IV. A Damsel in Distress 64 V. Which Tells How Cartaret Returned to the Rue du Val-de-Grâce, and What He Found There 84 VI. Cartaret Sets Up Housekeeping 102 VII. Of Domestic Economy, of Day-Dreams, and of a Far Country and Its Sovereign Lady 118 VIII. Chiefly Concerning Strawberries 144 IX. Being the True Report of a Chaperoned Déjeuner 154 X. An Account of an Empty Purse and a Full Heart, in the Course of Which the Author Barely Escapes Telling a Very Old Story 169 XI. Tells How Cartaret's Fortune Turned Twice in a Few Hours and How He Found One Thing and Lost Another 192 XII. Narrating How Cartaret Began His Quest of the Rose 206 XIII. Further Adventures of an Amateur Botanist 222 XIV. Something or Other About Traditions 253 XV. In Which Cartaret Takes Part in the Revival of an Ancient Custom 273 XVI. And Last 300 OUT OF ASHES Paris as I knew her In the days ere this-- Paris, when I threw her Many a careless kiss-- Paris of my pleasure, Bright of eye and brow, Town of squandered treasure-- Where's that Paris now? Song had shunned her traces, Care was on her track: All my young girls' faces Pale in folds of black! Half the hearts were broken, All the mirth was fled; Scarce a vow was spoken, Save above the dead.... Oh, but there's a spirit Sorrow cannot kill! Even now I hear it Swear the great "I Will!" Paris, at your portal Taps the ancient truth, Laughing and immortal: Never-conquered Youth! R. W. K. THE AZURE ROSE CHAPTER I IN WHICH, IF NOT LOVE, AT LEAST ANGER, LAUGHS AT LOCKSMITHS Je ne connais point la nature des anges, parce que je ne suis qu'homme; il n'y a que les théologiens qui la connaissent.--Voltaire: _Dictionnaire Philosophique_. He did not know why he headed toward his own room--it could hold nothing that he guessed of to welcome him, except further tokens of the dejection and misery he carried in his heart--but thither he went, and, as he drew nearer, his step quickened. By the time that he entered the rue du Val de Grâce, he was moving at something close upon a run. He hurried up the rising stairs and into the dark hall, and, as he did so, was possessed by the sense that somebody had as hurriedly ascended just ahead of him. The door to his room was never locked, and now he flung it wide.