E-text prepared by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team from page images generously made available by the Digital & Multimedia Center, Michigan State University Libraries Note: Images of the original pages are available through Making of America Collection, University of Michigan Libraries. See http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/ BRESSANT A Novel by JULIAN HAWTHORNE 1873 CONTENTS. I.--HOW PROFESSOR VALEYON LOSES HIS HANDKERCHIEF II.--SIGNS OF A THUNDER-SHOWER III.--SOPHIE AND CORNELIA ENTER INTO A COVENANT IV.--A BUSINESS TRANSACTION V.--BRESSANT PICKS A TEA-ROSE VI.--CORNELIA BEGINS TO UNDO A KNOT VII.--PROFESSOR VALEYON MAKES A CALL VIII.--GREAT EXPECTATIONS IX.--THE DAGUERREOTYPE X.--ONLY FOR TO-NIGHT! XI.--EVERY LITTLE COUNTS XII.--DOLLY ACTS AN IMPORTANT PART XIII.--A KEEPSAKE XIV.--NURSING XV.--AN UNTIMELY REMINISCENCE XVI.--PARTING AN ANCHOR XVII.--SOPHIE'S CONFESSION XVIII.--A FLANK MOVEMENT XIX.--AN INTERMISSION XX.--BRESSANT CONFIDES A SECRET TO THE FOUNTAIN XXI.--PUTTING ON THE ARMOR XXII.--LOCKED UP XXIII.--ARMED NEUTRALITY XXIV.--A BIT OF INSPIRATION XXV.--ANOTHER INTERMISSION XXVI.--BRESSANT TAKES A VACATION XXVII.--FACT AND FANCY XXVIII.--A DISAPPOINTMENT XXIX.--FOUND XXX.--LOST XXXI.--MOTHER AND SON XXXII.--WHERE TWO ROADS MEET XXXIII.--TILL THE ELEVENTH HOUR XXXIV.--THE HOUR AND THE MAN CHAPTER I. HOW PROFESSOR VALEYON LOSES HIS HANDKERCHIEF. One warm afternoon in June--the warmest of the season thus far--Professor Valeyon sat, smoking a black clay pipe, upon the broad balcony, which extended all across the back of his house, and overlooked three acres of garden, inclosed by a solid stone-wall. All the doors in the house were open, and most of the windows, so that any one passing in the road might have looked up through the gabled porch and the passage-way, which divided the house, so to speak, into two parts, and seen the professor's brown-linen legs, and slippers down at the heel, projecting into view beyond the framework of the balcony-door. Indeed--for the professor was an elderly man, and, in many respects, a creature of habit--precisely this same phenomenon could have been observed on any fine afternoon during the summer, even to the exact amount of brown-linen leg visible.