The Seeker

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The Seeker

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Seeker, by Harry Leon Wilson, Illustrated by Rose Cecil O'Neill
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Title: The Seeker
Author: Harry Leon Wilson
Release Date: May 8, 2005 [eBook #15797]
Language: english
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE SEEKER
by
HARRY LEON WILSON
Author of The Spenders _The Lions of the Lord,_ etc.
Illustrated by Rose Cecil O'Neill
New York Doubleday, Page & Company
1904

[Illustration: "My dear, Bernal is saying good-bye!"]

TO
MY FRIEND
WILLIAM CURTIS GIBSON

"Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?"--Holy Writ.
"John and Peter and Robert and Paul-- God, in His wisdom, created them all. John was a statesman and Peter a slave, Robert a preacher and Paul was a knave. Evil or good, as the case might be, White or colored, or bond or free, John and Peter and Robert and Paul-- God, in His wisdom, created them all."
The Chemistry of Character.

[Illustration]

CONTENTS
BOOK ONE--The Age Of Fable
CHAPTER
I.
How the Christmas Saint was Proved
II. An Old Man Faces Two Ways
III. The Cult of the Candy Cane
IV. The Big House of Portents
V. The Life of Crime Is Appraised and Chosen
VI. The Garden of Truth and the Perfect Father
VII. The Superlative Cousin Bill J.
VIII. Searching the Scriptures
IX. On Surviving the Idols We Build
X. The Passing of the Gratcher; and Another
XI. The Strong Person's Narrative
XII. A New Theory of a Certain Wicked Man
BOOK TWO--The Age of Reason
CHAPTER
I.
The Regrettable Dementia of a Convalescent
II. Further Distressing Fantasies of a Clouded Mind
III. Reason Is Again Enthroned
IV. A Few Letters
V. "Is the Hand of the Lord Waxed Short?"
VI. In the Folly of His Youth
BOOK THREE--The Age of Faith
CHAPTER
I.
The Perverse Behaviour of an Old Man and a Young Man
II. How a Brother Was Different
III. How Edom Was Favoured of God and Mammon
IV. The Winning of Browett
V. A Belated Martyrdom
VI. The Walls of St. Antipas Fall at the Third Blast
VII. There Entereth the Serpent of Inappreciation
VIII. The Apple of Doubt is Nibbled
IX. Sinful Perverseness of the Natural Woman
X. The Reason of a Woman Who Had No Reason
XI. The Remorse of Wondering Nancy
XII. The Flexible Mind of a Pleased Husband
XIII. The Wheels within Wheels of the Great Machine
XIV. The Ineffective Message
XV. The Woman at the End of the Path
XVI. In Which the Mirror Is Held Up to Human Nature
XVII. For the Sake of Nancy
XVIII. The Fell Finger of Calumny Seems to be Agreeably Diverted
XIX. A Mere Bit of Gossip

SCENES
BOOK ONE--The Village of Edom
BOOK TWO--The Same
BOOK THREE--New York

CHARACTERS
ALLAN DELCHER, a retired Presbyterian clergyman.
BERNAL LINFORD } ALLAN LINFORD } his grandsons.
CLAYTON LINFORD, Their father, of the artistic temperament, and versatile.
CLYTEMNESTRA, Housekeeper for Delcher.
COUSIN BILL J., a man with a splendid past.
NANCY CREALOCK, A wondering child and woman.
AUNT BELL, Nancy's worldly guide, who, having lived in Boston, has "broadened into the higher unbelief."
MISS ALVIRA ABNEY, Edom's leading milliner, captivated by Cousin Bill J.
MILO BARRUS, The village atheist.
THE STRONG PERSON, of the "Gus Levy All-star Shamrock Vaudeville."
CALEB WEBSTER, a travelled Edomite.
CYRUS BROWETT, a New York capitalist and patron of the Church.
MRS. DONALD WYETH, an appreciative parishioner of Allan Linford.
THE REV MR. WHITTAKER, a Unitarian.
FATHER RILEY, of the Church of Rome.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"'My dear, Bernal is saying good-bye!'" (Frontispiece)
"She could be made to believe that only he could protect her from the Gratcher"
"They looked forward with equal eagerness to the day when he should become a great and good man"
"He gazed long and exultingly into the eyes yielded so abjectly to his"

* * * * *

BOOK ONE
The Age of Fable
[Illustration]

THE SEEKER
BOOK ONE--THE AGE OF FABLE
CHAPTER I
HOW THE CHRISTMAS SAINT WAS PROVED
The whispering died away as they heard heavy steps and saw a line of light under the shut door. Then a last muffled caution from the larger boy on the cot.
"Now, remember! There ain't any, but don't you let on there ain't--else he won't bring you a single thing!"
Before the despairing soul on the trundle-bed could pierce the vulnerable heel of this, the door opened slowly to the broad shape of Clytemnestra. One hand shaded her eyes from the candle she carried, and she peered into the corner where the two beds were, a flurry of eagerness in her face, checked by stoic self-mastery.
At once from the older boy came the sounds of one who breathes labouredly in deep sleep after a hard day. But the littler boy sat rebelliously up, digging combative fists into