![Light Novel -?=$public_r['add_site_name']?>](/static/content/img/logo.png){kind=logo}
The Drunkard Novel Chapters
List of most recent chapters published for the The Drunkard novel. A total of 76 chapters have been translated and the release date of the last chapter is Apr 02, 2024
Latest Release: Chapter 1 : The Drunkard.by Cyril Arthur Edward Ranger Gull.DEDICATION TO LOUIS TRACY, ESQUIRE _My D
The Drunkard.by Cyril Arthur Edward Ranger Gull.DEDICATION TO LOUIS TRACY, ESQUIRE _My Dear Louis_: It is more than a year ago now that I asked you to accept the dedication of this story. It was on an evening when I was staying with you at your Yorks.h.i.
- 1 The Drunkard.by Cyril Arthur Edward Ranger Gull.DEDICATION TO LOUIS TRACY, ESQUIRE _My Dear Louis_: It is more than a year ago now that I asked you to accept the dedication of this story. It was on an evening when I was staying with you at your Yorks.h.i.
- 2 PART II THE MURDERER "Ma femme est morte, je suis libre!Je puis donc boire tout mon sol.Lorsque je rentrais sans un sou, Ses cris me dechiraient la fibre."--_Baudelaire._ The rain had ceased but the night was bitter cold, as Dr. Morton Sims'
- 3 "So many of them become religious on the edge of the drop simply out of funk--nervous collapse and a sort of clutching at a chance in the next world. They often struggle and call out when they're being pinioned.It's impossible to give them
- 4 ... "Business was going well. There seemed no prospect of a child just then, so Mary got in with Church work at St. Philip's. That brought a lot more customers to the shop too. Fancy soaps, scents and toilette articles and all that. Dr. Mitch.e.
- 5 A cunning murderer with a poisoned mind and body on one side, the brilliant young poet in the sunlight of success and high approbation upon the other!Mystery of mysteries that G.o.d should allow so foul a thing to dominate and tangle the fair threads and
- 6 But his business in life was to sell books, and he permitted himself no experiments in failure. A writer--whether he produced good work or popular trash--must generally have his definite market and his more or less a.s.sured position, before Ince and Ambe
- 7 Mr. Amberley made a mock expression of horror."Good heavens!" he said, "what appalling revelations for a father to endure! I wish I had had an inkling of it at the time!""You couldn't have, Mr. Amberley," she answered, a
- 8 As far as Herbert Toftrees could remember--and his jealous memory was good--Lothian had always been rather small beer until a year or so back.And then "Surgit Amari"--the first book of poems had been published.In a single month Lothian had becom
- 9 "... I don't think," Lothian was saying with precision, and a certain high air which sat well upon him--"I don't think that you quite see it in all its bearings. There must be a rough and ready standard for ordinary work-a-day lif
- 10 Drip, drip, drip!--it was the sad, graceful prelude in which the fall of rain is supposed to be suggested, the hot steady rain of the Mediterranean which had fallen at Majorca ever so many years ago and was falling now in sound, though he that caught its
- 11 CHAPTER III SHAME IN "THE ROARING GALLANT TOWN"--"Is it for this I have given away Mine ancient wisdom and austere control?""'Tres volontiers' repart.i.t le demon. 'Vous aimez les tableaux changeants; je veux vous c
- 12 or "he drinks." Whether he or she says it with sympathetic sorrow, or abhorrence, the bald statement rarely leads to any further train of thought.It is very difficult for the ordinary person to realise that the mental processes are _sui generis_
- 13 Hot circles expanded and contracted within his head. His face became pale and very grave in expression, as he walked out into Leicester Square upon Paradil's supporting arm. There was a portentous dignity in his voice as he gave the address of his cl
- 14 His head was sunk forward upon his shoulders, his stomach seemed to protrude, his face was pale, blotchy, debauched, and appeared to be much larger than it ordinarily did.With a slow movement, as if every joint in his body creaked and gave him pain, he be
- 15 "Soon! Oh, soon! Dear Lord," she gasped, "I shall be with Thee for ever. If it seemeth good to Thee, let me be taken up on some such tranquil night as this. And I thank Thee, Dear Saviour, that Thou hast poured Thy Grace into the soul of Gi
- 16 Mrs. Snell often spoke to her husband about "Miss Rita." "If that there Hands could be got rid of," she would say, "then it would be ever so much better. Poor silly thing that he is, with his face like the underside of a Dover sol
