It was little
enough; but it was always something; and the poet was moved with a
deep sense of pathos that she should have died before she had spent
her money. That seemed to him a dark and pitiable mystery; and he
looked from the coins in his hand to the dead woman, and back again
to the coins, shaking his head over the riddle of man's life.
Henry V. of England, dying at Vincennes just after he had conquered
France, and this poor jade cut off by a cold draught in a great
man's doorway, before she had time to spend her couple of whites -
it seemed a cruel way to carry on the world. Two whites would have
taken such a little while to squander; and yet it would have been
one more good taste in the mouth, one more smack of the lips,
before the devil got the soul, and the body was left to birds and
vermin. He would like to use all his tallow before the light was
blown out and the lantern broken.
While these thoughts were passing through his mind, he was feeling,
half mechanically, for his purse. Suddenly his heart stopped
beating; a feeling of cold scales passed up the back of his legs,
and a cold blow seemed to fall upon his scalp. He stood petrified
for a moment; then he felt again with one feverish movement; and
then his loss burst upon him, and he was covered at once with
perspiration. To spendthrifts money is so living and actual - it
is such a thin veil between them and their pleasures! There is
only one limit to their fortune - that of time; and a spendthrift
with only a few crowns is the Emperor of Rome until they are spent.
Pages:
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318