Up the dark stairs that led to his poor home strode a gloomy-faced young man with despair in his heart and these words on his lips:-- "I will struggle and suffer no longer; my last hope has failed, and life, become a burden, I will rid myself of at once." As he muttered his stern purpose, he flung wide the door and was about to enter, but paused upon the threshold; for a glance told him that he had unconsciously passed his own apartment and come up higher, till he found himself in a room poorer but more cheerful…