Produced by Wright American Fiction, J.N. Goslee and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net IDOLATRY: _A ROMANCE_. by JULIAN HAWTHORNE. BOSTON: JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY, LATE TICKNOR & FIELDS, AND FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO. 1874. University Press: Welch, Bigelow, & Co., Cambridge. CONTENTS Dedication I. The Enchanted Ring II. Out of Egypt III. A May Morning IV. A Brahman V. A New Man with an old Face VI. The Vagaries of Helwyse VII. A Quarrel VIII. A Collision Imminent IX. The Voice of Darkness X. Helwyse Resists the Devil XI. A Dead Weight XII. More Vagaries XIII. Through a Glass XIV. The Tower of Babel XV. Charon's Ferry XVI. Legend and Chronicle XVII. Face to Face XVIII. The Hoopoe and the Crocodile XIX. Before Sundown XX. Between Waking and Sleeping XXI. We Pick Up Another Thread XXII. Heart and Head XXIII. Balder Tells an Untruth XXIV. Uncle Hiero at Last XXV. The Happiness of Man XXVI. Music and Madness XXVII. Peace and Good-will XXVIII. Betrothal XXIX. A Chamber of the Heart XXX. Dandelions XXXI. Married XXXII. Shut In XXXIII. The Black Cloud DEDICATION To ROBERT CARTER, ESQ. Not the intrinsic merits of this story embolden me to inscribe it to you, my dear friend, but the fact that you, more than any other man, are responsible for its writing. Your advice and encouragement first led me to book-making; so it is only fair that you should partake of whatever obloquy (or honor) the practice may bring upon me. The ensuing pages may incline you to suspect their author of a repugnance to unvarnished truth; but,--without prejudice to Othello,--since varnish brings out in wood veins of beauty invisible before the application, why not also in the sober facts of life? When the transparent artifice has been penetrated, the familiar substance underneath will be greeted none the less kindly; nay, the observer will perhaps regard the disguise as an oblique compliment to his powers of insight, and his attention may thus be better secured than had the subject worn its every-day dress. Seriously, the most matter-of-fact life has moods when the light of romance seems to gild its earthen chimney-pots into fairy minarets; and, were the story-teller but sure of laying his hands upon the true gold, perhaps the more his story had of it, the better.