THE DREAM.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 300, 11 June 1898, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE DREAM.

S. Gkorgh Couuktt, in Woman. ' I hope, Harry, that you will not spend any more of your hard-earned money over that swindling lottery. You know very well that we cannot spare it.' 1 Plow many times am I to tell vou, Jennie, that your objections to the lottery are as foolish as they are ignorant ? Everybody who wants to get on in the world speculates. All sorts of people are making their fortunes. No doubt they have sensible wives, who no not grudge them the necessary capital for their investments,' 'Perhaps you overlook the fact that they possess capital in the first iustance which they can afford to invest; whereas you can buy lottery tickets only by depriving your family of the necessaries of life.' ' Heaven send me patience ! Don't I tell you, over and over again, that Ido it because I want to realise enough for you all to live in luxury upon 1 And how is it to be done, except, by a great stroke of luck such as only this lottery affords the chance of' ' I wish we had never lived in Mortimer street.' ' Why, what on earth has that to do with the matter ?' 'Just this much. If we had lived in our present miserable quarters from the first, those rascally lottery agents wouldn't have thought you worth wasting their circulars upon, and you wouldn't have spent ten pounds a year over a swindle — six years it is now, and you have never won a penny. What's more, you never will win. Only fancy what that sixty pounds would have done for us ! Effie wouldn't have had to go about without soles to her boo s, and she might have been living yet, instead of having died through lack of proper food and clothing.' ' Look here, Jennie, if you ever dare to mention that to me again, I'll never come near you any more. Everything that happens you put down to the lottery, and I'll stand it no longer. I'm bound to win sometimes, and I intend to buy my ticket as usual. If 1 show you a cheque for £BOOO in a few weeks, you'll perhaps sing another song.' ' Never. If you were lo win, some other infatuated fool would lose. Invest the money in a molest business speculation, and trust to your own energy to make a fortune by degrees. Lotteries and beitting are a curse to humanity,' ' Perhaps, if you have done preaching, you will hand me the money I have ordered you to put by every week.' ' I shall do nothing of the kind.' • We'll see about that. Give me the drawer key.' ' Here it i.«. But you will find nothing.'

