Argosy, Vol. 1 (1882) — page 267: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

258 Ashton disappeared as completely as if the earth had opened and tngulfed him. CHAPTER IIL. A STRANGE ENCOUNTER. Ir is impossible to describe the emo- tions which surged within the heart and brain and being of John Ashton when he left the bank and walked through the almost deserted streets of the city. The thought of escape had not yet occurred to him, and when the door closed behind him, he actually paused and stood there upon the steps several moments; paused and waited without any object in view, for he was objectless at that moment. There was still a number of hours that must intervene between that time and the period when the city would again be astir with the busy life of an- other day. He stroked his black pointed beard thoughtfully, and now and then twist- ed nervously upon the ends of his long mustache. His face was white and set, but it betrayed nothing of the tempest that was raging within him. Presently he started away up the avenue, aimlessly, not because he de- sired to go anywhere, but because he found solace in the exertion of walk- ing, and he strode on and on, until he stood at the entrance of the park just as the darkness began to give way to dawn and the birds began to twitter among the trees. He turned, then, to the westward, wandering onward with the same slow tread, vaguely intending to return to the bank when it should be time for the business of the day to begin; and so, when he arrived at the junction of Fifty Ninth Street and Broadway, he turned southward again, and he pur- sued that course until he arrived at Sixth Avenue, which he followed for a considerable distance. A barber was opening his shop—a basement shop, near Twenty Fifth ~~ THE ARGOSY. otreet—as he passed, and it occurred to Ashton that a shampoo would do much to dispel the confusion in his brain. He entered and seated himself in the chair, and while the barber was placing the towel around his neck, he said, carelessly : “ You may shave off my beard and mustache.” | He could not have told why he gave the order. It was not the fruit of con- sideration. He had not paid the matter a thought until that moment, and when he gave the direction the idea of avoid- ing recognition by that means had not occurred to him; but when, thirty min- utes later he rose from the chair and ad- justed his collar, peering at himself in the mirror as he did so, he gave a start of surprise at the change the alteration had wrought. His complexion, naturally fair, ap- peared paler than ever now. Where the beard had been removed, and in contrast with the wavy blackness of his hair, it was almost white. His nose seemed larger since the disappearance of the heavy mustache, but it was as Straight and clean cut as though it were carved out by the chisel of a master sculptor. His eyes seemed larger, too, as though the deep blue in their depths were enhanced by the removal of the hair from his face; and the pupils, of unusual size, gave one the idea that they were black. The change, also, brought out the lines of his mouth in all their firmness. There were touches of humor around the corners, but for the present, sadness and severity had marked them for their own. “TI look like another man,’ he mused. “ If I had cared for a disguise, I could not have thought of*a better way than this. Perhaps it is as well that [ am shaven. I will let chance decide what I am to do. I will make no attempt to avoid recognition. I will not hide, but if I am not arrested before night, I will leave New York ECOMRRIC Oe CO