Table Of ContentCHANDOS
A Novel
By OUIDA
1 CASTE EaLALNty N64 /
AutioR on, ¢
tA
DIN DO AGES
“God and man and hope abandon me,
Mut [to then: oud te myself remara constant.”
Sunny
© Ceeason doth never prosper, What's the reason?
Why, when it prospers, no
A Ni EDITION
\ J ondon
TIATTG! AND: JVINDUS, PICCADILLY
ER3_B
* 4143 wee 309%
' CHANDOs,
&.
Post 8, iltustrated loaris, 28. cache
crap corn, by og ns
Ge ON sents
ieeaaes ta
i, Bian
The Monto Pactoat By Bown mn Wee
Ponte Eales Roos a ice
een Sie hy Ht
ier rate Wy Sinks Battin
Freeland i et tae
betbrad Conroy. iy Bret Thane,
Sirds Tomer by Kh iat
Paice catrhan? Wn Poa ton
Fae Circo? Sous: BF Macnven Cobian
Ti Alene eS
foci iy ak Eas
sree wih line
Feit eek Me cots,
iia Sg
ibe
Pee ACE
etek iat RR in
Bees, Raul
arias ee
Pilea le its sit
Bg wists
Perey Fegeri,
te hash Steck Yate) Fesber
Hath incre. iy-Albany de Pomiasque *
‘imbues Bie Rr Reaveon.
Pre lage cine bay Eda
Keun licay By Citetes Gibbon
Bor Enh ofl iy Coen nn
Iethacer Boand SiG
fie Bad eas ay
Iathave ape War, Mey Cranes Ces
Goetdene fy ong james
PERE cabo yaa,
Phe Gace chnaapae ie ito Jay.
dntsbe ey Rey Riche
Patreut Konialt” Bp yim Venton:
Fae iortd Wea tye By E Lyas Lint,
Gacer whch Lard By Yo Lyn Lanta
| Sl Se aa
kth
Tene Ben a
TE RM eM ty
thottine dtectin hy
Pathe adn
eC al
teen Mate ®!
ee al at 5
Genet, Ky Sun wg KS
Tepe ay ada
Phe Gerdes of Clntte. Wy hast
Scie sae hy Ha
Leite Ti. si Fant
Set F a ea Bn “he fo Pa
ty naa ta
a Jar Yn
if Fant ate
iy elnehee Slaas
iAP EDITIONS OF POPULAR NOVELS.
wy
ro seat Ty nes ah
Frostivnsvat Fonts Kenand Jos Ray
The det af chonde. Wy Jann syn
Hees ont Be fou ase
faery james Vay
ES ronda Yo
phe Fay
By aes ay
Eater Bic Rosh 'ty
Her Methet Bartoe
ested Derek
Chup ibteraent iy
Ge dentate ard stom 9
Ge Ponte Poth kil ah a
Pirated By tomes Poy
over
Mbtaich vetic inert, ‘iy'Keson hace
Gate for ine Atay
Jae ify the ge Nw hy Ra
The tniercensenaeer’ By hatheny
Daviau Uae Dawson, Uy tA Trey
Bherntons,
A Peginee Trip Raed” By Mak a |
Toon Seas. iy Mgr Ewen
die Perak iy Mase Ta
‘Chonan, By lean ates
apm Togs” By Tut Yes.
snide Las Wy Lit ay
CHATTO: Hyd WINDUS, PICCADILL’ W.
PROEM.
‘TWO vows.
‘fx mas tho sultry close of a midsummer night in the heart of
London.
Tn all the narrow streots about Westminster there wore the roar
of traffic and the glare of midnight; the throngs wore jostling each
other, tho unscrooned gas-jote of tho itiporant stalls'wore Haring
yellow in tho stillness of tho air, the screaming of ballad-singers -
Pierced shrilly above tho incessant noiso of wheols, the shouting
of costormongors, butohors, oystor-vondors, and fried-fish-sellars
added ils upronr of the pandemonium, and tho steam and stench of
hot drinks and of rotting vegetables was blont with the heaviness
of smoke borne down by the tempestuous oppression of the night.
