Show An Etching The Etching The Suicide THE room is blue wi with th smoke Seated around a table are a anum number ber of young men Before them are empty glasses On the floor and in the corner corner corner cor cor- ner are bottles whose contents have disappeared Presently one of the company company company com com- pany staggers to his feet and aid moves to adjourn 1 N Not ot till we have a a farewell roun round replied another The glasses are again agai filled They drink then rise to go Good by George And And And George is E k kleft y yeta 1 left eta f alone I one 5 That afternoon he had asked the boys if to that come that before he had come was received received red re re- d 7 her cel ve lieI answer 2 1 7 Instinctively he turns to his desk h there is the open half-open letter He reads it The words sweep through h his t heated brain the walls seem to give back the sound Without the midnight wind catches up r the strain now sharp and shrill now r 1 like the a dying moan Softly tumult ceases The air becomes as it J A were oppressively heated suffocating He is alone A Swiftly glancing ng round he takes up a j glittering object then drops it with a shudder Again he grasps it and feels 3 its polished surface cold and smooth c cHis His eTes eyes gleam with serpent fire they fire they strain from their sockets the the- present seems to grow dim the happy past past past-ap- ap ap- pears Strange forms ghosts of bygone bygone by by- 3 gone dreams glide through the deepening deepening deepening deepen deepen- ing gloom and are lost in I the depths beyond Music solemn intense happy now happy now a ii pause Slowly a form is shaped in the chaos It is she laughing mocking unconscious borne along on the mighty tide Nearer she comes nearer nearer his his arms are outstretched to greet her her but but she is gone gone without a sign A report a cloud of smoke a fall then then Chas F. F lIfa Marshall a II |