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IDOLATRY, A ROMANCE - 1874 -- C O N T E N T S -- I. THE ENCHANTERDIN G . 7 11. OUT OF EGYPT . . . . 17 111. A MAY MORNING . . 32 IV. A BRAHMAN . . . . . 42 V. A NEW MAN WITH AN OLD FACE . . . 51 VI. THE VAGARIE O S F HELWYSE . . . . 70 VII. A QUARREL . 82 VIII. A COLLISIOX IM NINENT . . . . 87 C IX. THE VOICE OF DARKNESS . . 101 X. HELWYS R E ES ISTS THE DEVIL . . 110 XI. A DEAD WEIGHT . . . . . 113 XII. MORE VAGARIE . S . . . . . 120 XIII. THROUG A H GLASS. . 133 XIV. THE TOWER OF BABEL . . . . 147 XV. CHARONS FERRY . . . . . 153 XVI. LEGEND A ND CHRONICLE . . . 166 XVII. FACE TO FACE . . . 174 XVIII. THE HOOPO A E N D THE CROCODILE . . ., 184 SIX. CE O S R U E J DOM N . . 204 iv CONTENTS. XX. BETWEEN TV AICIXG A ND SLEEPING . . . 210 XXI. WE PICK UP ANOTHER THREAD . . 221 XXII. HEART AN D HEAD . . . 236 XSIII. BALDER TE LLS AN UNTRUTH . . 246 XXV. UNCLE HIERO AT LAST . . 256 XXV. THE HAPPINES O S F MAN . XXVI. MUSIC - AND MADNESS . XXVII. PEACE AN D GOOD-WILL . XXVIII. BETROTHAL . XXIX. A CHAMBER OF THE HEART XXX. DANDELIONS . XXXI. MARRIED . . . XXXII. SHUT IN . . . XXXIII. THE BLACK CLOUD . DEDICATION -- To ROBERT CARTER, ESQ -- NOT the intrinsic merits of this story embolden me to inscribe it to you, my dear friend but the fact that you, more than any other man, are responsible for its writing. Your advice and encouragement first led me to book-making so it is only fair that you should partake of whatever obloquy or honor the practice may bring upon me. The ensuing pages may incline you to suspect their author of a repugnance to nnvarnishod truth but, - mitliout prejudice to Othello, - since varnish brings out in vood veins of beauty invisible before the application, why not alsoin the sober facts of life When the transparent artifice has been penetrated, the familiar substance underneath will be greeted none the less kindly nay, the observer mill perhaps regard the disguise as an oblique compliment to his powers of insight, and his attention may thus be better secured than had the subject worn its every-day dress. Seriously, the most matter-of-fact life has moods when the light of romance seems to gild its earthen chimney-pots into fairy minarets and, mere the story-teller but sure of laying his hands upon the true gold, perhaps the more his story had of it, the better. Here, however, comes in the grand difficulty fact nor fancy is often reproduced in true colors and while attempting justly to combine lifes elements, the writer has to beware that they be not mere cheap imitations thereof. Not seldom does it happen that what he proffers as genuine arcana of imagination and philosophy affects the reader as a dose of Hieroglyphics and Balderdash. Nevertheless, the first duty of tlie fiction-monger - no less than of the photographic artist doomed to produce successful portraits of children-in-arms - is, to be ainusing to shrink at no shifts which shall beguile the patient into procrastinating escape until the moment be gone by. The gentle reader will not too sternly set his face against such artifices, but, so they go not the length of fantastically presenting phenomena inexplicable upon any commonsense hypothesis, he will rather lend himself to his own beguilement. The performance once over, let him, if so inclined, strip the feathers from the flights of imagination, and wash the color from the incidents if aught save the driest and most ordinary matters of factreward his researches, then let him be offended De te fabula does not apply here, my dear friend for you will show me more indulgence than I have skill to demand...
