XV.--COMETHUP PRACTISES DECEPTION 183 XVI.--COMETHUP IS SHADOWED 199 XVII.--THE BEGINNINGS OF A GENIUS 214 XVIII.--AUNT CHARLOTTE IS SYMPATHETIC 231 XIX.--GENIUS ASSERTS ITSELF 247 XX.--THE DESERTION OF A PARENT 262 XXI.--GENIUS AND THE DOMESTIC VIRTUES 276 XXII.--A SECOND DESERTION 286 XXIII.--COMETHUP DRIVES A BARGAIN 301 XXIV.--UNCLE ROBERT HAS AN INSPIRATION 311 XXV.--THE FALL OF PRINCE CHARMING 327 XXVI.--BRIAN PAYS HIS DEBTS 332 XXVII.--THE PLEADING OF THE CAPTAIN 351 XXVIII.--MEDMER MELTS A SILVER SPOON 361 XXIX.--COMETHUP LEARNS THE TRUTH 369 XXX.--AUNT CHARLOTTE ATTENDS A CELEBRATION 374 THE IDOL OF THE BLIND. CHAPTER I. COMETHUP ENTERS LIFE DISASTROUSLY. "My dear" had looked her last upon a troublesome world. She had taken life sighingly, in little frightened gasps, as it were, with the fear upon her, even from childhood, that unknown horrors lurked for her in each day to which she was awakened. It can scarcely be said that she had clung to life with any tenacity--rather with the instinct of living; and she had fluttered out of it resignedly enough, a little sorry, perhaps, that she had left any one behind to grieve for her. And yet, with the inconsistency which had marked her life, she had died at the very moment when life had actually begun to be worth living for her. "My dear" was one of those who wait long for the happiness, if any, that is to come to them, and find it a little tasteless when it is at last given to them. She had been the younger child of a stern and unbending man, who bent or broke to his code of rules those who were weak enough to be bent or broken, and thrust sternly aside those whose strength opposed itself to his. He had found in his little daughter one who smilingly and timidly obeyed in everything, and worshipped him without question--up to a certain point. That point was determined by the arrival of David Willis.