It was five minutes to two, and he made up his mind to kill himself when the clock struck the hour.

He spent the intervening moments in arranging the details of the matter.

At first he thought he would do it standing, but he abandoned that idea, fearing to strike his head against the furniture as he fell.

He was about to decide upon the huge leather chair, when the remembrance of his father's death made that impossible.

He finally concluded to sit upon the edge of his bed, leaning a little backward so as not to fall upon the floor, and he dragged the bed out into the sitting-room, preferring somehow to die there.