Sword of Damocles — A Wanderer
COPYRIGHT, 1881, BY G.
P.
PUTNAM’S SONS.
TO
MY FATHER
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK
AS EXPRESSING SOME OF THE PRINCIPLES OF
JUSTICE AND MERCY WHICH,
BY PRECEPT AND EXAMPLE, HE HAS
INSTILLED INTO MY
BREAST
FROM EARLY CHILDHOOD.
NEW YORK, _April, 1881. _ “When all else fails love saves” CONTENTS.
BOOK I. TWO MEN.
I. —A WANDERER
II. —A DISCUSSION
III. —A MYSTERIOUS SUMMONS
IV. —SEARCHINGS
V. —THE RUBICON
VI. —A HAND CLASP
VII. —MRS.
SYLVESTER
VIII. —SHADOWS OF THE PAST
IX. —PAULA
X. —THE BARRED DOOR
XI. —MISS STUYVESANT
XII. —MISS BELINDA MAKES CONDITIONS
XIII. —THE END OF MY LADY’S PICTURE
BOOK II. LIFE AND DEATH.
XIV. —MISS BELINDA HAS A QUESTION TO DECIDE
XV. —AN ADVENTURE—OR SOMETHING MORE
XVI. —THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES
XVII. —GRAVE AND GAY
XVIII. —IN THE NIGHT WATCHES
XIX. —A DAY AT THE BANK
XX. —THE DREGS IN THE CUP
XXI. —DEPARTURE
XXII. —HOPGOOD
BOOK III. THE JAPHA MYSTERY.
XXIII. —THE POEM
XXIV. —THE JAPHA MANSION
XXV. —JACQUELINE
XXVI. —A MAN’S JUSTICE AND A WOMAN’S MERCY
XXVII. —THE LONE WATCHER
XXVIII. —SUNSHINE ON THE HILLS
XXIX. —MIST IN THE VALLEY
BOOK IV. FROM A.
TO Z.
XXX. —MISS BELINDA PRESENTS MR.
SYLVESTER WITH A CHRISTMAS GIFT
XXXI. —A QUESTION
XXXII. —FULL TIDE
XXXIII. —TWO LETTERS
XXXIV. —PAULA MAKES HER CHOICE
XXXV. —THE FALLING OF THE SWORD
XXXVI. —MORNING
XXXVII. —THE OPINION OF A CERTAIN NOTED DETECTIVE
XXXVIII. —BLUEBEARD’S CHAMBER
XXXIX. —FROM A.
TO Z
XL. —HALF-PAST SEVEN
BOOK V. WOMAN’S LOVE.
XLI. —THE WORK OF AN HOUR
XLII. —PAULA RELATES A STORY SHE HAS HEARD
XLIII. —DETERMINATION
XLIV. —IN MR.
STUYVESANT’S PARLORS
XLV. —“THE HOUR OF SIX IS SACRED!
” XLVI. —THE MAN CUMMINS
Damocles, one of the courtiers of Dionysius, was perpetually extolling with rapture that tyrant’s treasures, grandeur, the number of his troops, the extent of his dominions, the magnificence of his palaces, and the universal abundance of all good things and enjoyments in his possession; always repeating, that never man was happier than Dionysius.
“Since you are of that opinion,” said the tyrant to him one day, “will you taste and make proof of my felicity in person?
” The offer was accepted with joy; Damocles was placed upon a golden couch, covered with carpets richly embroidered.
The side-boards were loaded with vessels of gold and silver.
The most beautiful slaves in the most splendid habits stood around, ready to serve him at the slightest signal.
The most exquisite essences and perfumes had not been spared.
The table was spread with proportionate magnificence.
Damocles was all joy, and looked upon himself as the happiest man in the world; when unfortunately casting up his eyes, he beheld over his head the point of a sword, which hung from the roof only by a single horse-hair.
ROLLIN.
THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES.
BOOK I. TWO MEN.
I. A WANDERER.
“There’s no such word.
”—BULWER.
A wind was blowing through the city.
Not a gentle and balmy zephyr, stirring the locks on gentle ladies’ foreheads and rustling the curtains in elegant boudoirs, but a chill and bitter gale that rushed with a swoop through narrow alleys and forsaken courtyards, biting the cheeks of the few solitary wanderers that still lingered abroad in the darkened streets.
In front of a cathedral that reared its lofty steeple in the midst of the squalid houses and worse than squalid saloons of one of the dreariest portions of the East Side, stood the form of a woman.
She had paused in her rush down the narrow street to listen to the music, perhaps, or to catch a glimpse of the light that now and then burst from the widely swinging doors as they opened and shut upon some tardy worshipper.
She was tall and fearful looking; her face, when the light struck it, was seared and desperate; gloom and desolation were written on all the lines of her rigid but wasted form, and when she shuddered under the gale, it was with that force and abandon to which passion lends its aid, and in which the soul proclaims its doom.
Suddenly the doors before her swung wide and the preacher’s voice was heard: “Love God and you will love your fellow-men.
Love your fellow-men and you best show your love to God.
” She heard, started, and the charm was broken.
“Love!
” she echoed with a horrible laugh; “there is no love in heaven or on earth!
” And she swept by, and the winds followed and the darkness swallowed her up like a gulf.
II. A DISCUSSION.
“Young men think old men fools, and old men know young men to be so.
”—RAY’S PROVERBS.
“And you are actually in earnest?
”
