Produced by Michael Pullen and Tom Gannett. HTML version by Al Haines. The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne Table of Contents I. OLD MOODIE II. BLITHEDALE III. A KNOT OF DREAMERS IV. THE SUPPER-TABLE V. UNTIL BEDTIME VI. COVERDALE'S SICK CHAMBER VII. THE CONVALESCENT VIII. A MODERN ARCADIA IX. HOLLINGSWORTH, ZENOBIA, PRISCILLA X. A VISITOR FROM TOWN XI. THE WOOD-PATH XII. COVERDALE'S HERMITAGE XIII. ZENOBIA'S LEGEND XIV. ELIOT'S PULPIT XV. A CRISIS XVI. LEAVE-TAKINGS XVII. THE HOTEL XVIII. THE BOARDING-HOUSE XIX. ZENOBIA'S DRAWING-ROOM XX. THEY VANISH XXI. AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE XXII. FAUNTLEROY XXIII. A VILLAGE HALL XXIV. THE MASQUERADERS XXV. THE THREE TOGETHER XXVI. ZENOBIA AND COVERDALE XXVII. MIDNIGHT XXVIII. BLITHEDALE PASTURE XXIX. MILES COVERDALE'S CONFESSION I. OLD MOODIE The evening before my departure for Blithedale, I was returning to my bachelor apartments, after attending the wonderful exhibition of the Veiled Lady, when an elderly man of rather shabby appearance met me in an obscure part of the street. "Mr. Coverdale," said he softly, "can I speak with you a moment?" As I have casually alluded to the Veiled Lady, it may not be amiss to mention, for the benefit of such of my readers as are unacquainted with her now forgotten celebrity, that she was a phenomenon in the mesmeric line; one of the earliest that had indicated the birth of a new science, or the revival of an old humbug. Since those times her sisterhood have grown too numerous to attract much individual notice; nor, in fact, has any one of them come before the public under such skilfully contrived circumstances of stage effect as those which at once mystified and illuminated the remarkable performances of the lady in question. Nowadays, in the management of his "subject," "clairvoyant," or "medium," the exhibitor affects the simplicity and openness of scientific experiment; and even if he profess to tread a step or two across the boundaries of the spiritual world, yet carries with him the laws of our actual life and extends them over his preternatural conquests. Twelve or fifteen years ago, on the contrary, all the arts of mysterious arrangement, of picturesque disposition, and artistically contrasted light and shade, were made available, in order to set the apparent miracle in the strongest attitude of opposition to ordinary facts. In the case of the Veiled Lady, moreover, the interest of the spectator was further wrought up by the enigma of her identity, and an absurd rumor (probably set afloat by the exhibitor, and at one time very prevalent) that a beautiful young lady, of family and fortune, was enshrouded within the misty drapery of the veil. It was white, with somewhat of a subdued silver sheen, like the sunny side of a cloud; and, falling over the wearer from head to foot, was supposed