A Knight of the Nineteenth Century. Edward Payson Roe
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He best deserves a knightly crest,
Who slays the evils that infest
His soul within. If victor here,
He soon will find a wider sphere.
The world is cold to him who pleads;
The world bows low to knightly deeds.
CORNWALL ON THE HUDSON, N.Y.
CHAPTER I BAD TRAINING FOR A KNIGHT
CHAPTER II BOTH APOLOGIZE
CHAPTER III CHAINED TO AN ICEBERG
CHAPTER IV IMMATURE
CHAPTER V PASSION'S CLAMOR
CHAPTER VI "GLOOMY GRANDEUR"
CHAPTER VII BIRDS OF PREY
CHAPTER VIII THEIR VICTIM
CHAPTER IX PAT AND THE PRESS
CHAPTER X RETURNING CONSCIOUSNESS
CHAPTER XI HALDANE IS ARRESTED
CHAPTER XII A MEMORABLE MEETING
CHAPTER XIII OUR KNIGHT IN JAIL
CHAPTER XIV MR. ARNOT'S SYSTEM WORKS BADLY
CHAPTER XV HALDANE'S RESOLVE
CHAPTER XVI THE IMPULSES OF WOUNDED PRIDE
CHAPTER XVII AT ODDS WITH THE WORLD
CHAPTER XVIII THE WORLD'S VERDICT—OUR KNIGHT A CRIMINAL
CHAPTER XIX THE WORLD'S BEST OFFER—A PRISON
CHAPTER XX MAIDEN AND WOOD-SAWYER
CHAPTER XXI MAGNANIMOUS MR. SHRUMPF
CHAPTER XXII A MAN WHO HATED HIMSELF
CHAPTER XXIII MR. GROWTHER BECOMES GIGANTIC
CHAPTER XXIV HOW PUBLIC OPINION IS OFTEN MADE
CHAPTER XXV A PAPER PONIARD
CHAPTER XXVI A SORRY KNIGHT
CHAPTER XXVII GOD SENT HIS ANGEL
CHAPTER XXVIII FACING THE CONSEQUENCES
CHAPTER XXIX HOW EVIL ISOLATES
CHAPTER XXX IDEAL KNIGHTHOOD
CHAPTER XXXI THE LOW STARTING-POINT
CHAPTER XXXII A SACRED REFRIGERATOR
CHAPTER XXXIII A DOUBTFUL BATTLE IN PROSPECT
CHAPTER XXXIV A FOOT-HOLD
CHAPTER XXXV THAT SERMON WAS A BOMB-SHELL
CHAPTER XXXVI MR. GROWTHER FEEDS AN ANCIENT GRUDGE
CHAPTER XXXVII HOPING FOR A MIRACLE
CHAPTER XXXVIII THE MIRACLE TAKES PLACE
CHAPTER XXXIX VOTARIES OF THE WORLD
CHAPTER XL HUMAN NATURE
CHAPTER XLI MRS. ARNOT'S CREED
CHAPTER XLII THE LEVER THAT MOVES THE WORLD
CHAPTER XLIII MR. GROWTHER "STUMPED"
CHAPTER XLIV GROWTH
CHAPTER XLV LAURA ROMEYN
CHAPTER XLVI MISJUDGED
CHAPTER XLVII LAURA CHOOSES HER KNIGHT
CHAPTER XLVIII MRS. ARNOT'S KNIGHT
CHAPTER XLIX A KNIGHTLY DEED
CHAPTER L "O DREADED DEATH!"
CHAPTER LI "O PRICELESS LIFE!"
CHAPTER LII A MAN VERSUS A CONNOISSEUR
CHAPTER LIII EXIT OF LAURA'S FIRST KNIGHT
CHAPTER LIV ANOTHER KNIGHT APPEARS
A KNIGHT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
CHAPTER I
BAD TRAINING FOR A KNIGHT
Egbert Haldane had an enemy who loved him very dearly, and he sincerely returned her affection, as he was in duty bound, since she was his mother. If, inspired by hate and malice, Mrs. Haldane had brooded over but one question at the cradle of her child, How can I most surely destroy this boy? she could scarcely have set about the task more skilfully and successfully.
But so far from having any such malign and unnatural intention, Mrs. Haldane idolized her son. To make the paradox more striking, she was actually seeking to give him a Christian training and character. As he leaned against her knee Bible tales were told him, not merely for the sake of the marvellous interest which they ever have for children, but in the hope, also, that the moral they carry with them might remain as germinating seed. At an early age the mother had commenced taking him to church, and often gave him an admonitory nudge as his restless eyes wandered from the venerable face in the pulpit. In brief, the apparent influences of his early life were similar to those existing in multitudes of Christian homes. On general principles, it might be hoped that the boy's future would be all that his friends could desire; nor did he himself in early youth promise so badly to superficial observers; and the son of the wealthy Mrs. Haldane was, on the part of the world, more the object of envy than of censure. But a close observer, who judged of characteristic tendencies and their results by the light of experience, might justly fear that the mother had unwittingly done her child irreparable wrong.
She had made him a tyrant and a relentless task-master even in his infancy. As his baby-will developed he found it supreme. His nurse was obliged to be a slave who must patiently humor every whim. He was petted and coaxed out of his frequent fits of passion, and beguiled from his obstinate and sulky moods by bribes. He was the eldest child and only son, and his little sisters were taught to yield to him, right or wrong, he lording it over them with the capricious lawlessness of an Eastern despot. Chivalric deference to woman, and a disposition to protect and honor her, is a necessary element of a manly character in our Western civilization; but young Haldane was as truly an Oriental as if he had been permitted to bluster around a Turkish harem; and those whom he should have learned to wait upon with delicacy and tact became subservient to his varying moods, developing that essential brutality which mars the nature of every man who looks upon woman as an inferior and a servant. He loved his mother, but he did not reverence and honor her. The thought ever uppermost in his mind was, "What ought she to do for me?" not, "What ought I to do for her?" and any effort to curb or guide on her part was met and thwarted by passionate or obstinate opposition from him. He loved his sisters after a fashion, because they were his sisters; but so far from learning to think of them as those whom it would be his natural task to cherish and protect, they were, in his estimation, "nothing but girls," and of no account whatever where his interests were concerned.
In the most receptive period of life the poison of selfishness and self-love was steadily instilled into his nature. Before he had left the nursery he had formed the habit of disregarding the wills and wishes of others, even when his childish conscience told him that he was decidedly in the wrong. When he snatched his sisters' playthings they cried in vain, and found no redress. The mother made peace by smoothing over matters, and promising the little girls something else.
Of course, the boy sought to carry into his school life the same tendencies and habits which he had learned at home, and he ever found a faithful ally in his