The Right of Way — Complete
In a book called ‘The House of Harper’, published in this year, 1912, there are two letters of mine, concerning ‘The Right of Way’, written to Henry M. Alden, editor of Harper’s Magazine. To my mind those letters should never have been published. They were purely personal. They were intended for one man’s eyes only, and he was not merely an editor but a beloved and admired personal friend. Only to him and to W. E. Henley, as editors, could I ever have emptied out my heart and brain; and, as may be seen by these two letters, one written from London and the other from a place near Southampton, I uncovered all my feelings, my hopes and my ambitions concerning The Right of Way. Had I been asked permission to publish them I should not have granted it. I may wear my heart upon my sleeve for my friend, but not for the universe.
The most scathing thing ever said in literature was said by Robert Buchanan on Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s verses—“He has wheeled his nuptial bed into the street.” Looking at these letters I have a great shrinking, for they were meant only for the eyes of an aged man for whom I cared enough to let him see behind the curtain. But since they have been printed, and without a “by your leave,” I will use one or two passages in them to show in what mood, under what pressure of impulse, under what mental and, maybe, spiritual hypnotism it was written. I first planned it as a story of twenty-five thousand words, even as ‘Valmond’ was planned as a story of five thousand words, and ‘A Ladder of Swords’ as a story of twenty thousand words; but I had not written three chapters before I saw what the destiny of the tale was to be. I had gone to Quebec to start the thing in the atmosphere where Charley Steele belonged, and there it was borne in upon me that it must be a three-decker novel, not a novelette. I telegraphed to Harper & Brothers to ask them whether it would suit them just as well if I made it into a long novel. They telegraphed their assent at once; so I went on. At that time Mr. F. N. Doubleday was a sort of director of Harper’s firm. To him I had told the tale in a railway train, and he had carried me off at once to Henry M. Alden, to whom I also told it, with the result that Harper’s Magazine was wide open to it, and there in Quebec, soon after my interview with Mr. Alden and Mr. Doubleday, the book was begun.
Gilbert Parker
THE RIGHT OF WAY
INTRODUCTION
NOTE
THE RIGHT OF WAY
CHAPTER I. THE WAY TO THE VERDICT
CHAPTER II. WHAT CAME OF THE TRIAL
CHAPTER III. AFTER FIVE YEARS
CHAPTER IV. CHARLEY MAKES A DISCOVERY
CHAPTER V. THE WOMAN IN HELIOTROPE
CHAPTER VI. THE WIND AND THE SHORN LAMB
CHAPTER VII. “PEACE, PEACE, AND THERE IS NO PEACE”’
CHAPTER VIII. THE COST OF THE ORNAMENT
CHAPTER IX. OLD DEBTS FOR NEW
CHAPTER X. THE WAY IN AND THE WAY OUT
CHAPTER XI. THE RAISING OF THE CURTAIN
CHAPTER XII. THE COMING OF ROSALIE
CHAPTER XIII. HOW CHARLEY WENT ADVENTURING AND WHAT HE FOUND
CHAPTER XIV. ROSALIE, CHARLEY, AND THE MAN THE WIDOW PLOMONDON JILTED
CHAPTER XV. THE MARK IN THE PAPER
CHAPTER XVI. MADAME DAUPHIN HAS A MISSION
CHAPTER XVII. THE TAILOR MAKES A MIDNIGHT FORAY
CHAPTER XVIII. THE STEALING OF THE CROSS
CHAPTER XIX. THE SIGN FROM HEAVEN
CHAPTER XX. THE RETURN OF THE TAILOR
CHAPTER XXI. THE CURE HAS AN INSPIRATION
CHAPTER XXII. THE WOMAN WHO SAW
CHAPTER XXIII. THE WOMAN WHO DID NOT TELL.
CHAPTER XXIV. THE SEIGNEUR TAKES A HAND IN THE GAME
CHAPTER XXV. THE COLONEL TELLS HIS STORY
CHAPTER XXVI. A SONG, A BOTTLE, AND A GHOST
CHAPTER XXVII. OUT ON THE OLD TRAIL.
CHAPTER XXVIII. THE SEIGNEUR GIVES A WARNING
CHAPTER XXIX. THE WILD RIDE
CHAPTER XXX. ROSALIE WARNS CHARLEY
CHAPTER XXXI. CHARLEY STANDS AT BAY
CHAPTER XXXII. JO PORTUGAIS TELLS A STORY
CHAPTER XXXIII. THE EDGE OF LIFE
CHAPTER XXXIV. IN AMBUSH
CHAPTER XXXV. THE COMING OF MAXIMILIAN COUR AND ANOTHER
CHAPTER XXXVI. BARRIERS SWEPT AWAY
CHAPTER XXXVII. THE CHALLENGE OF PAULETTE DUBOIS
CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE CURE AND THE SEIGNEUR VISIT THE TAILOR
CHAPTER XXXIX. THE SCARLET WOMAN
CHAPTER XL. AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING
CHAPTER XLI. IT WAS MICHAELMAS DAY
CHAPTER XLII. A TRIAL AND A VERDICT
CHAPTER XLIII. JO PORTUGAIS TELLS A STORY
CHAPTER XLIV. “WHO WAS KATHLEEN?”
CHAPTER XLV. SIX MONTHS GO BY
CHAPTER XLVI. THE FORGOTTEN MAN
CHAPTER XLVII. ONE WAS TAKEN AND THE OTHER LEFT
CHAPTER XLVIII. “WHERE THE TREE OF LIFE IS BLOOMING—”
CHAPTER XLIX. THE OPEN GATE
CHAPTER L. THE PASSION PLAY AT CHAUDIERE
CHAPTER LI. FACE TO FACE
CHAPTER LII. THE COMING OF BILLY
CHAPTER LIII. THE SEIGNEUR AND THE CURE HAVE A SUSPICION
CHAPTER LIV. M. ROSSIGNOL SLIPS THE LEASH
CHAPTER LV. ROSALIE PLAYS A PART
CHAPTER LVI. MRS. FLYNN SPEAKS
CHAPTER LVII. A BURNING FIERY FURNACE
CHAPTER LVIII. WITH HIS BACK TO THE WALL.
CHAPTER LIX. IN WHICH CHARLEY MEETS A STRANGER
CHAPTER LX. THE HAND AT THE DOOR
CHAPTER LXI. THE CURE SPEAKS
EPILOGUE