Above, the sky was dark; but across tho darkness now and then a
falling star shot swiftly down tho clouds—in fleeting memento and
reminder of all the glorious world of forest and of lake, of rushing
rivor and of deep forn-glado, of leafy shelter lying cool in moun-
tuin-shadows, and of soa-Wwaves breaking upon wet brown rocks,
which wera forgotton hero, in the atress of trado, in the strifp of
crowds, in tho crumped toil of poverty, and in the weulth of mingled
nations,
| Fewin town that night looked up at the shooting star aa it flashed
its fiery pussuge above the dull, leaden, noxious, gas-lit streets;
Inone, indesd, except perhaps here and thero a young dreamer, with
threadbare coat and mad but eweot ambitions for all that was im-
possible—or some woman, young, haggard, painted, half druik,
| Whose aching oyes wore cat hi it, and whoso sodden anemory
‘wont wearily back to a long-buried childhood, when the stars ware
t8t over the moorland of a cottage home, and her cbildich wonder
lhad watchod them rico over the bluck edge of ricks through the tittle
zenge of the lattice, and sleep had come to her under thoir light,
appil: innocently, ‘haunted by no terrors, to tho clear music
‘of # jnothor's spinning-song. Save those, none thought of the
sire de it dropped down above the jagged wilderness. of Toots:
B
3 Chandos.
the crowd was looking elsowhore—to the lighted ontranco of ths
‘Lower House,
‘The multitude,had gathered thickly. ‘Thevo had beon, as it was
known, a poworfl and heated debate, a political crisis of docisive
‘eminenco—of somo joreoyer, to the country, from a rash war
policy urged upon the existing ministry, which must, it had beon
Youred, havo resigned to cscapo stooping to monsures forced on it
‘by the opposition, ‘The false position hid been avoided by the
genius of ono man alono; the government bad stood firm, and had
‘vanquished its foos, through the mighty ability of ita chiof statos-
man—ono who, inoro fortunate than Pitt in tho brilliant success
. of his measures at home and abroad, was often called, like Pitt,
the Grout Commoner,
‘Yot it was a title, porhaps, that scarcely suitod him; fur ho was
patrician to tho core—patrician in pride, in name, in blood, and
in caste, though he disdained all coroncts. Yon could uot have
lowered ‘him ; ‘also, you could not have ennobled hin, He was
simply and intrinsically a great man, At the same time, ho was
tho haughtiest of aristocrats—too haughty over to stoop to tho
patent of a prescat earldom or a marquisa‘s of the new creation.
‘The crowds pressed closest and densost as ono by one his col-;
leagues appeared, passing to their carriages; aud his name ran|
Droathlor ly, down ‘the peoplo's ranks: thoy trusted him, they’
‘honoured him, they wero proud of him, us this country, so
naturally and’ strongly conscrvalive in its instincts, however
radical it be in its reasonings, is proud of its aristocratic Jeadors.
‘Thoy were ready to choer him to tho ucho tho moment ho ap-
pearol; spciully ready to-uight, for ho hud achioved a signi
vietory, und tho populace always conso succoss.
At last he came—a tall and handsome man, about fifly year:
of age, and with a physiognomy that showed both the habit and
tho power of command. He was satiated to weariness with public
uomago; but ho acknowledged the greetings of the peoplo as they
rang on the night air with a kindly, if nogligent, courtesy —tho
courtesy of a grand seigneur.
At hi side was @ boy, his only con, a mero child of so-ao seyon.
zeurs, Indulged in hiy oyery inclination, he had been taken to
tne House that evening by a good-natured poor, to a scat under
tho clock, and had for the first timo heard his dathor speak—heard,!
with his eyes glittoring, and his cheeks flushed, and his heart
‘Douting, in’ passionate triumph ‘and enthusiastic love,
“That boy will bo a great man, if—if he don’t have too much?
gonius,” tho old peer who sat beside him hud said to himself,
watching his kindling eyes and breathloss livs, and dcnowing, like}
aWorld-wise old min of Iusiness as ho was, that tig tito of Pro
‘netheus is the same in all ages, and that it is Mediocrity whicu!
‘pays.
P'Mho boy had a singular beauty; it had boon « characters!”
of the race thruugh centuries; woman’s fashionable fimoies
shawn in the elegance of his dress, with its velvets, an:l 1
dolicate hues; andthe gold of his bair, falling over hia
Vows.
‘in tong clustering curl od in tho lamp.
father’s recognition of he lifted hiv cap
feather and bowad to th a, child’s bright, gratifiod
ment blont with the prc ttly graco of hisfathor's' ma.
already heroditary in hin
‘Tho hearts of the people warmod to him for his beauty and for
his childhood, the hearts of tho womon especially, ond thoy gave
him another aud yot hearticr choor, He bowed like a young
prince to the right and to tho loft, aud looked up in the grave
statestuan’s fico with a joyous laugh; yot still in his oyes, as they
glanced over tho throngs, thor was tho look, droamy, brilliant,
half wistful, half eager, which was boyond his age, and which had
mando the old pocr fear for him, that gift of the gods which the
world does not love, because—most unwwisely, most suicidally—it
foars it.
