One of Twins

A LETTER FOUND AMONG THE PAPERS OF THE One day soon after we had come to this city I was walk-
LATE MORTIMER BARR ing down Market street late in the afternoon, when I was
accosted by a well-dressed man of middle age, who after
You ask me if in my experience as one of a pair of twins
I ever observed anything unaccountable by the natural greeting me cordially said: Stevens, I know, of course,
that you do not go out much, but I have told my wife about
laws with which we have acquaintance. As to that you
shall judge; perhaps we have not all acquaintance with you, and she would be glad to see you at the house. I
have a notion, too, that my girls are worth knowing. Sup-
the same natural laws. You may know some that I do not,
and what is to me unaccountable may be very clear to you. pose you come out to-morrow at six and dine with us, en
famille; and then if the ladies cant amuse you afterward
You knew my brother John - that is, you knew him when Ill stand in with a few games of billiards.
you knew that I was not present; but neither you nor, I
believe, any human being could distinguish between him This was said with so bright a smile and so engaging a
and me if we chose to seem alike. Our parents could not; manner that I had not the heart to refuse, and although
ours is the only instance of which I have any knowledge of I had never seen the man in my life I promptly replied:
so close resemblance as that. I speak of my brother John, You are very good, sir, and it will give me great pleasure
but I am not at all sure that his name was not Henry and to accept the invitation. Please present my compliments
mine John. We were regularly christened, but afterward, to Mrs. Margovan and ask her to expect me.
in the very act of tattooing us with small distinguishing With a shake of the hand and a pleasant parting word the
marks, the operator lost his reckoning; and although I man passed on. That he had mistaken me for my brother
bear upon my forearm a small H and he bore a J, it was plain enough. That was an error to which I was ac-
is by no means certain that the letters ought not to have customed and which it was not my habit to rectify unless
been transposed. During our boyhood our parents tried the matter seemed important. But how had I known that
to distinguish us more obviously by our clothing and other this mans name was Margovan? It certainly is not a name
simple devices, but we would so frequently exchange suits that one would apply to a man at random, with a proba-
and otherwise circumvent the enemy that they abandoned bility that it would be right. In point of fact, the name was
all such ineectual attempts, and during all the years that as strange to me as the man.
we lived together at home everybody recognized the dif- The next morning I hastened to where my brother was
culty of the situation and made the best of it by calling employed and met him coming out of the oce with a
us both Jehnry. I have often wondered at my fathers number of bills that he was to collect. I told him how I
forbearance in not branding us conspicuously upon our had committed him and added that if he didnt care to
unworthy brows, but as we were tolerably good boys and keep the engagement I should be delighted to continue the
used our power of embarrassment and annoyance with impersonation.
commendable moderation, we escaped the iron. My fa-
ther was, in fact, a singularly good-natured man, and I Thats queer, he said thoughtfully. Margovan is the
think quietly enjoyed natures practical joke. only man in the oce here whom I know well and like.
When he came in this morning and we had passed the
Soon after we had come to California, and settled at San usual greetings some singular impulse prompted me to
Jose (where the only good fortune that awaited us was our say: Oh, I beg your pardon, Mr. Margovan, but I ne-
meeting with so kind a friend as you) the family, as you
glected to ask your address. I got the address, but what
know, was broken up by the death of both my parents in under the sun I was to do with it, I did not know until now.
the same week. My father died insolvent and the home-
Its good of you to oer to take the consequence of your
stead was sacriced to pay his debts. My sisters returned impudence, but Ill eat that dinner myself, if you please.
to relatives in the East, but owing to your kindness John
and I, then twenty-two years of age, obtained employ- He ate a number of dinners at the same place - more than
ment in San Francisco, in dierent quarters of the town. were good for him, I may add without disparaging their
Circumstances did not permit us to live together, and we quality; for he fell in love with Miss Margovan, proposed
saw each other infrequently, sometimes not oftener than marriage to her and was heartlessly accepted.
once a week. As we had few acquaintances in common, Several weeks after I had been informed of the engage-
the fact of our extraordinary likeness was little known. I ment, but before it had been convenient for me to make
come now to the matter of your inquiry. the acquaintance of the young woman and her family, I
met one day on Kearney street a handsome but some-

