The gospel of freedom

Simeon Erard tiptoed deftly across the room, tugging at his thin, sandy heard. Fumbling among the curtains which draped one corner of the best light, he pulled the cord, after c...

Leaving Wilbur and Mrs. Anthon to find a cab, Miss Anthon and her uncle proceeded across the Quarter by silent side streets, the old man turning instinctively here and there, un...

As the two neared the opera house, Miss Anthon walked more leisurely and paid some attention to her companion. The night was soft for November; she had no wish to immure herself...

Mr. Walter Anthon had cultivated his little garden of aspirations industriously and with flattering results. He had lately been taken on as an occasional writer for the _Standar...

Miss Anthon continued to spend a few desultory hours in the fashionable studio behind the Madeleine. Erard’s raillery made the work appear more futile than ever, yet the engagem...

After Wilbur’s departure for Chicago on his quest for two fortunes, Miss Anthon came to see much of Simeon Erard; she accepted him more easily, now that the young business man’s...

The more Miss Anthon thought the matter over, the more completely she came to accept Erard’s bitter lesson. She realized that her blindness had been childish, and that by openin...

Miss Molly Parker was a unifying force in the Anthon family. Mrs. Anthon and Molly had discovered two common passions, dress and food. They would spend long mornings driving abo...

“Your uncle received a cable this morning that calls him home on important business,” Mrs. Anthon explained, “and I thought we might as well move on at the same time. Just as we...

October found the Anthons in Paris at a new Americanized hotel just off the Avenue de l’Opera. Mrs. Anthon talked of London, of taking a house for the winter, “where Walter coul...

On her return from one of these walks with Erard, Miss Anthon found at the hotel a large card, with the name John Foster Wilbur scrawled in an untidy hand. He had left word that...

In spite of the preoccupations incident to the season, Miss Anthon found an opportunity of seeing Erard. She preferred to tell him of her new step rather than write a letter; fo...

Chicago is an instance of a successful, contemptuous disregard of nature by man. Other great cities have been called gradually into existence about some fine opportunity suggest...

Miss Parker decided soon that if Chicago were a prison, it was a very nice kind of prison to visit. Mrs. Wilbur’s friends did all manner of pleasant things to entertain her. Eac...

The glamour of the “partnership” plan of marriage was fading away in Adela Wilbur’s mind. She had found money-getting exciting enough, while it was a matter of large chances in...

The hearing before the governor at Springfield came off as Wilbur had predicted. The papers reported that Charles Bishop Wren, together with Israel Tracey and Wrightington, had...

The night of the musicale Erard arrived at the Wilbur’s very late. He had driven from his hotel, after a comfortable dinner and a cigar, without taking the trouble to ascertain...

Meanwhile Erard, in company with Molly Parker, whom he had offered to escort around the corner, had gained the silent boulevard. The arc-lights cast circular patches of bluish w...

The lectures went admirably. Mrs. Wilbur’s house was crowded every Wednesday morning for the eight weeks of the course with “the most prominent and fashionable leaders among Chi...

When Mrs. Wilbur returned after the death of her child to the world of clubs and visits, she learned that Erard had been invited to Minneapolis and Omaha to deliver lectures. Sh...

Among the men who had been watching the procession from the comfortable armchairs of the Metropolis Club was John Wilbur. He had recently been received as a member,--an event de...

The business of the Legal Aid Society had brought Thornton Jennings to know one Peter Erard, an operative in a piano-factory. He lived with his father, a helpless old man, on on...

John Wilbur unwittingly brought about the crisis he wished to avoid. Monday morning, on his way to the city, he called at the house of his clergyman,--Dr. Driver, a divine celeb...

Late in August Mrs. Wilbur sailed for Europe. When the ship dropped down the bay, and all the cables with the past were cut, a sense of great joy came over her. As the last sult...

The pungent Latin odours emanating from the wine-shops along the boulevards stirred Mrs. Wilbur’s memory caressingly. This was Paris,--she dwelt on the word fondly. How eloquent...

The déjeuner put them in accord, however. A bottle of good wine brought out evidences of human comradeship in Erard. He talked over his winter’s work, in which he assumed her co...

“We are prominent members of the Art Endeavour Circle,” Miss Parker wrote Thornton Jennings, after a month in the Villa Rosadina. “I may say that we have a salon for the young G...

Mrs. Wilbur’s disappointment rarely expressed itself in words. She worked with seeming interest at the tasks Erard suggested, and at odd times furbished her Latin or read Italia...

At that moment the door of the salon opened, and Jennings came forward into the firelight, with his fearlessly erect carriage, as if it were a fine thing to stride through the s...

Late in June Mrs. Wilbur and Erard went again to Rome with several other members of the Circle. There a gradual languor stupefied her will. The year with its multiform passions...

She lay there motionless on the terrace into the still twilight. The little mountain villages across the heated valley robed themselves in blue mist. Beneath the wall the road u...

“I’ll tell you all about it. He feels badly now, but, if it doesn’t get out he will be all right in a few weeks. He asked me to do it--marry him--at least for your sake. But I t...

The night was so still and hot that no one proposed to try for sleep in close chambers. They sat in the garden watching the little villages go out into darkness, snuffed out lik...