- 17 But the husband and wife had heard of it the next day, as people concerned always do hear these things, and neither of them were likely to forget that their books had been called "as flat as champagne in decanters," their heroines "stuffy&q
- 18 Nothing whatever would jar. He was not in the mood to write home now--to compose details of his time in Town, to edit and alter the true record for the inspection of loving eyes."My darling!" he said to himself as he drank the second whiskey and
- 19 "Didn't you know?""How could I possibly?""No, you couldn't of course, but I never thought it of _you_.""Nor I of you," he answered. "I'll test you. 'The cow is in the garden.'"&quo
- 20 "And you like it?""It's heavenly! How good this soup is. But what a waste it seems to put all that ice round the champagne. Ice is so dreadfully expensive. You get hardly any for fourpence at our fishmongers."But it was the mayonn
- 21 "I ought to, but--I shouldn't!" she answered recklessly, and all his blood became fired.Yet at that, he leant back in his chair and laughed a frank laugh of amus.e.m.e.nt. The tension was over, the dangerous moment pa.s.sed, and soon afterw
- 22 There was an almost exaggerated briskness in Tumpany's walk and manner as he turned into the kitchen. Blanche, the housemaid, was now "doing"the dining-room, in the interior of the house, but Phoebe, the cook--a stalwart la.s.s of three and
- 23 --Who sings such Isabels to-day? It is Calypso of the magic island of whom the modern world loves to hear, and few poets sing Penelope faithful by the hearth any more.But when deep peace broods over a dwelling, it is from the Mary Lothians of England that
- 24 "No. There ain't no letter for you," said the Postman--a sly old crab-apple of a man who always knew far too much--"but what should you say," he dangled it before her as a sweetmeat before a child, "what should you say if as
- 25 "Delighted. It will be so jolly to have you in the village. I'm not there as much as I could wish, of course. My other work keeps me so much in London. But Medley, my colleague, is an excellent fellow. He'll look after you in every way.&quo
- 26 The great man smiled inwardly.It did really seem extraordinary to him that a cultured professional man of this day should actually know nothing of his hopes, aims and propaganda. And then, ever on the watch for traces of egoism and vain-glory in himself,
- 27 "I know all that you mean," he said. "I don't agree with you in the least, but I appreciate your point of view. But let me keep myself out of the discussion for a moment. I am not what you would probably be prepared to call a professin
- 28 Horrible! Why was it possible that men might poison themselves so?Would all the efforts of himself and his friends ever make such monstrous happenings cease? Oh, that it might be so!They were breaking up stubborn land. The churches were against them, but
- 29 "No, sir. The cob only stumbled. But master was sitting loose like. He fell out like a log, sir. He made a noise like a piece of luggage falling.""Oh! Did he fall on his head?""Yessir. But he had a stiff felt hat on. I got help an
- 30 "Yes," she said, "Tumpany is a good fellow at heart. And, like most people who drink, when he is himself he is a quite delightful person."She went out into the hall, tall and beautiful, the jewels in her hair and on her hands sparkling
- 31 For three days Lothian had had nothing to drink but a gla.s.s of Burgundy at lunch and dinner. Lying in bed, perfectly tranquil, calling upon no physical resources, the sense of nerve-rest within him was grateful and profound.But the inebriate lives almos
- 32 "Don't I, oh, don't I, by Jove! Now tell me. What were you using?""Well, sir, I thought I would fire at nothing but duck on the first day. Just to christen the day, sir. So I used five and a half and smokeless diamond. Your cartri
- 33 A great doctor must think more rapidly than a general upon the field of battle; as quickly indeed as one who faces a deadly antagonist with the naked foil. There was one way in which to treat this man. He must tell him more about the psychology--and even
- 34 She would do the right thing, the kind and wise thing, but the certain, the predicted thing. She lived from a great depth of being and peace personified was hers, the peace of G.o.d indeed!--but-- "She has no changes, no surprises," he thought,
- 35 Gilbert was sitting up in bed. Upon his raised knees a pad of white paper was resting. In his hand was a stylographic pen of red vulcanite, and a third of the page was covered with small delicate writing.His face was flushed but quite motionless. His whol
