Chapter I: Front Matter

_The_ ADVENTURES _of_

A MODEST MAN

Works of Robert W. Chambers

* * * * *

The Adventures of a Modest Man
Ailsa Paige
The Danger Mark
Special Messenger
The Firing Line
The Younger Set
The Fighting Chance
Some Ladies in Haste
The Tree of Heaven
The Tracer of Lost Persons
A Young Man in a Hurry
Lorraine
Maids of Paradise
Ashes of Empire
The Red Republic
Outsiders
The Green Mouse
Iole
The Reckoning
The Maid-at-Arms
Cardigan
The Haunts of Men
The Mystery of Choice
The Cambric Mask
The Maker of Moons
The King in Yellow
In Search of the Unknown
The Conspirators
A King and a Few Dukes
In the Quarter

* * * * *

For Children

Garden-Land
Forest-Land
River-Land
Mountain-Land
Orchard-Land
Outdoorland
Hide and Seek in Forest-Land

COPYRIGHT, 1900, 1911, BY ROBERT W. CHAMBERS

* * * * *

Copyright, 1904, by Harper & Brothers Copyright, 1904, 1905, 1910, by The Curtis Publishing Company

_The_ ADVENTURES _of_ A MODEST MAN

_By_ ROBERT W. CHAMBERS

ILLUSTRATED BY EDMUND FREDERICK

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY NEW YORK AND LONDON: MCMXI

]

TO MR. AND MRS. C. WHEATON VAUGHAN

This volume packed with bric-à-brac
I offer you with my affection,--
The story halts, the rhymes are slack--
Poor stuff to add to your collection.
Gems you possess from ages back:
It is the modern junk you lack.

We three once moused through marble halls,
Immersed in Art and deep dejection,
Mid golden thrones and choir-stalls
And gems beyond my recollection--
Yet soft!--my memory recalls
Red labels pasted on the walls!

And so, perhaps, _my_ bric-à-brac
May pass the test of your inspection;
Perhaps you will not send it back,
But place it--if you've no objection--
Under some nick-nack laden rack
Where platters dangle on a tack.

So if you'll take this book from me
And hide it in your cupboards laden
Beside some Dresden filigree
And frivolously fetching maiden--
Who knows?--that Dresden maid may see
My book--and read it through pardie!

R. W. C.

"Senilis stultitia quae deliratio appellari
solet, senum levium est, non omnium."

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I. CONCERNING TWO GENTLEMEN FROM LONG ISLAND, DESTINY, AND A
POT OF BLACK PAINT 1
II. A CHAPTER DEPICTING A RATHER GARRULOUS REUNION 14
III. TROUBLE FOR TWO 25
IV. WHEREIN A MODEST MAN IS BULLIED AND A LITERARY MAN
PRACTICES STYLE 42
V. DREAMLAND 58
VI. SOUL AND BODY 74
VII. THE BITER, THE BITTEN, AND THE UN-BITTEN 85
VIII. A MATTER OF PRONUNCIATION 98
IX. FATE 104
X. CHANCE 117
XI. DESTINY 129
XII. IN WHICH A MODEST MAN MAUNDERS 143
XIII. A CHANCE ACQUAINTANCE 154
XIV. A STATE OF MIND 168
XV. FLOTSAM AND JETSAM 181
XVI. THE SIMPLEST SOLUTION OF AN ANCIENT PROBLEM 194
XVII. SHOWING HOW IT IS POSSIBLE FOR ANY MAN TO MAKE OF
HIMSELF A CHUMP 208
XVIII. THE MASTER KNOT OF HUMAN FATE 221
XIX. THE TIME AND THE PLACE 234
XX. DOWN THE SEINE 242
XXI. IN A BELGIAN GARDEN 269
XXII. A YOUTHFUL PATRIOT 287
XXIII. ON THE WALL 292
XXIV. A JOURNEY TO THE MOON 303
XXV. THE ARMY OF PARIS 316

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING
PAGE
"'I realised that I was going to kiss her if she didn't
move.... And--she didn't'" _Frontispiece_
"'Give up my dead!' she whispered. 'Give up my dead!'" 40
"Christmas Eve she knelt, crying, before the pedestal" 80
"'Only one person in the world can ever matter to me--now'" 140
"Beyond, rocking wildly in a gilded boat, sat two people and a
placid swan" 190
"'I--I don't know,' she stammered; 'my shoe seems tied to yours'" 214

AN INADVERTENT POEM

_There is a little flow-urr_
_In our yard it does grow_
_Where many a happy hou-urr_
_I watch our rooster crow;_
_While clothes hang on the clothes-line_
_And plowing has began_
--_And the name they call this lit-tul vine_
_Is just "Old Man."_

_Old Man, Old Man_
_A-growing in our yard,_
_Every spring a-coming up_
_While yet the ground is har-rrd;_
_Pottering 'round the chickens' pan,_
_Creeping low and slow,_
_And why they call it Old Man_
_I never asked to know._
_I never want to know._

_Crawling through the chick-weed,_
_Dragging through the quack,_
_Pussly, tansy, tick-weed_
_Almost break his back._
_Catnip, cockle, dock prevent_
_His travelling all they can,_
_But still he goes the ways he's went,_
_Poor Old Man!_

_Old Man, Old Man,_
_What's the use of you?_
_No one wants to see you, like_
_As if you hadn't grew._
_You ain't no good to nothing_
_So far as I can see,_
_Unless some maiden fair will sing_
_These lines I've wrote to thee._
_And sing 'em soft to me._

_Some maiden fa-hair_
_With_ { _ra-haven_ } _hair_
{ _go-holden_ }
_Will si-hing this so-hong_
_To me-hee-ee!_