In this story I have touched, very feebly and inadequately, on one of the greatest and saddest of human problems—as great and sad, certainly, as the problem which forms the central purpose of my ‘Shadow of the Sword.’ What the creed of Peace is to the state, the creed of Purity is to the social community.
In this story I have touched, very feebly and inadequately, on one of the greatest and saddest of human problems-as great and sad, certainly, as the problem which forms the central purpose of my 'Shadow of the Sword.' What the creed of Peace is to the state, the creed of Purity is to the social community.
So long as carnal indulgence is recognised as a masculine prerogative, so long as personal chastity is a supreme factor in the fate of women, but a mere accident in the lives of men, so long as the diabolic ingenuity of a strong sex is tortured to devise legal means for sacrificing a weaker sex-so long, in a word, as our homes and our streets remain what they are-the creed of Purity must remain as forlorn a dream as that other creed of Peace.
One word more with regard to my dramatis persono, none of whom are to be taken for photographs or caricatures of living individuals. In one case I have endeavoured to construct out of the editorial chit-chat of a journal an amusing personality,-not, I think, ungenerously conceived; of the real editor I know absolutely nothing, and I certainly bear him no ill-will, much as I dislike the system of personal journalism which he has created. All the other characters are purely fictitious. Gavrolles and his circle are to be accepted as representatives, not of ?stheticism proper, but of the cant of ?stheticism-which is quite another thing.
PREFATORY NOTE
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PROLOGUE IN THE NIGHT
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CHAPTER I.-A DANCING LESSON UNDER DIFFICULTIES
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CHAPTER II.-'UNCLE' LUKE AND 'UNCLE' MARK
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CHAPTER III.-EASTER SOLEMNITIES OF THE BRETHREN
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CHAPTER IV.-UNCLE MARK PARTS WITH THE OLD BARGE
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CHAPTER V.-UNCLE MARK SAILS UP THE SHINING RIVER
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CHAPTER VI.-MADELINE IS ABOUT TO REALISE HER DREAM
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CHAPTER VII.-INTRODUCES A DISTINGUISHED LITERARY BOHEMIAN
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CHAPTER VIII.-UNCLE LUKE IS BROKEN-HEARTED
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CHAPTER IX.-MADELINE FINDS NEW FRIENDS
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CHAPTER X.-A TELEGRAPHIC THUNDERBOLT
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CHAPTER XI.-THE HAWK AND THE DOVE
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CHAPTER XII.-CAGED
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CHAPTER XIII.-MADELINE AWAKES FROM HER DREAM
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CHAPTER XIV.-DARKER DAYS
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CHAPTER XV.-BELLEISLE SPREADS HIS NET
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CHAPTER XVI.-'WHICH DO YOU PITY'
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CHAPTER XVII.-THE BARS BROKEN
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CHAPTER XVIII.-IMOGEN
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CHAPTER XIX.-THE HARUM-SCARUMS
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CHAPTER XX.-A PAINTER'S MODEL
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CHAPTER XXI.-A WALK ACROSS HYDE PARK
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CHAPTER XXII.-BLANCO SERENA
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CHAPTER XXIII.-AT THE CLUB
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CHAPTER XXIV.-WHITE BIDS A LAST FAREWELL TO BOHEMIA
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CHAPTER XXV.-MADELINE CHANGES HER NAME
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CHAPTER XXVI.-THE PUPIL OF THE IMPECCABLE
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CHAPTER XXVII.-ADELE LAMBERT
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CHAPTER XXVIII.-AT THE COUNTESS AURELIA'S
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CHAPTER XXIX.-GAVROLLES
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CHAPTER XXX.-IN THE TOILS
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CHAPTER XXXI.-IN THE ROW
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CHAPTER XXXII.-HUSBAND AND WIFE
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CHAPTER XXXIII.-OLD JOURNALISM-AND NEW
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CHAPTER XXXIV.-A SELF-CONSTITUTED CHAMPION
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CHAPTER XXXV-MADELINE PREPARES FOR FLIGHT
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CHAPTER XXXVI.-'GOOD-BYE!'
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CHAPTER XXXVII.-THE SEARCH
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CHAPTER XXXVIII.-'ONE MORE UNFORTUNATE'
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