[Cover Illustration] THE HOUSE OF BALTAZAR _=BY THE SAME AUTHOR=_ IDOLS JAFFERY VIVIETTE SEPTIMUS DERELICTS THE USURPER STELLA MARIS WHERE LOVE IS THE ROUGH ROAD THE RED PLANET THE WHITE DOVE FAR-AWAY STORIES SIMON THE JESTER A STUDY IN SHADOWS A CHRISTMAS MYSTERY THE WONDERFUL YEAR THE FORTUNATE YOUTH THE BELOVÈD VAGABOND AT THE GATE OF SAMARIA THE GLORY OF CLEMENTINA THE MORALS OF MARCUS ORDEYNE THE DEMAGOGUE AND LADY PHAYRE THE JOYOUS ADVENTURES OF ARISTIDE PUJOL THE HOUSE OF BALTAZAR BY WILLIAM J. LOCKE AUTHOR OF “THE ROUGH ROAD,” “THE RED PLANET,” “THE WONDERFUL YEAR,” “THE BELOVÈD VAGABOND,” ETC. NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD TORONTO: THE RYERSON PRESS MCMXX COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE COMPANY ———— COPYRIGHT, 1920 BY JOHN LANE COMPANY T H E • PLIMPTON • PRESS NORWOOD • MASS • U•S•A THE HOUSE OF BALTAZAR THE HOUSE OF BALTAZAR CHAPTER I THE early story of Baltazar is not the easiest one to tell. It is episodic. It obeys not the Unities of Time, Place and Action. The only unity to be found in it is the oneness of character in that absurd and accomplished man. The fact of his being lustily alive at the present moment does not matter. To get him in perspective, one must regard him as belonging to the past. Now the past is a relative conception. Save to the academic student of History, Charlemagne is as remote as Sesostris. To the world emerging from the stupor of the great war, Mons is as distant as Balaclava. Time is really reckoned by the heart-throbs of individuals or nations. Yester-year is infinitely far away. . . .