Produced by Mark C. Orton, Emmy and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) THE LITTLE SCHOOLMASTER MARK [Illustration] THE LITTLE SCHOOLMASTER MARK A Spiritual Romance BY J. H. SHORTHOUSE AUTHOR OF 'JOHN INGLESANT' London MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK 1894 _Part I--First Edition, October 1883. Reprinted December 1883_ _Part II--First Edition, 1884. Reprinted twice February 1885_ _Complete Edition made up from parts 1885. Reprinted 1891, 1894_ _Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, _Edinburgh._ PREFACE. THE readers of German autobiography (and more delightful reading cannot be had) will perceive that I have made use of some passages in the childhood of Heinrich Jung-Stilling to create the character of Little Mark. The experience of the Princess as to private religious societies was also that of Stilling. Should this little tale induce any one, at present ignorant of Stilling's Autobiography, to read that book, they will forget any grudge they may have formed against the present writer. As a matter of common honesty I should wish to express the pleasure I have had in reading another delightful book, _Studies of the Eighteenth Century in Italy_, by Vernon Lee. The words of the anthem in the concluding chapter are taken from a sermon by Canon Knox Little, "The Vision of the Truth," preached in St. Paul's in Lent 1883, and published in _The Witness of the Passion_. They are so exactly in accord with the message which the shadowy beings of my tale seem to have left me that I cannot force myself to coin another phrase. J. H. S. TO Lady Alwyne Compton BY PERMISSION THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED THE LITTLE SCHOOLMASTER MARK. A Spiritual Romance. PART FIRST. I.