230 R. ScJwvill, 



There lives in the neighborhood of the first woman, whose hus- 

 band is cashier in a bank, an astrologer, one of the kind who could 

 prophesy more easily what was likely to happen in other people's 

 houses than in his own. The cashier's wife decides to make use 

 of this man in her scheme of duping her husband. It is the da}- 

 before Shrove Tuesday, and that being an occasion which served 

 much as our first of April for general merrymaking, the astrologer 

 and prophet forms a plan to convince the husband that within 

 twenty-four hours he is doomed to give an account of himself in 

 the next world. Man}- friends are made accomplices in the jest. 



The astrologer first meets the cashier upon his return from the 

 bank that very evening and pretends to be shocked by his l^ad 

 color. " Has any indisposition got hold of you, neighbor ? " he 

 asks. The cashier protests that he never felt better in all his life, 

 while the astrologer informs him with some hesitation of his im- 

 pending fate so clearly written in the stars. The cashier tries to 

 laugh the matter away by appealing to other false prophecies 

 made by the astrologer whose reputation appears not to have been 

 of the best. He resumes his way home somewhat disturbed, never- 

 theless, " stopping from time to time to feel his pulse." At supper 

 he eats sparingly and finally, with a sigh, he undresses and goes 

 to bed. After a broken sleep, he returns to his customary task in 

 the morning, remaining at the bank the entire day. While on his 

 way home, he overhears a conversation carried on by several 

 acquaintances on a street-corner. " Yes, that was an unexpected 

 death of Lucas Moreno (the cashier)," says one; "he was found in 

 his bed this morning, having died without receiving the last unction." 

 "God have pity on his soul," says another; "but his wife can 

 marry again." When Lucas is al)out to approach them, they dis- 

 perse. On the next corner he sees the astrologer and a friend. 

 The one was saying, " Well, he is sorry at this moment that he 

 didn't believe me," and the other, " Yes, the ill-fated fellow was 

 something of a glutton ; he must have eaten too much and had a 

 stroke." Whereupon the troubled cashier approaches and says, 

 "What is all this? Performing rites over me while still alive?" 

 But the others take to their heels in terror, shouting, "Almight}' 

 Heaven! Here's the soul of Lucas Moreno fresh from the lower 

 regions." Near his own house the cashier meets another friend 

 who also beats a hasty retreat, crying, " Blessed souls of Purga- 

 tory, is this a hallucination or the dead Lucas Moreno ? " and Lucas 

 answers, "When the deuce did I die to cause so much consternation ?" 

 and seizes the friend In' his cloak ; but the terrified man leaves it 



