The Adventures of a Modest Man Read online

  Produced by Annie R. McGuire. This book was produced fromscanned images of public domain material from the GooglePrint archive.

  Book Cover]

  _The_ ADVENTURES _of_

  A MODEST MAN

  Works of Robert W. Chambers

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  The Adventures of a Modest Man Ailsa Paige The Danger Mark Special Messenger The Firing Line The Younger Set The Fighting Chance Some Ladies in Haste The Tree of Heaven The Tracer of Lost Persons A Young Man in a Hurry Lorraine Maids of Paradise Ashes of Empire The Red Republic Outsiders The Green Mouse Iole The Reckoning The Maid-at-Arms Cardigan The Haunts of Men The Mystery of Choice The Cambric Mask The Maker of Moons The King in Yellow In Search of the Unknown The Conspirators A King and a Few Dukes In the Quarter

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  For Children

  Garden-Land Forest-Land River-Land Mountain-Land Orchard-Land Outdoorland Hide and Seek in Forest-Land

  COPYRIGHT, 1900, 1911, BYROBERT W. CHAMBERS

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  Copyright, 1904, by Harper & BrothersCopyright, 1904, 1905, 1910, by The Curtis Publishing Company

  _The_ ADVENTURES _of_A MODEST MAN

  _By_ ROBERT W. CHAMBERS

  ILLUSTRATED BYEDMUND FREDERICK

  D. APPLETON AND COMPANYNEW YORK AND LONDON: MCMXI

  "'I realised that I was going to kiss her if she didn'tmove.... And--she didn't.'"--[Page 276.]]

  TOMR. AND MRS. C. WHEATON VAUGHAN

  This volume packed with bric-a-brac I offer you with my affection,-- The story halts, the rhymes are slack-- Poor stuff to add to your collection. Gems you possess from ages back: It is the modern junk you lack.

  We three once moused through marble halls, Immersed in Art and deep dejection, Mid golden thrones and choir-stalls And gems beyond my recollection-- Yet soft!--my memory recalls Red labels pasted on the walls!

  And so, perhaps, _my_ bric-a-brac May pass the test of your inspection; Perhaps you will not send it back, But place it--if you've no objection-- Under some nick-nack laden rack Where platters dangle on a tack.

  So if you'll take this book from me And hide it in your cupboards laden Beside some Dresden filigree And frivolously fetching maiden-- Who knows?--that Dresden maid may see My book--and read it through pardie!

  R. W. C.

  "Senilis stultitia quae deliratio appellari solet, senum levium est, non omnium."

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER PAGE I. CONCERNING TWO GENTLEMEN FROM LONG ISLAND, DESTINY, AND A POT OF BLACK PAINT 1 II. A CHAPTER DEPICTING A RATHER GARRULOUS REUNION 14 III. TROUBLE FOR TWO 25 IV. WHEREIN A MODEST MAN IS BULLIED AND A LITERARY MAN PRACTICES STYLE 42 V. DREAMLAND 58 VI. SOUL AND BODY 74 VII. THE BITER, THE BITTEN, AND THE UN-BITTEN 85 VIII. A MATTER OF PRONUNCIATION 98 IX. FATE 104 X. CHANCE 117 XI. DESTINY 129 XII. IN WHICH A MODEST MAN MAUNDERS 143 XIII. A CHANCE ACQUAINTANCE 154 XIV. A STATE OF MIND 168 XV. FLOTSAM AND JETSAM 181 XVI. THE SIMPLEST SOLUTION OF AN ANCIENT PROBLEM 194 XVII. SHOWING HOW IT IS POSSIBLE FOR ANY MAN TO MAKE OF HIMSELF A CHUMP 208 XVIII. THE MASTER KNOT OF HUMAN FATE 221 XIX. THE TIME AND THE PLACE 234 XX. DOWN THE SEINE 242 XXI. IN A BELGIAN GARDEN 269 XXII. A YOUTHFUL PATRIOT 287 XXIII. ON THE WALL 292 XXIV. A JOURNEY TO THE MOON 303 XXV. THE ARMY OF PARIS 316