ing.

"Can you muster eighty pounds between you?" he demanded.

Geraldine ostentatiously consulted his pocket-book, and replied in the
affirmative.

"Fortunate beings!" cried the young man. "Forty pounds is the
entry-money of the Suicide Club."

"The Suicide Club," said the Prince, "why, what the devil is that?"

"Listen," said the young man; "this is the age of conveniences, and I
have to tell you of the last perfection of the sort. We have affairs in
different places; and hence railways were invented. Railways separated
us infallibly from our friends; and so telegraphs were made that we
might communicate speedily at great distances. Even in hotels we have
lifts to spare us a climb of some hundred steps. Now, we know that life
is only a stage to play the fool upon as long as the part amuses us.
There was one more convenience lacking to modern comfort: a decent, easy
way to quit that stage; the back stairs to liberty; or, as I said this
moment, Death's private door. This, my two fellow-rebels, is supplied by
the Suicide Club. Do not suppose that you and I are alone, or even
exceptional, in the highly reasonable desire that we profess. A large
number of our fellowmen, who have grown heartily sick of the performance
in which they are expected to join daily, and all their lives long, are
only kept from flight by one or two considerations. Some have families
who would be shocked, or even blamed, if the matter became public;
others have a weakness at heart and recoil from the circumstances of
death. That is, to some extent, my own experience. I cannot put a pistol
to my head and draw the trigger; for something stronger than myself
withholds the act; and although I loathe life, I have not strength
enough in my body to take hold of death and be done with it. For such as
I, and for all who desire to be out of the coil without posthumous
scandal, the Suicide Club has been inaugurated. How this has been
managed, what is its history, or what may be its ramifications in other
lands, I am myself uninformed; and what I know of its constitution, I
am not at liberty to communicate to you. To this extent, however, I am
at your service. If you are truly tired of life, I will introduce you
to-night to a meeting; and if not to-night, at least some time within
the week, you will be easily relieved of your existences. It is now
(consulting his watch) eleven; by half-past, at latest, we must leave
this place; so that you have half an hou