The Survivor by E. Phillips Oppenheim
Chapter 1 THE SERMON THAT WAS NEVER PREACHED
A little party of men and women on bicycles were pushing their machines up the steep ascent which formed the one street of Feldwick village. It was a Sunday morning, and the place was curiously empty. Their little scraps of gay conversation and laughter-they were men and women of the smart world-seemed to strike almost a pagan note in a deep Sabbatical stillness. They passed the wide open doors of a red brick chapel, and several of the worshippers within turned their heads.
As the last two of the party went by, the wheezings of a harmonium ceased, and a man's voice came travelling out to them. The lady rested her hand upon her host's arm. "Listen," she whispered.
Her host, Lord of the Manor, Lord Lieutenant of the County, and tenth Earl of Cumberland, paused readily enough and leaned his machine against a kerbstone. Bicycling was by no means a favourite pursuit of his, and the morning for the time of year was warm.
"Dear lady," he murmured, "shall we go a little nearer and listen to the words of grace? Anything for a short rest."
She leaned her own bicycle against the wall. From where she was she could catch a sideway glimpse of a tall, slight figure standing up before the handful of people.
"I should like to go inside," she said, indifferently. "Would they think it an intrusion?"
"Certainly not," he answered, with visions of a chair before him. "As a matter of fact, I have a special invitation to become a member of that flock-temporarily, at any rate."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"The land here" he answered, "is not entailed, and they are very anxious to buy this little bit and own their chapel. I had a letter from a worthy farmer and elder, Gideon Strong, on the matter yesterday. He wound up by expressing a wish that I might join them in their service one morning. This is their service, and here we are. Come!"
They crossed the street, and, to the obvious amazement of the little congregation, stood in the doorway. A gaunt shepherd, with weather-marked face and knotted fingers, handed them clumsily a couple of chairs. Some of the small farmers rose and made a clumsy obeisance to their temporal lord. Gideon Strong, six feet four, with great unbent shoulders, and face as hard and rugged as iron, frowned them down, and showed no signs of noticing his presence. Elsewhere he would have been one of the first, proud man though he was, to stand bareheaded before the owner of his farm and half a county, but in the house of God, humble little building though it was, he reckoned all men equal.
Praying silently before them, on the eve of his first sermon, a young man was kneeling. He had seen nothing of these newcomers, but of a sudden as he knelt there, his thoughts and sensations in strange confusion, himself half in revolt against what lay before him, there floated up the little aisle an exquisite perfume of crushed violets, and he heard the soft rustling of a gown which was surely worn by none of those who were gathered together to listen to him. He opened his eyes involuntarily, and met the steady gaze of the lady whose whim it had been to enter the place.
He had never seen her before, nor any one like her. Yet he felt that, in her presence, the task which lay before him had become immeasurably more difficult. She was a type to him of all those things, the memory of which he had been strenuously trying to put away from him, the beautiful, the worldly, the joyous. As he rose slowly to his feet, he looked half despairingly around. It was a stern religion which they loved, this handful of weatherbeaten farmers and their underlings. Their womenkind were made as unlovely as possible, with flat hair, sombre and ill-made clothes. Their surroundings were whitewashed and text-hung walls, and in their hearts was the love for narrow ways. He gave out his text slowly and with heavy heart. Then he paused, and, glancing once more round the little building, met again the soft, languid fire of those full dark eyes. This time he did not look away. He saw a faint interest, a slight pity, a background of nonchalance. His cheeks flushed, and the fire of revolt leaped through his veins. He shut up the Bible and abandoned his carefully prepared discourse, in which was a mention of hellfire and many gloomy warnings, which would have brought joy to the heart of Gideon Strong, and to each of which he would slowly and approvingly have nodded his head. He delivered instead, with many pauses, but in picturesque and even vivid language, a long and close account of the miracle with which his text was concerned. In the midst of it there came from outside the tinkling of many bicycle bells-the rest of the party had returned in search of their host and his companion. The Earl looked up with alacrity. He was nicely rested now, and wanted a cigarette.
"Shall we go?" he whispered.
She nodded and rose. At the door she turned for a moment and looked backwards. The preacher was in the midst of an elaborate and painstaking sifting of evidence as to the season of the year during which this particular miracle might be supposed to have taken place. Again their eyes met for a moment, and she went out into the sunlight with a faint smile upon her lips, for she was a woman who loved to feel herself an influence, and she was swift to understand. To her it was an episode of the morning's ride, almost forgotten at dinner-time. To him it marked the boundary line between the old things and the new.
Chapter 1 THE SERMON THAT WAS NEVER PREACHED
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Chapter 2 A STRANGE BETROTHAL
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Chapter 3 THE MAN WHO WAS IN A HURRY
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Chapter 4 EXIT MR. DOUGLAS GUEST
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Chapter 5 HOW THE ADDRESS WAS LOST
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Chapter 6 THE YOUNG MAN FROM THE COUNTRY HEARS SOME NEWS
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Chapter 7 A NIGHT IN HELL-AND NEXT DAY
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Chapter 8 THE AUTHOR OF NO MAN'S LAND
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Chapter 9 THE EDITOR OF THE IBEX RECEIVES A STRANGE LETTER
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Chapter 10 A WOMAN OF WHIMS
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Chapter 11 DOUGLAS GUEST GETS HIS CHANCE
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Chapter 12 THE MAN WHO NEARLY WENT UNDER
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Chapter 13 THE FIRST TASTE OF FAME
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Chapter 14 A VISITOR FROM SCOTLAND YARD
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Chapter 15 EMILY DE REUSS TELLS A LIE
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Chapter 16 JOAN STRONG, AVENGER
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Chapter 17 A PLAIN QUESTION AND A WARNING
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Chapter 18 THE TASTE OF THE LOTUS
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Chapter 19 A MAN WITHOUT A PAST
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Chapter 20 CICELY ASKS A QUESTION
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Chapter 21 THE REBELLION OF DREXLEY
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Chapter 22 DREXLEY SPEAKS OUT
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Chapter 23 CICELY'S SECRET
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Chapter 24 THE COUNTESS, THE COUSIN, AND THE CRITIC
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Chapter 25 A TRAGIC INTERRUPTION
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Chapter 26 A VISITOR FOR DOUGLAS JESSON
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Chapter 27 FELLOW-CRIMINALS
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Chapter 28 THE LITTLE FIGURE IN BLACK
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Chapter 29 JOAN STRONG FINDS HER BROTHER
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Chapter 30 DAVID AND JOAN
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Chapter 31 DREXLEY FORESEES DANGER
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Chapter 32 A SUPPER AT THE MILAN, AND A MEETING
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Chapter 33 A MISUNDERSTANDING
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Chapter 34 THE WOOING OF CICELY
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Chapter 35 THE NET OF JOAN'S VENGEANCE
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Chapter 36 A SCENE AT THE CLUB
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Chapter 37 CICELY MAKES HER CHOICE
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Chapter 38 SHE WAS A WOMAN I WAS A COWARD!
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Chapter 39 A JOURNEY-AND A WEDDING
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Chapter 40 A CALL BEFORE THE CURTAIN
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