him in front, nothing to do but march in and march out, and dodge curtain.”

He was engaged. I admit I was at times haunted by grave doubts as to whether I should not have informed the manager of his physical condition, and the possibility that he might some evening perpetrate a real tragedy on the mimic stage, but on the first performance of ”The Destruction of Sennacherib,” which I conscientiously attended, I was somewhat relieved. I had often been amused with the placid way in which the chorus in the opera invariably received the most astounding information, and witnessed the most appalling tragedies by poison or the block, without anything more than a vocal protest or command, always delivered to the audience and never to the actors, but I think my poor friend's utter impa.s.siveness to the wild carnage and the terrible exhibitions of incendiarism that were going on around him transcended even that. Dressed in a costume that seemed to be the very soul of anachronism, he stood a little outside the proscenium, holding a spear, the other hand pressed apparently upon the secret within his breast, calmly surveying, with his waxen face, the gay auditorium. I could not help thinking that there was a certain pride visible even in his placid features, as of one who was conscious that at any moment he might change this simulated catastrophe into real terror. I could not help saying this to the Doctor, who was with me. ”Yes,” he said with professional exact.i.tude; ”when it happens he'll throw his arms up above his head, utter an e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n, and fall forward on his face,--it's a singular thing, they always fall forward on their face,--and they'll pick up the man as dead as Julius Caesar.”

After that, I used to go night after night, with a certain hideous fascination; but, while it will be remembered the ”Destruction of Sennacherib” had a tremendous run, it will also be remembered that not a single life was really lost during its representation.

It was only a few weeks after this modest first appearance on the boards of ”The Man with an Aneurism,” that, happening to be at dinner party of practical business men, I sought to interest them with the details of the above story, delivered with such skill and pathos as I could command. I regret to say that, as a pathetic story, it for a moment seemed to be a dead failure. At last a prominent banker sitting next to me turned to me with the awful question: ”Why don't your friend try to realize on his life insurance?” I begged his pardon, I didn't quite understand. ”Oh, discount, sell out. Look here--(after a pause). Let him a.s.sign his policy to me, it's not much of a risk, on your statement. Well--I'll give him his five thousand dollars, clear.”

And he did. Under the advice of this cool-headed--I think I may add warm-hearted--banker, ”The Man with an Aneurism” invested his money in the name of and for the benefit of his wife in certain securities that paid him a small but regular stipend. But he still continued upon the boards of the theatre.

By reason of some business engagements that called me away from the city, I did not see my friend the physician for three months afterward.

When I did I asked tidings of The Man with the Aneurism. The Doctor's kind face grew sad. ”I'm afraid--that is, I don't exactly know whether I've good news or bad. Did you ever see his wife?”

I never had.

”Well, she was younger than he, and rather attractive. One of those doll-faced women. You remember, he settled that life insurance policy on her and the children: she might have waited; she didn't. The other day she eloped with some fellow, I don't remember his name, with the children and the five thousand dollars.”

”And the shock killed him,” I said with poetic prompt.i.tude.

”No--that is--not yet; I saw him yesterday,” said the Doctor, with conscientious professional precision, looking over his list of calls.

”Well, where is the poor fellow now?”

”He's still at the theatre. James, if these powders are called for, you'll find them, here in this envelope. Tell Mrs. Blank I'll be there at seven--and she can give the baby this until I come. Say there's no danger. These women are an awful bother! Yes, he's at the theatre yet. Which way are you going? Down town? Why can't you step into my carriage, and I'll give you a lift, and we'll talk on the way down?

Well--he's at the theatre yet. And--and--do you remember the 'Destruction of Sennacherib?' No? Yes you do. You remember that woman in pink, who pirouetted in the famous ballet scene! You don't?

Why, yes you do! Well, I imagine, of course I don't know, it's only a summary diagnosis, but I imagine that our friend with the aneurism has attached himself to her.”

”Doctor, you horrify me.”

”There are more things, Mr. Poet, in heaven and earth than are yet dreamt of in your philosophy. Listen. My diagnosis may be wrong, but that woman called the other day at my office to ask about him, his health, and general condition. I told her the truth--and she FAINTED.

It was about as dead a faint as I ever saw; I was nearly an hour in bringing her out of it. Of course it was the heat of the room, her exertions the preceding week, and I prescribed for her. Queer, wasn't it? Now, if I were a writer, and had your faculty, I'd make something out of that.”

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