Ardath: The Story of a Dead Self

Under the cloudless, star-patterned sky, in the soft, warm air that brimmed with the fragrance of roses, they drove once more together through the spacious streets of Al-Kyris--...

At these unexpected words Theos sprang wildly to his feet. An awful darkness seemed to close in upon him,--and a chaotic confusion of memories began to whirl and drift through h...

Entranced in amazed ecstasy he lay quite quiet, . . afraid to speak or stir! This gentle Presence,--this fair, beseeching face, might vanish if he moved! So he dimly fancied, as...

How the time went he could not tell; in so gay and gorgeous a scene hours might easily pass with the swiftness of unmarked moments. Peals of laughter echoed now and again throug...

A few slow, dreadful minutes elapsed, . . and then,--then the first sharpness of his strange mental agony subsided. The strained tension of his nerves gave way, and a dull apath...

In less time than he could have imagined possible, he found himself in the densely crowded Square, buffeting and struggling against an angry and rebellious mob, who half resentf...

The beautiful and socially popular Duchess de la Santoisie sat her at brilliantly appointed dinner-table, and flashed her bright eyes comprehensively round the board,--her party...

A flash of time, . . an instant of black, horrid eclipse, too brief for the utterance of even a word or cry, ... and then,--with an appalling roar, as of the splitting of huge r...

The hours wore on with stealthy rapidity,--but the two friends, reclining together under a deep-branched canopy of cypress-boughs, paid little or no heed to the flight of time....

"More wine!" he muttered thickly--"More, . . more I say! What! wilt thou stint the generous juice that warms my soul to song? Pour, . . pour out lavishly! I will mix the honey o...

The delighted air of triumphant conviction with which Alwyn received this candid statement was irresistible, and Villiers's attempt at equanimity entirely gave way before it. He...

On went the dance, ... faster, faster, and ever faster! Only the pen of some mirth-loving, rose-crowned Greek bard could adequately describe the dazzling, wild beauty and fantas...

The assembled maidens had retired modestly into the background, while the Laureate had thus joyously greeted his returned guest; but now, at a signal from their lord, they again...

He spoke the last words with deep feeling and earnestness, and Alwyn, meeting his clear, grave, brilliant eyes, was more than ever impressed by the singular dignity and overpowe...

As he uttered the last word the sound of an approaching light step disturbed the silence. It was one of the young girls of the household, . . a dark, haughty-looking beauty whom...

Some few days after the Duchess's dinner-party, Alwyn was strolling one morning through the Park, enjoying to the full the keen, fresh odors of the Spring,--odors that even in L...

At the end of about a week or so, it became very generally known among the mystic "Upper Ten" of artistic and literary circles, that Theos Alwyn, the famous author of "Nourhalma...

His first emotion on making this new mental rediscovery was, as it had been before in the King's audience-hall, one of absolute TERROR, ... feverish, mad terror which for a few...

As they left the garden the night fell, or appeared to fall, with almost startling suddenness, and at the same time, in swift defiance of the darkness, Sah-luma's palace was ill...

The new-comer thus enthusiastically welcomed bowed right and left, with a condescending air, in response to the general acclamation, and advancing to the spot where Theos stood,...

It was a dismal March evening. London lay swathed in a melancholy fog,--a fog too dense to be more than temporarily disturbed even by the sudden gusts of the bitter east wind. R...

Gliding along with that graceful, almost phantom-like swiftness of movement that was so much a part of his manner, Sah-luma escorted his visitor to the further end of the great...

Once clear of the Square the two friends apparently became mutually conscious of the peril they had just escaped, . . and coming to a sudden standstill they looked at each other...

When they entered the concert-hall, the orchestra had already begun the programme of the day with Mendelssohn's "Italian" Symphony. The house was crowded to excess; numbers of p...

A solemn silence ensued. Consternation and wrath were depicted on every countenance. The Sacred Service was interrupted! ... a defiance had been hurled as it were in the very te...

A booming, thunderous, yet mellow sound! a grand, solemn, sonorous swing of full and weighty rhythm, striking the air with deep, slowly measured resonance like the rolling of cl...

They walked side by side for some little time without speaking, through winding paths of alternate light and shade, sheltered by the latticework of crossed and twisted green bou...

His question was not very promptly answered. The stranger stood still, regarding him intently for two of three minutes with a look of peculiar pensiveness and abstraction, the h...

An habitual resident in London who is gifted with a keen faculty of hearing and observation, will soon learn to know instinctively the various characteristics of the people who...

As he uttered the last words, his eyes darkened into a soft expression of musing tenderness, and he remained silent for many minutes, during which the entranced, almost unearthl...

Heliobas was silent--he seemed engaged in deep and anxious thought,--and he kept his steadfast eyes fixed on Alwyn's countenance, as though he sought there the clew to some diff...

Profound silence,--profound unconsciousness,--oblivious rest! Such are the soothing ministrations of kindly Nature to the overburdened spirit; Nature, who in her tender wisdom a...

In the two or three weeks that followed his meeting with Heliobas, Alwyn made up his mind to leave London for a while. He was tired and restless,--tired of the routine society m...

He ran on swiftly for a few paces,--then coming more closely in view of the misty Shape he pursued, he checked himself abruptly and stood still, his heart sinking with a bitter...

Later on in the afternoon of the same day, when the sun, poised above the western mountain-range, appeared to be lazily looking about him with a drowsy, golden smile of farewell...

"The venerable Esdras was certainly a poet in his own way!" he remarked lightly. "There is something very fascinating about the rhythm of his lines, though I confess I don't gra...

It was no light or easy journey he had thus rashly undertaken on the faith of a dream,--for dream he still believed it to be. Many weary days and nights were consumed in the com...

Deep in the heart of the Caucasus mountains a wild storm was gathering. Drear shadows drooped and thickened above the Pass of Dariel,--that terrific gorge which like a mere thre...

This idea had no sooner entered his mind than he prepared to act upon it,--though only a short while previously, feeling thoroughly overcome by fatigue, he had resolved to wait...

The next morning dawned pallidly over a sea of gray mist--not a glimpse of the landscape was visible--nothing but a shadowy vastness of floating vapor that moved slowly fold upo...

"Who speaks of glory and the force of love And thou not near, my maiden-minded dove! With all the coyness, all the beauty sheen Of thy rapt face? A fearless virgin-queen, A quee...

"What merest whim Seems all this poor endeavor after Fame To one who keeps within his steadfast aim A love immortal, an Immortal too! Look not so 'wildered, for these things are...