The Incomplete Amorist

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The Incomplete Amorist, by E. Nesbit

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Title: The Incomplete Amorist
Author: E. Nesbit
Release Date: November, 2005 [EBook #9385] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on September 28, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE INCOMPLETE AMORIST
By E. NESBIT

Illustrated by CLARENCE F. UNDERWOOD
1906
To
Richard Reynolds and Justus Miles Forman
"Faire naitre un désir, le nourrir, le développer, le grandir, le satisfaire, c'est un poeme tout entier."
--Balzac.

CONTENTS
BOOK I. THE GIRL
Chapter I.
The Inevitable
Chapter II.
The Irresistible
Chapter III.
Voluntary
Chapter IV.
Involuntary
Chapter V.
The Prisoner
Chapter VI.
The Criminal
Chapter VII.
The Escape
BOOK II. THE MAN
Chapter VIII.
The One and the Other
Chapter IX.
The Opportunity
Chapter X.
Seeing Life
Chapter XI.
The Thought
Chapter XII.
The Rescue
Chapter XIII.
Contrasts
Chapter XIV.
Renunciation
BOOK III. THE OTHER WOMAN
Chapter XV.
On Mount Parnassus
Chapter XVI.
"Love and Tupper"
Chapter XVII.
Interventions
Chapter XVIII.
The Truth
Chapter XIX.
The Truth with a Vengeance
Chapter XX.
Waking-up Time
BOOK IV. THE OTHER MAN
Chapter XXI.
The Flight
Chapter XXII.
The Lunatic
Chapter XXIII.
Temperatures
Chapter XXIV.
The Confessional
Chapter XXV.
The Forest
Chapter XXVI.
The Miracle
Chapter XXVII.
The Pink Silk Story
Chapter XXVIII.
"And so--"

PEOPLE OF THE STORY
Eustace Vernon. The Incomplete Amorist Betty Desmond The Girl The Rev. Cecil Underwood Her Step-Father Miss Julia Desmond Her Aunt Robert Temple The Other Man Lady St. Craye The Other Woman Miss Voscoe The Art Student Madame Chevillon. The Inn-Keeper at Crez Paula Conway A Soul in Hell Mimi Chantal A Model Village Matrons, Concierges, Art Students, Etc.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"'Oh, what a pity,' said Betty from the heart, 'that we aren't introduced now!'"
"'Ah, don't be cross!' she said."
"Betty stared at him coldly."
"Betty looked nervously around--the scene was agitatingly unfamiliar."
"Unfinished, but a disquieting likeness."
"'No, thank you: it's all done now.'"
"On the further arm of the chair sat, laughing also, a very pretty young woman."
"The next morning brought him a letter."

Book 1.--The Girl
CHAPTER I.
THE INEVITABLE.
"No. The chemises aren't cut out. I haven't had time. There are enough shirts to go on with, aren't there, Mrs. James?" said Betty.
"We can make do for this afternoon, Miss, but the men they're getting blowed out with shirts. It's the children's shifts as we can't make shift without much longer." Mrs. James, habitually doleful, punctuated her speech with sniffs.
"That's a joke, Mrs. James," said Betty. "How clever you are!"
"I try to be what's fitting," said Mrs. James, complacently.
"Talk of fitting," said Betty, "If you like I'll fit on that black bodice for you, Mrs. Symes. If the other ladies don't mind waiting for the reading a little bit."
"I'd as lief talk as read, myself," said a red-faced sandy-haired woman; "books ain't what they was in my young days."
"If it's the same to you, Miss," said Mrs. Symes in a thick rich voice, "I'll not be tried on afore a room full. If we are poor we can all be clean's what I say, and I keeps my unders as I keeps my outside. But not before persons as has real imitation lace on their petticoat bodies. I see them when I was a-nursing her with her fourth. No, Miss, and thanking you kindly, but begging your pardon all the same."
"Don't mention it," said Betty absently. "Oh, Mrs. Smith, you can't have lost your thimble already. Why what's that you've got in your mouth?"
"So it is!" Mrs. Smith's face beamed at the gratifying coincidence. "It always was my habit, from a child, to put things there for safety."
"These cheap thimbles ain't fit to put in your mouth, no more than coppers," said Mrs. James, her mouth full of pins.
"Oh, nothing hurts you if you like it," said Betty recklessly. She had been reading the works of Mr. G.K. Chesterton.
A shocked murmur arose.
"Oh, Miss, what about the publy kows?" said Mrs. Symes heavily. The others nodded acquiescence.
"Don't you think we might have a window open?" said Betty. The May sunshine beat on the schoolroom windows. The room, crowded with the stout members of the "Mother's Meeting and Mutual Clothing Club," was stuffy, unbearable.
A murmur arose far more shocked than the