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what dissipated-looking man whom something prompted that in dealing with this girl ordinary methods would not
me to follow and watch, which I did without any scruple do, and ordinary exactions were needless.
whatever. He turned up Geary street and followed it until Miss Margovan, I said, doubtless with something of the
he came to Union square. There he looked at his watch, compassion in my voice that I had in my heart, it is im-
then entered the square. He loitered about the paths for possible not to think you the victim of some horrible com-
some time, evidently waiting for someone. Presently he pulsion. Rather than impose new embarrassments upon
was joined by a fashionably dressed and beautiful young you I would prefer to aid you to regain your freedom.
woman and the two walked away up Stockton street, I
following. I now felt the necessity of extreme caution, She shook her head, sadly and hopelessly, and I contin-
for although the girl was a stranger it seemed to me that ued, with agitation:
she would recognize me at a glance. They made several Your beauty unnerves me. I am disarmed by your frank-
turns from one street to another and nally, after both had ness and your distress. If you are free to act upon con-
taken a hasty look all about - which I narrowly evaded by science you will, I believe, do what you conceive to be
stepping into a doorway - they entered a house of which best; if you are not - well, Heaven help us all! You have
I do not care to state the location. Its location was better nothing to fear from me but such opposition to this mar-
than its character. riage as I can try to justify on - on other grounds.
I protest that my action in playing the spy upon these two These were not my exact words, but that was the sense
strangers was without assignable motive. It was one of of them, as nearly as my sudden and conicting emotions
which I might or might not be ashamed, according to my permitted me to express it. I rose and left her without
estimate of the character of the person nding it out. As another look at her, met the others as they reentered the
an essential part of a narrative educed by your question it room and said, as calmly as I could: I have been bidding
is related here without hesitancy or shame. Miss Margovan good evening; it is later than I thought.
A week later John took me to the house of his prospective John decided to go with me. In the street he asked if I
father-in-law, and in Miss Margovan, as you have already had observed anything singular in Julias manner.
surmised, but to my profound astonishment, I recognized
the heroine of that discreditable adventure. A gloriously I thought her ill, I replied; that is why I left. Nothing
beautiful heroine of a discreditable adventure I must in more was said.
justice admit that she was; but that fact has only this im- The next evening I came late to my lodgings. The events
portance: her beauty was such a surprise to me that it of the previous evening had made me nervous and ill; I
cast a doubt upon her identity with the young woman I had tried to cure myself and attain to clear thinking by
had seen before; how could the marvelous fascination of walking in the open air, but I was oppressed with a hor-
her face have failed to strike me at that time? But no - rible presentiment of evil - a presentiment which I could
there was no possibility of error; the dierence was due not formulate. It was a chill, foggy night; my clothing and
to costume, light and general surroundings. hair were damp and I shook with cold. In my dressing-
John and I passed the evening at the house, enduring, with gown and slippers before a blazing grate of coals I was
the fortitude of long experience, such delicate enough even more uncomfortable. I no longer shivered but shud-
banter as our likeness naturally suggested. When the dered - there is a dierence. The dread of some impend-
young lady and I were left alone for a few minutes I looked ing calamity was so strong and dispiriting that I tried to
her squarely in the face and said with sudden gravity: drive it away by inviting a real sorrow - tried to dispel the
conception of a terrible future by substituting the mem-
You, too, Miss Margovan, have a double: I saw her last ory of a painful past. I recalled the death of my parents
Tuesday afternoon in Union square. and endeavored to x my mind upon the last sad scenes
She trained her great gray eyes upon me for a moment, at their bedsides and their graves. It all seemed vague and
but her glance was a trie less steady than my own and unreal, as having occurred ages ago and to another per-
she withdrew it, xing it on the tip of her shoe. son. Suddenly, striking through my thought and parting
it as a tense cord is parted by the stroke of steel - I can
Was she very like me? she asked, with an indierence think of no other comparison - I heard a sharp cry as of
which I thought a little overdone. one in mortal agony! The voice was that of my brother
So like, said I, that I greatly admired her, and being and seemed to come from the street outside my window. I
unwilling to lose sight of her I confess that I followed her sprang to the window and threw it open. A street lamp di-
until - Miss Margovan, are you sure that you understand? rectly opposite threw a wan and ghastly light upon the wet
She was now pale, but entirely calm. She again raised her pavement and the fronts of the houses. A single police-
eyes to mine, with a look that did not falter. man, with upturned collar, was leaning against a gatepost,
quietly smoking a cigar. No one else was in sight. I closed
What do you wish me to do? she asked. You need not the window and pulled down the shade, seated myself be-
fear to name your terms. I accept them. fore the re and tried to x my mind upon my surround-
It was plain, even in the brief time given me for reection, ings. By way of assisting, by performance of some famil-
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iar act, I looked at my watch; it marked half-past eleven.

Again I heard that awful cry! It seemed in the room - at
my side. I was frightened and for some moments had not
the power to move. A few minutes later - I have no recol-
lection of the intermediate time - I found myself hurrying
along an unfamiliar street as fast as I could walk. I did not
know where I was, nor whither I was going, but presently
sprang up the steps of a house before which were two
or three carriages and in which were moving lights and
a subdued confusion of voices. It was the house of Mr.
Margovan.
You know, good friend, what had occurred there. In one
chamber lay Julia Margovan, hours dead by poison; in
another John Stevens, bleeding from a pistol wound in
the chest, inicted by his own hand. As I burst into the
room, pushed aside the physicians and laid my hand upon
his forehead he unclosed his eyes, stared blankly, closed
them slowly and died without a sign.
I knew no more until six weeks afterward, when I had
been nursed back to life by your own saintly wife in your
own beautiful home. All of that you know, but what you
do not know is this - which, however, has no bearing upon
the subject of your psychological researches - at least not
upon that branch of them in which, with a delicacy and
consideration all your own, you have asked for less assis-
tance than I think I have given you:
One moonlight night several years afterward I was pass-
ing through Union square. The hour was late and the
square deserted. Certain memories of the past naturally
came into my mind as I came to the spot where I had
once witnessed that fateful assignation, and with that un-
accountable perversity which prompts us to dwell upon
thoughts of the most painful character I seated myself
upon one of the benches to indulge them. A man en-
tered the square and came along the walk toward me. His
hands were clasped behind him, his head was bowed; he
seemed to observe nothing. As he approached the shadow
in which I sat I recognized him as the man whom I had
seen meet Julia Margovan years before at that spot. But
he was terribly altered - gray, worn and haggard. Dissipa-
tion and vice were in evidence in every look; illness was
no less apparent. His clothing was in disorder, his hair fell
across his forehead in a derangement which was at once
uncanny and picturesque. He looked tter for restraint
than liberty - the restraint of a hospital.
With no dened purpose I rose and confronted him. He
raised his head and looked me full in the face. I have
no words to describe the ghastly change that came over
his own; it was a look of unspeakable terror - he thought
himself eye to eye with a ghost. But he was a courageous
man. Damn you, John Stevens! he cried, and lifting his
trembling arm he dashed his st feebly at my face and fell
headlong upon the gravel as I walked away.
Somebody found him there, stone-dead. Nothing more is
known of him, not even his name. To know of a man that
he is dead should be enough.
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