Shams (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III He sat on there, the dusk gathering about him, the cool touch of the night air upon his brow. His thoughts went back to boyhood, then leapt a space of time and saw? youth. Passionate, intense, soul-strung with lofty ideals, perfumed by the incense of Fame. His dream had always been that of swaying human souls to wonder and applause. For that he had worked and studied; for that he had left home and country to find in the great world of Art what they had denied, and it had all ended in this. Ruin and starvation staring him in the face, and a woman's mocking taunts throwing open to his gaze the temptations of unguessed- at sins, for which his own success would be the price demanded. Those words haunted him. ' The price of self-respect.' as Was it true? How could she tell? What could she possibly know of this man except by hearsay ? She had not mentioned his name, only labelled him for ever in Shane O'Connor's memory as the influence and personality he so sorely needed at this juncture. ' There lies the key to your fortune,' she had said mockingly. But how was he to get possession of the key? Poor, obscure, unknown, how could he force his way into this man's presence, or even ask a hearing from him ? Yet something he must do. Affairs were so desperate that he could no longer guide his actions on conventional lines. He looked at the thronged streets; he listened to the roll of carriages carrying the great world of pleasure to its varied haunts. He thought of the power of gold, the beauty and delight, the comfort and enjoyments it purchased. His whole nature craved for beauty and things of beauty; and here he was shabby, poor, and hungry, denied all these good things of life by a hard Fate. He rose abruptly. There was a new look in his ...