[Illustration: THE MAGIC FLUTE. [_See p. 8._ ] Flute and Violin AND OTHER KENTUCKY TALES AND ROMANCES. BY JAMES LANE ALLEN. ILLUSTRATED [Illustration: Drawing of girl] NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS MDCCCXCVI. Copyright, 1891, by HARPER & BROTHERS. _All rights reserved._ To her FROM WHOSE FRAIL BODY HE DREW LIFE IN THE BEGINNING, FROM WHOSE STRONG SPIRIT HE WILL DRAW LIFE UNTIL THE CLOSE, THESE TALES, WITH ALL OTHERS HAPLY HERE- AFTER TO BE WRITTEN, ARE DEDI- CATED AS A PERISHABLE MONU- MENT OF INEFFABLE REMEMBRANCE PREFACE. The opening tale of this collection is taken from HARPER'S MONTHLY; the others, from the _Century Magazine_. By leave of these periodicals they are now published, and of the kindness thus shown the author makes grateful acknowledgment. While the tales and sketches have been appearing, the authorship of them has now and then been charged to Mr. James Lane Allen, of Chicago, Illinois--pardonably to his discomfiture. A sense of fitness forbade that the author should send along with each, as it came out, a claim that it was not another's; but he now gladly asks that the responsibility of all his work be placed where it solely belongs. CONTENTS. [Illustration: Woman standing] PAGE FLUTE AND VIOLIN 3 KING SOLOMON OF KENTUCKY 65 TWO GENTLEMEN OF KENTUCKY 97 THE WHITE COWL 135 SISTER DOLOROSA 175 POSTHUMOUS FAME 281 [Illustration: Man reading by candle light] [Illustration: People at dinner] FLUTE AND VIOLIN THE PARSON'S MAGIC FLUTE. On one of the dim walls of Christ Church, in Lexington, Kentucky, there hangs, framed in thin black wood, an old rectangular slab of marble. A legend sets forth that the tablet is in memory of the Reverend James Moore, first minister of Christ Church and President of Transylvania University, who departed this life in the year 1814, at the age of forty-nine. Just beneath runs the record that he was learned, liberal, amiable, and pious. Save this concise but not unsatisfactory summary, little is now known touching the reverend gentleman. A search through other sources of information does, indeed, result in reclaiming certain facts. Thus, it appears that he was a Virginian, and that he came to Lexington in the year 1792--when Kentucky ceased to be a county of Virginia, and became a State. At first he was a candidate for the ministry of the Presbyterian Church; but the Transylvania Presbytery having reproved him for the liberality of his sermons, James kicked against such rigor in his brethren, and turned for refuge to the bosom of the Episcopal Communion. But this body did not offer much of a bosom to take refuge in.