' What ! do you dare to tell me that the money is all spent ?' ' All spent ! Oracious, hear him ! I get eighteen shillings a week. Out of this I pay seven for rent, and two for coals. This leaves me nine shillings a week to keep and clothe a family of five, and he actually wants to know if the money is all spent ! My friends told me what io expect. But even they never dreamed I should come to this.' As poor Mrs Dean thus bitterly realised the hardness of her lot, she gave way to a grief which she usually subjected to careful repression, and even her callous, shallowbrained husband felt, for once in his life, a pang of shame. But his nature was so thoroughly selfish and unreasonable that he speedily made his own feelings paramount again, and gave no further thought to the anxiety and privation to which the woman he had sworn to love and cherish was always subjected. As for the three children, ho thought, so long as they didn't know the taste of luxuries, they could rub along without them until his luck turned. Anyhow, he didn't mean to be baulked of his chance of winning the grand prize. They would have a carriage to ride in when that desirable event came to pass, and it was worth a' little present self-denial. Self-denial! How often that word is used by those who do not know the meaning of it as applied to themselves. And what a mockery it is when proceeding from the lips of such an incarnation of selfishness as was Henry Dean ! It was quite true that he gave his wife eighteen shillings a week, and that he expected her to perform impossibilities with it. True, his salary as cashier to Messrs Brightmore and Company was thirty-five shillings a week. But ha required nine out of the thirty-five to provide him with a very comfortable and substantial dinner every day in the city. He also needed a few shillings a week for cigars and pick-me-ups. Then there was fourpence a day for 'bus fares, and as for the rest—well, of course, he must appear like a gentleman, and he really didn't see how he could do it on less. Ever since he first received a lottery circular from Hamburg he had found the temptation to gamble irresistible. After the conversation recorded between him and his wife, he fell into a moody condition of mind, from which not even the exigencies of the meagre supper were able to rouse him. He looked upon such faro as there was with loathing, and contrasted it with the dainty viands he would have when he had won the grand prize. And he grudged the few coppers that had been spent upon it as so much money robbed from that which he required for the purpose of another ticket. { What a fool I have been,' he thought moodily. ' If I hadn't hampered myself with a wife and children I could easily have spared the money. And, as it is, I might have had it, for it wouldn't really make much difference to the others. I am not blind, nor deaf either, and I know very well that my old skinflint of a mother-in-law provides a dinner for them every day, although che wouldn't give me a meal to save my life. How am I going to raise the money ? that is the question now. Jennie has nothing worth pawning, And I have nothing that I can spare of my own. Heigho ! I wouder who wouldn't make an effort to ger out of the slough of poverty in which I am compelled to wallow.' Henry Dean's hours of labour were very short. From ten to four, with half an hour off to lunch. But it never struck him that to undertake a little extra work in his spare time would be a good way of augmenting his income. Such simple solutions of a difficulty do not occur to men of his calibre. They watch others get rich by honest enterprise while they dream of sudden prosperity at the expense of gullible gamblers like themselves. The pretence of supper over, the Deans went to bed. But they were both too engrossed in anxious thought "-o enjoy pleasant slumbers. The wife was wondering how she could possioly support her present privations much longer, and the husband lay awake for hours, trying to invent some plan of raising the same amount that he had spent over lottery-tickets each year. It seemed additionally foolish for him to contemplate spending so much, when he could have bought a portion of a ticket for a few shillings. But he really felt that not to do so would be flying in the face of providence, and he at last fell asleep, with his mind filled by the lottery-bogoy. While sleeping he had a curious dream. He dreamed that a beautiful woman, whose garments were of costly gold embroidery, which shimmered all over with precious stones, was smiling and beckoning to him. In one hand she held a printed piece of paper, which he easily recognised as the prospectus of the Hamburg state-legalised lottery. In the left hand she displayed an illuminated card, on which the number 445G3 was printed. Gradually all the surroundings of this beauteous vision became indicative of wealth and spendour, and Henry Dean held his breath in awe at the magnificence of all he saw. Presently the figure faded slowly away, but before she disappeared she held the illuminated

number to his face, and whispered musically : ' Stake your all on Number -14563.' How Henry Dean got through his duties the next day, he hardly knew, for his thoughts were full of the dream-number, and all his calculations were mixed up with the figures 44563. He was also possessed by a frantic determination to secure the money wherewith to buy a ticket at all costs. Before the day was over he solved the problem, lie embezzled enough money to buy three or four whole tickets, and trusted to repay it by means of his winnings before his theft was discovered. On remitting to Hamburg, it transpired that the number which he had always had been taken up 1 Never mind,' he thought, exultantly. 'The dream-number will take the grand prize, and I have got that riafe enough.' Three months later Henry Dean was a fugitive frrm justice. Secure in his inward conviction that he would soon be the possessor of a fortune, he became more and more daring in his defalcations, until at last detection was inevitable, and he took to flight, leaving his wife ignorant of either his desperate position or his whereabouts. But the detectives who were set on his track soon overtook him, and came upon him in one of Liverpool's big hotels. He wus anxiously scanning the Hamburger Zeitung, in which he vainly looked for some news which he had expected to find there. On first seeing the detectives he had no suspicion of their business. But they soon undeceived him, and had just disclosed their errand, when a letter was brought into the room by a waiter. As quickly as his trembling fingers would permit, he tore it open, and then gave a crv, so despairing and horror-stricken that it curdled the blood of those who heard it. ' It's a lie !' he shrieked madly. ' An infernal lie !' The letter contained a list of the winning numbers in the last drawing of the great lottery. The number to which he had hitherto pinned his faith had drawn the grand prize. The dream-number had drawn a blauk! He had staked his all on it, and he had lost. The shock of disappointment was greater than he could bear, and Henry Dean now tenants a Government asylum, a pitiful reminder of the folly of gambling.