Asmongst tho crowd, wedged in with the thousands pressing there
about the carriages waiting for the mombers, stood a woman : sho
was in mourning-clothes, thet hung sombroly and heavily about
hor, and dark yeil obscured hor feutures. Her features vould not
bo goon, hor vyes alone shone through the folds of her voil, and
wore fixed on tho famous politician us ho camo out from tho
ontranco of the Commons, and on tho young boy by his side, Hor
own hand was on the shoulder of a child but a few years older,
‘ory strongly built short, and sousealacly made, with foutures of
a thoroughly English typo—that which is vulgarly called tho
Saxon; his skin wus very tanned, his linen torn and untidy, his
hands brown as berries aud broad as a young lion’s paws, and his
eyes, blue, koon, with an infinite mass of humour in them, looked
steadily out from under the straw hat drawn over them; they too
wero factoned on the bright hair and tho delicato dross of tho Kittle
aristocrat, with eome such look as, when a child, Manon Phlippon
ve the gey and glittering groups of Versailles and the young
Guson whon sho Lod to drng to tho scaffold.
‘The woman's hand woighed more hoavily on his shoulder, and
sho stooped her head till her lips touched his cheek, with 2 hoarse
whisper,— :
«There is your enemy !”
Tho boy nodded siontly, and a look passed over his face, over
Nhe sturdy dofianco of his mouth and the honost wischiof of his
eyes, vory bitter, vory morciloss—worse in ono so young than tho
{teroost outburst of ovanoscont ro
| Life was but just opening in him ; but already he had leurued
‘man’s first instinet—to hate. i
"Where they stood, on the odgo of tho pressing throng, that haul
‘aft but a narrow lano for the passage of tho ministers, tho litily
ittrician was close to the boy who sturod at him with sp dogged
(bjealousy ond detestation in his glance, and his own eyes, with &
Flondering; surprise, resiod a moment on the only taco that had
Iver looked darkly on him. He paused, the naturally generous
sad tonden; temper in him loading him, unconsciously, rather to
ity and to reconciliation than to offence: le Lad never seen thir
2 Chandos,
the crowd 7#®, but his instinct was to woo him out of his angry
Lower Halo touched him with a bright aud loving smile, giving
‘The - had to give,
know ot look yexbed and tired : take those!”
ewte put into his hand a packet of French bonbons that had beon
given in the Tadies’ Gallery, and followed his father, with a glad,
rapid bound, into the carriogo, by whose stops thoy were. ‘The
servants shut the door with a clash, the wheels rolled away with a
loud clatter, swolling the thunder of the busy midnight streets,
‘The boy in the throng stood silent, looking at the dainty, costly,
enamelled Varis packet of crystallised sweetmeats and fruits,
Thon, without a word, he flung it savagely on the ground, and
stamged it out under his heel making tho painted, evored paper,
and the Iuscisus bonbons, a battered, trampled mass, down in the
gaud of tho pavement.
‘Thero was a world of eloquence in the gesture.
‘As his carriago rolled through tho streots in the late night, the
great statesman passed his hand lightly over tho fair locks of his
son, Tho child had much of his own nature, of his own intellect,
and he saw in his young hoir the future security for the continuance
of the brilliance and power of his race.
“You will make the nation honour you for yourself one day,
Exmost?” he said, gently.
‘There were tears in ‘the child’s eyes, und a brave and noble
promiso and comprehension in his face, as ho looked up at his
father.
“If L livo Twill!”
As they wore propelled onward by the pressure of tho moving
crowd, the woman and her son went slowly along the heated
streets, with tho gas-flare of somo fish or meat-shop thrown on
thom, ts they pass, in yellow, flaring ilumination, ‘They were
not poor, though on foot thus, and though the lad’s dress was torn
and soiled through his own inveterate activity and endless mis-
vhief, No pressure of any want was on them: yet his glance fol-
lowod tho carriages, darted under the awnings beforo the imansions,
‘and penetrated wherever riches or rank struck him, with the hungry,
impatient, longing look of a starving Rousseau or Gilbert, hounded
to socialism for lack of a sou—a look very strango and premature
on a faeo so young and naturally 60 mirthful and gvod-humoured,
His mother watched him, and leancd hor and again on his
shoulder. :
“You will have your rovengo one duy.”
