Short Fiction by O. Henry (librera reader txt) 📕

O’Roon A Ramble in Aphasia The Making of a New Yorker A Service of Love Psyche and the Pskyscraper A Cosmopolite in a Café The Girl and the Habit Vanity and Some Sables The Unknown Quantity Babes in the Jungle The Song and the Sergeant Man About Town Memoirs of a Yellow Dog Mammon and the Archer The Detective Detector “Little Speck in Garnered Fruit” The Shocks of Doom Extradited from Bohemia The Red Roses of Tonia Springtime à la Carte Between Rounds Tommy’s Burglar The Marry Month of May The Girl and the Graft The Call of the Tame According to Their Lights Roses, Ruses and Romance The Voice of the City Hostages to Momus I II III IV Sisters of the Golden Circle The Dog and the Playlet An Adjustment of Nature A Midsummer Knight’s Dream The Lost Blend An Unfinished Story Nemesis and the Candy Man The City of Dreadful Night The Skylight Room The Assessor of Success From Each According to His Ability The Poet and the Peasant A Bird of Bagdad The Plutonian Fire “The Guilty Party” The Count and the Wedding Guest The Last Leaf Elsie in New York The Clarion Call The Tale of a Tainted Tenner Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen Blind Man’s Holiday Telemachus, Friend A Double-Dyed Deceiver The Gift of the Magi The Duel The Thing’s the Play The Rubaiyat of a Scotch Highball The Buyer from Cactus City The Harbinger The Day Resurgent The Fool-Killer The Handbook of Hymen Brickdust Row Sociology in Serge and Straw “Girl” A Ruler of Men The Trimmed Lamp The Higher Abdication Calloway’s Code The Country of Elusion The Ethics of Pig Compliments of the Season Seats of the Haughty The Purple Dress Past One at Rooney’s The Indian Summer of Dry Valley Johnson The Man Higher Up Proof of the Pudding The Halberdier of the Little Rheinschloss The Caballero’s Way The Ransom of Red Chief The Fifth Wheel The World and the Door Phoebe “Next to Reading Matter” The Day We Celebrate The Octopus Marooned Jeff Peters as a Personal Magnet Modern Rural Sports The Chair of Philanthromathematics The Hand That Riles the World The Exact Science of Matrimony A Midsummer Masquerade Shearing the Wolf Innocents of Broadway Conscience in Art The Memento The Enchanted Profile A Night in New Arabia The Headhunter The Moment of Victory “The Rose of Dixie” Buried Treasure The Last of the Troubadours Strictly Business “What You Want” The Hiding of Black Bill Schools and Schools I II III IV V The Discounters of Money He Also Serves The Third Ingredient Thimble, Thimble Helping the Other Fellow II III IV Supply and Demand To Him Who Waits The Higher Pragmatism I II Bestseller I II III IV No Story A Poor Rule Rus in Urbe The Venturers A Municipal Report A Christmas Pi A Technical Error Let Me Feel Your Pulse The Friendly Call The Snow Man Law and Order An Unfinished Christmas Story The Unprofitable Servant A Fog in Santone The Dream Endnotes Colophon Uncopyright Imprint

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Lord Oakhurst’s Curse I

Lord Oakhurst lay dying in the oak chamber in the eastern wing of Oakhurst Castle. Through the open window in the calm of the summer evening, came the sweet fragrance of the early violets and budding trees, and to the dying man it seemed as if earth’s loveliness and beauty were never so apparent as on this bright June day, his last day of life.

His young wife, whom he loved with a devotion and strength that the presence of the king of terrors himself could not alter, moved about the apartment, weeping and sorrowful, sometimes arranging the sick man’s pillow and inquiring of him in low, mournful tones if anything could be done to give him comfort, and again, with stifled sobs, eating some chocolate caramels which she carried in the pocket of her apron. The servants went to and fro with that quiet and subdued tread which prevails in a house where death is an expected guest, and even the crash of broken china and shivered glass, which announced their approach, seemed to fall upon the ear with less violence and sound than usual.

Lord Oakhurst was thinking of days gone by, when he wooed and won his beautiful young wife, who was then but a charming and innocent girl. How clearly and minutely those scenes rose up at the call of his memory. He seemed to be standing once more beneath the old chestnut grove where they had plighted their troth in the twilight under the stars; while the rare fragrance of the June roses and the smell of supper came gently by on the breeze. There he had told her his love; how that his whole happiness and future joy lay in the hope that he might win her for a bride; that if she would trust her future to his care the devotedness of his lifetime should be hers,