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The Eyes of the World

Chapter 1 His Inheritance

Word Count: 1821    |    Released on: 11/11/2017

tory of our nation--to education, to religion, to the sciences, and to the arts--so many illustrious names.In the changing years, before the beginning of my story, the woman's immediate frien

" he whispered, "she should be in her grave by now! It's a miracle! But she has always been like that--" he continued, half to himself, looking with troubled admiration toward the bed at the other end of the room--"always."He went slowly forward to the chair that the nurse placed for him. Seating himself quietly beside his patient, and bending forward with intense interest, his fine old head bowed, he regarded with more than professional care the wasted face upon the pillow.The doctor remembered, too well, when those finely moulded features--now, so worn by sorrow, so marked by sickness, so ghastly in the hue of death--were rounded with young-woman health and tinted with rare loveliness. He recalled that day when he saw her a bride. He remembered the sweet, proud dignity of her young wifehood. He saw her, again, when her face shone with the glad triumph and the holy joy of motherhood.The old physician turned from his patient, to look with sorrowful eyes about the room that was to witness the end.Why was such a woman dying like this? Why was a life of such rich mental and spiritual endowments--of such wealth of true culture--coming to its close in such material poverty?The doctor was one of the few who knew. He was one of the few who understood that, to the woman herself, it was necessary.There were those who--without understanding, for the sake of the years that were gone--would have surrounded her with the material comforts to which, in her younger days, she had been accustomed. The doctor knew that there was one--a friend of her childhood, famous, now, in the world of books--who would have come from the ends of the earth to care for her. All that a human being could do for her, in those days of her life's tragedy, that one had done. Then--because he understood--he had gone away. Her own son did not know--could not, in his young manhood, have understood, if he had known--would not understand when he came. Perhaps, some day, he would understand--perhaps.When the physician turned again toward the bed, to touch with gentle fingers the wrist of his patient, his eyes were wet.At his touch, her eyes opened to regard him with affectionate trust and gratitude."Well Mary," he said almost bruskly.The lips fashioned the ghost of a smile; into her eyes came the gleam of that old time challenging spirit. "Well--Doctor George," she answered. Then,--"I--told you--I would not--go--until he came. I must--have my way--still--you see. He will--come--to-day He must come.""Yes, Mary," returned the doctor,--his fingers still on the thin wrist, and his eyes studying her face with professional keenness,--"yes, of course.""And George--you will not forget--your promise? You will--give me a few minutes--of strength--when he comes--so that I can tell him? I--I--must tell him myself--George. You--will do--this last thing--for me?""Yes, Mary, of course," he answered again. "Everything shall be as you wish--as I promised.""Thank you--George. Thank you--my dear--dear--old friend."The nurse--who had been standing at the window--stepped quickly to the table that held a few bottles, glasses, and instruments. The doctor looked at her sharply. She nodded a silent answer, as she opened a small, flat, leather case. With his fingers still on his patient's wrist, the physician spoke a word of instruction; and, in a moment, the nurse placed a hypodermic needle in his hand.As the doctor gave

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1 Preface2 Chapter 1 His Inheritance3 Chapter 2 The Woman With The Disfigured Face4 Chapter 3 The Famous Conrad Lagrange5 Chapter 4 At The House On Fairlands Heights6 Chapter 5 The Mystery Of The Rose Garden7 Chapter 6 An Unknown Friend8 Chapter 7 Mrs. Taine In Quaker Gray9 Chapter 8 The Portrait That Was Not A Portrait10 Chapter 9 Conrad Lagrange's Adventure11 Chapter 10 A Cry In The Night12 Chapter 11 Go Look In Your Mirror, You Fool13 Chapter 12 First Fruits Of His Shame14 Chapter 13 Myra Willard's Challenge15 Chapter 14 In The Mountains16 Chapter 15 The Forest Ranger's Story17 Chapter 16 When The Canyon Gates Are Shut18 Chapter 17 Confessions In The Spring Glade19 Chapter 18 Sibyl Andres And The Butterflies20 Chapter 19 The Three Gifts And Their Meanings21 Chapter 20 Myra's Prayer And The Ranger's Warning22 Chapter 21 The Last Climb23 Chapter 22 Shadows Of Coming Events24 Chapter 23 Outside The Canyon Gates Again25 Chapter 24 James Rutlidge Makes A Mistake26 Chapter 25 On The Pipe-Line Trail27 Chapter 26 I Want You Just As You Are28 Chapter 27 The Answer29 Chapter 28 You're Ruined, My Boy30 Chapter 29 The Hand Writing On The Wall31 Chapter 30 In The Same Hour32 Chapter 31 As The World Sees33 Chapter 32 The Mysterious Disappearance34 Chapter 33 Beginning The Search35 Chapter 34 The Tracks On Granite Peak36 Chapter 35 A Hard Way37 Chapter 36 What Should He Do38 Chapter 37 The Man Was Insane39 Chapter 38 An Inevitable Conflict40 Chapter 39 The Better Way41 Chapter 40 Facing The Truth42 Chapter 41 Marks Of The Beast43 Chapter 42 Aaron King's Success