- 36 With trembling hands the empty bottle was hidden, the gla.s.s washed out and replaced, the door noiselessly unlocked.Then Lothian lurched to the open window.It was as he had said, dawn was at hand. But a thick grey mist hid everything. Phantoms seemed to
- 37 In his heart of hearts the boy knew himself for what he was. But his good looks, his youth--most valuable a.s.set of all!--and the fact that he would some day have some sort of settled position, enabled him to rub along pretty well for the time.Without mu
- 38 But the wives knew all about such places as the George.It is upon the women that the burden falls, gentle or simple, nearly always the women.Mrs. Gaunt, the naval officer's wife, knew very well why her husband had never got his s.h.i.+p, and why he &
- 39 Tears of mortified vanity were in the young man's eyes."She's been writing to you!" he said with a catch in his voice, and suddenly his whole face seemed to change and dissolve into something else.Did the lips really grow thicker? Did
- 40 There was a time when the Holy Mysteries brought him a joy which was priceless and unutterable.Yes! when he knelt at the Ma.s.s with Mary by his side, he had felt the breath of Paradise upon his brow. Emptied of all earthly things his soul had entered int
- 41 A woman was sitting upon a plush-covered bench by the wall. She was a dark gipsy looking creature, coa.r.s.ely handsome and of an opulent figure. She stood up as Helzephron came out into the hall, and there seemed to be a suggestion of great boldness and
- 42 "At once. They start in four days. I shall have to go up to town by the first train to-morrow.""I'm sorry, but of course, if you must" ..."Oh, I must," Ingworth said importantly. "I have to see Ommany to-morrow nigh
- 43 Mary hesitated for a second, and then she shook her head."I shall manage quite well by myself," she said. "It will be better so.I'm quite used to travelling alone as you know. And the journey to Nice is nothing. I shall be in one carri
- 44 CHAPTER I THE GIRLS IN THE FOURTH STORY FLAT "We were two daughters of one race; She was the fairest in the face;"--_Tennyson._ In the sitting room of a small forty-five pound flat, upon the fourth floor of a tall red-brick building in West Kens
- 45 She was perfectly right. If Rita had been in society or on the stage she probably would have married a peer--not a Duke though, that was Ethel's inexperience. There are so few dukes that they have not the same liberty of action as other n.o.blemen. T
- 46 Gilbert and Rita said hardly anything to each other as the motor-cab drove them to the restaurant where they were to dine.There was a sort of constraint between them. It was not awkwardness, it was not shyness. Nevertheless, they had little to say to each
- 47 The poet shuddered as he caught that evil glance, and then, listening anew to Rita's joyous confidences, he became painfully aware of the brute that is in every man, in himself too, though as yet he had never allowed it to be clamant.The happy girl w
- 48 Few men would have chosen their present wives if they had met--let us a.s.sume--fifty other women before they married. And when the ordinary, normal, decent man meets a woman better, clever, more desirable than the one he has, it is perfectly natural that
- 49 He made an excuse about cigarettes, and chocolates for her, and left the box, hurrying to the little bar in the promenade, drinking there almost furiously, tasting nothing, waiting, a strange silent figure with a white face, until he felt the old glow re-
- 50 She had let him give her a box of gloves, flowers she could not have enough of, the more costly the amus.e.m.e.nt of the night the better she seemed to like it. But that was all.In his madness, his poisoned madness, he would have sold his house to give he
- 51 Gilbert Lothian had come to her as the most wonderful personality she had ever known. His letters were things that any girl in the world might be proud of receiving. He was giving her, now, a time which, upon each separate evening, was to her like a page
- 52 He read it now without the slightest interest.He glanced at the _Times_. Many important things were happening at home and abroad, but he gazed at all the news with a lack-l.u.s.tre eye.Usually a keen and sympathetic observer of what went on in the world,
- 53 Gilbert glanced at the catalogue. "He was fervently pious, a faithful husband, a fond parent, a kind master, and an enthusiastic lover and patron of the fine arts.""How familiar that sort of stuff sounds," she answered. "It's
- 54 But even as the exaltation of the thought animated him, the dominant false Ego, crushed momentarily by heavenly inspiration, growled and fought for life.Immediately the longing for alcohol burned within him. They had been nearly an hour among the figures.
