Manager.
The magistrate handed the inclosure to a clerk, who was a German. “Read it aloud,” he said. And the clerk, after a few moments’ preparation, slowly read in English:
To the Public:
Before oblivion swallows me–one second, I beg!
I have sinned, but I have expiated. I have lived bravely, fighting adversity and the malice which my superior gifts from nature provoked. I can live no longer with dignity. So, proud and fearless to the last, I accept defeat and pass out.
I forgive my friends. I forget my enemies.
Exit Carl Feuerstein, soldier of fortune, man of the world. A sensitive heart that was crushed by the cruelty of men and the kindness of women has ceased to beat.
CARL FEUERSTEIN.
P. S. DEAR. MR. KONIGSMARCK– Please send a copy of the above to the newspapers, English as well as German. C. F.
The magistrate beamed his kindliest upon Hilda. “The charge against you is absurd. Your arrest was a crime. You are free.”
Hilda put her hand on Otto’s arm. “Let us go,” she murmured wearily.
As they went up the aisle hand in hand the crowd stood and cheered again and again; the magistrate did not touch his gavel–he was nodding vigorous approval. Hilda held Otto’s hand more closely and looked all round. And her face was bright indeed.
Thus the shadow of Mr. Feuerstein– of vanity and false emotion, of pose and pretense, passed from her life. Straight and serene before her lay the pathway of “work and love and home.”