© Wont I!”
“<The school-boy answer was ground out with a meaning inten
sity, as he set his tecth like a young bulldog.
Fach had promised to gain a very different aristeiu.
came to tho combut, with whom would rest the victory
hen the},
1
BOOK THE FIRST.
CHAPTER I.
PYTIIAS, OR MEPHISTOPHEDES P
he height of tho London season. ‘Town filled. Death had
ps in the crowd; but now-comers filled up tho rents, and
‘wero unmissod. ' Brows, that the last year had been stain-
snow, had been smirchod with slandor or stainod with
but tho opals crowning them belied their ancient fime,
not pale, Light hearts had grown heavy, proud heads
n bent, fair chooks had learned. to cover care with poarl~
. words ‘had been spoken that a lifetime could not recall,
d been broken that an eternity would not unite, scoda of
sorrow had boon sown nover again to be uprooted, in tho
mnths that lay between “last season” and this phoonix of
; but the fashionable world met again with smiling lips,
nd complaisance, and unutterable exnui, and charming
compliment, to go through all tho old routine with woll-
tacos, befitting the arona.
s April. Tho last carriages had rollod out by the Ogrner,
‘hacks paced out of tho fede, the last sunlight was fading
swore roflocting on their club dinners, beautios were attidy-
contents of their jewel-boxes, the ono onjoying a mateiote,
er a conquest, in dreamy anticipation; chandoliors were
it for political reooptions, whero it would bo a throo-hours’
gu to crush up tho stairs;’ and members waiting to go in on
‘woro improving thoir minds by discussing a new dancer’a
“and the extraordinary scratching of Lord of the Tsles for
‘neas, ‘Tho West, in a word, was boginning its Business,
s Pleasure; while the East laid aside ita Pleasure, which
ness; and it was near eight o'clock on « spring night in
a hundred entertainments waited for his sclection; all tho
t women, of worlds proper and improper, were calculating
tances of securing his preference: yet alone in his house
« Lane, a man lay in idleness and ease, indolently emoking
‘hile from a great silver basin of rose-water.
yy sunbeam lingened here and there on’ some delicate bit of
per jowellod tazza, or Cellini cup, in chamber luxurious
6 Caandos.
“aStudy,” the pet rotrout of its owner, a coflector and a connoisseur, |
a
@
3
&
Z
A
3
z
A
5
=
, such dangerous
loveliness. Tho brow was magnificent, moditativo enough for
Plato's; fhe rich and gold-bned sir, bright as any Helen’a; tho
gaze of the oyos in rest, thoughtful as might be that oc a Marcus
Aurelius; the mouth, insouciant and, épicurcan as tho lips of a
Catullus.” Tho contrudicti¢hs.in the foatures were the anomalies
in the character. tho rest, his statnro was much above tho
ordinary height ; his Mttitudo showed both the strength and grace
of his limbs; his ago was a year or 0 over thirty, and his reverie
now wus of tho lightest and laziest: he hod not’ a sis!4o‘éhre on
him, CLS
‘Thoro was a double door to his room; howls- + "&
thorg either by servants orlgriends, or ‘any gor aah;
ne ras a feo to all ag u chrayangerai, but to ths euanuber only
ail 4 yrorld was interdictod. ‘Yet the first handlo turned, the
second turned, the porsicre wes tossed aside with u jerk, and the
audacious new-comer “tered.
“My doar Ernest! you alono at this timo of tho day? What
a miraclo! I have actually dared to inva your sinctum, your!
holy of holies; douced pleasant place, too. What ia it you do here?!
aint your protiiost picture, chip your protticst statuetta, make
fove to your proltiost inistress, write your novels, study occult '
sciences, moditatp on, tho Dialecties, scdk the philosopher's stone,
search for tho Vénctian enlour-sccrct, havo suppoxp d ta Régence to
which you deny even your bosom friends? or "hat is it? “On my
honony, Tam vory cufious!” f
“Toll mo somo vows, Trovenna,” said his host, with an aypuaed
rmile, in a voico low, clear, lingering ond melodious as 1 uss,
contrasting foreihy pith the,sharp, ringing, metallic tones. lof b 9
ey
visitor. How canto you to fome in ‘You know——
“T know; but Z had curibsity and good. opportunit
mortal, or whnt morals, ever resisted s\a combination ?. LE ax