- 55 The interlude pleased the tired, jaded minds of the sad companions, and it was with some fict.i.tious reconstruction of past gaiety and animation that they drove to St. Pancras.The train was in.Gilbert's dressing-case was already placed in a first-cl
- 56 Outside one of the cafes, as the carriage turned to the station, some Italians were singing "_O Soli Mio_" to the accompaniment of guitars and a harp, with mellow, pa.s.sionate voices.The long green train rolled into the gla.s.s-roofed station,
- 57 "'The reference to agencies for the uplifting of the drink-victim would be sadly incomplete without a very definite acknowledgment of the incalculable a.s.sistance which the wise worker and unprejudiced physician may obtain by bringing to bear upon the
- 58 The above pa.s.sage must have been re-read some time after it was written and been the _raison d'etre_ of what follows. The various pa.s.sages are only occasionally dated, but their chronological order can be determined with some certainty by these few d
- 59 Another, and very favourite set of pictures, is the one in which I receive the two millions from Mr. Rockefeller--or whoever he is--and immediately make a public renunciation of it. With wise fore-thought I found great pensions for underpaid clergy. I ina
- 60 Two letters are cloudy, the others sharp and clear.The word is "Rita."A little lower down, and now right at the bottom of the page, the word is repeated again in large tremulous handwriting, three times. "Rita, Rita, Rita!"The last "Rita" sprawls an
- 61 "Mr. d.i.c.kson Ingworth has called, sir," said Smithers."Ask him to come in," Toftrees said in his deep voice, and with a glint of interest in his eye.Young d.i.c.kson Ingworth had been back from his journalistic mission to Italy for two or three wee
- 62 "Suppose any harm were to come to her," Ingworth continued with something very like a break in his voice. "She's quite alone and unprotected. She is the daughter of a man who was in the Navy, and now she has to earn her own living as an a.s.sistant li
- 63 And now, too, Gilbert's voice had become smooth and level. The quick and pleasant vibration of it at its best, the uneasy rise and fall of it at its worst, had alike given place to a suave, creamy monotone which didn't seem natural.The face, also, enlar
- 64 Let into the wall at the end of the room--opposite to the big Tudor window--was the gla.s.s-fronted cupboard in which the guns were kept. The black-blue barrels gleamed in rows, the polished stocks caught the light from the candles upon the mantel-shelf.
- 65 There were sharp p.r.i.c.king pains in his knees and ankles. Hot sweat clotted his clothes to his body and rained down his face. But he was unaware of this. His alarming physical condition was as nothing.He went on through the dark, hurriedly, like a man
- 66 On all sides were long deal tables covered with a multiplicity of unusual objects.Under a big bell of gla.s.s, popped over it to keep the dust away, was a large microscope of intricate mechanism. Close by was a section-cutter that could almost make a pari
- 67 The step he hears is like no step he knows. Perhaps, who can say? the dim, untutored mind discerns dimly something wicked, inimical and hostile approaching the house.So The Dog Trust howls, stands for a moment upon his cold concrete sniffing the night air
- 68 A dreamy smile played over his lips. His eyes--not quite so bloodshot this morning--were drowsed with quiet thought.As he was about to descend the stairs he turned and glanced towards a closed door at the end of the pa.s.sage.It was the door of Mary'
- 69 Wog pulled herself together. She had lost her darling, brilliant, flas.h.i.+ng Rita. _That was that!_ She must reconstruct her life and press forward without regrets. Life had opened out for her, after all.But now, at this immediate moment, there was a ne
- 70 Underneath the heavy fur coat, the man's body was absolutely rippling up and down--it was horrible.The eyelids fell again. The voice became sleepy, childish almost.... "But _I_ have come to marry Rita!"Wog became indignant. "Mr. Lothia
- 71 EPILOGUE A Year Later "A broken and a contrite heart, O Lord, Thou wilt not despise."WHAT OCCURRED AT THE EDWARD HALL IN KINGSWAY "Ah! happy they whose hearts can break And peace of pardon win!How else may man make straight his plan And cle
- 72 Morton Sims took her two hands and held them, his face alight with pleasure and greeting."This is good," he said fervently. "I have waited for this hour. I cannot say how glad I am to see you, Julia. You have heard from Edith?""Th
- 73 Father Joseph Edward was a hidden force in the Church or England. He was a peer's son who had flashed out at Oxford, fifteen years before, as one of the cleverest, wildest, most brilliant and devil-may-care undergraduates who had ever been at "T
- 74 The Judge gave a keen glance at his friend and nodded.The Bishop in the Chair now read a few brief statements as to the progress of the work that was being done. Lady Harold Buckingham was down to speak next. She sat on the Bishop's left hand, and it
- 75 "My lord,--" he turned to the Bishop with the very slightest inclination of his head--"ladies and gentlemen, I killed my wife."My wife--" The Bishop had risen from his chair and Father Joseph Edward was supporting the swaying figure with the pale, ea
- 76 "As you will," she said, "and as you wish. I think he would prefer death. But if he is to endure a longer punishment, that also will bring him nearer, and nearer, and nearer to his Mary."……