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THE GLORY OF THE CONQUERED

THE STORY OF A GREAT LOVE

BY

SUSAN GLASPELL

1909

To DR. A. L. HAGEBOECK,

Who Made This Book Possible

CONTENTS

PART ONE

I. ERNESTINE II. THE LETTER III. KARL IV. JACK AND "HIGHER TRUTH" V. THE HOME-COMING VI. "GLORIA VICTIS" VII. ERNESTINE IN HER STUDIO VIII. SCIENCE, ART AND LOVE IX. As THE SURGEON SAW IT X. KARL IN HIS LABORATORY XI. PICTURES IN THE EMBERS XII. A WARNING AND A PREMONITION XIII. AN UNCROSSED BRIDGE XIV. "TO THE GREAT UNWHIMPERING!" XV. THE VERDICT XVI. "GOOD LUCK, BEASON!" XVII. DISTANT STRAINS OF TRIUMPH XVIII. TELLING ERNESTINE XIX. INTO THE DARK

PART TWO

XX. MARRIAGE AND PAPER BAGS XXI. FACTORY-MADE OPTIMISM XXII. A BLIND MAN'S TWILIGHT XXIII. HER VISION XXIV. LOVE CHALLENGES FATE XXV. DR. PARKMAN'S WAY XXVI. OLD-FASHIONED LOVE XXVII. LEARNING TO BE KARL'S EYES XXVIII. WITH BROKEN SWORD XXIX. UNPAINTED MASTERPIECES XXX. EYES FOR TWO XXXI. SCIENCE AND SUPER-SCIENCE XXXII. THE DOCTOR HAS HIS WAY XXXIII. LOVE'S OWN HOUR XXXIV. ALMOST DAWN XXXV. "OH, HURRY--HURRY!" XXXVI. WITH THE OUTGOING TIDE

PART THREE

XXXVII. BENEATH DEAD LEAVES XXXVIII. PATCHWORK QUILTS XXXIX. ASH HEAP AND ROSE JAR XL. "LET THERE BE LIGHT" XLI. WHEN THE TIDE CAME IN XLII. WORK, THE SAVIOUR XLIII. "AND THERE WAS LIGHT"

THE GLORY OF THE CONQUERED

PART ONE

CHAPTER I

ERNESTINE

She had promised to marry a scientist! It was too overwhelming a thought to entertain standing there by the window. She sought the room's most comfortable chair and braced herself to the situation.

If, one month before, a gossiping daughter of Fate had come to her with--"Shall I tell you something?--_You_ are going to marry a man of science!"--she would have smiled serenely at Fate's amusing mistake and responded--"My good friend, it is quite true that great uncertainty attends this subject. So much to be expected is the unexpected, that I am quite willing to admit I _may_ marry the hurdy-gurdy man who plays beneath my window. I know life well enough to appreciate that I _may_ marry a pawnbroker or the Sultan of Turkey. I assert but one thing. I shall _not_ marry a 'man of science.'"

And now, not only had she promised to marry a man of science, but she had quite overlooked the fact of his being one! And the thing which stripped her of the last shred of consistency was that she was to marry, not the every-day, average "man of science," but one of the foremost scientists of all the world! The powers in charge of things matrimonial must be smiling a quiet little smile to-night.

But ah--here was the vindication! He had not _asked_ her to marry him. He had simply come and told her she _was_ to marry him. And he was a great, strong man--far more powerful than she. She had had positively nothing to do with it! Was it _her_ fault that he chanced to be engaged in scientific pursuits? And when he took her face so tenderly in his two hands--looked so far down into her eyes--and told her in a voice she would follow to the ends of the earth that he _loved_ her--was there any time then to think of paltry non-essentials like art and science?

But she thought of them a little now. How could she get away from them when each year of her past marched slowly in front of her, paused for an instant that she might get a full view, and then passed grinningly back to the abyss of things gone, from over the shoulder tossing straight into her consciousness a jeering, deep sinking "_You too?_"

Ernestine Stanley--that was the name she read in one of her books open beside her. Why her very _name_ stood for that quarrel which had rent all the years!