The Attic Guest: A Novel

by Robert E. Knowles

She asked that I would read her story; "and send it forth," said she, "if your heart approve."

Her plea for asking this service at my hands was that I had had some humble association with the world of letters. Mayhap she thought this pleased me well—and perhaps it did. I urged her to send her book forth with her own name upon it—but this she firmly refused. She shrank from the publicity it would involve, she said, as must any Southern lady. I believed her implicitly. "Especially," she went on—dwelling earnestly on this—"since my book is the frank and artless story of the most sacred things of life, of a woman's life at that. Some will smile," said she, "and some deride, and many disbelieve; but the story is the story of my inmost work and life and love. Let it see the light if you think it worthy."

I promised; and thus my promise is redeemed and my humble part is done.

ROBERT E. KNOWLES.
Galt, Ontario.

CONTENTS

I. [The Light Fantastic]
II. [Just Eighteen]
III. [The Bridge That Lay Between]
IV. [The Danger Zone]
V. [An Alternative]
VI. [The Glint of the Heather]
VII. ["The Glory of Their Strength"]
VIII. [Dealings with the Samaritans]
IX. [Love's Tutorship]
X. [The River Leading to the Sea]
XI. [A Mother Confessor]
XII. [The Wail of the Lowly]
XIII. [The Lynching]
XIV. [Girding on the Armour]
XV. ["Our Lady of the Snows"]
XVI. [A Knightly Guest]
XVII. [My Ordination]
XVIII. [The Dayspring from on High]
XIX. [The Taint of Heresy]
XX. [Harold's Sister—and Another]
XXI. ["Love's Old Sweet Song"]
XXII. [When Joy and Sorrow Meet]
XXIII. ["The Voice of Rachel"]
XXIV. ["Come, Ettrick; Yarrow, Come"]
XXV. [A Select Congregation]
XXVI. [The News a Broker Brought]
XXVII. [Where Gus Cast Anchor]
XXVIII. ["To Old Point Comfort, Dear"]
XXIX. [The Hour of Healing]
XXX. [Eden in the Attic]

THE ATTIC GUEST

I
THE LIGHT FANTASTIC

"That room in the third story is good enough for any elder," my mother was saying as I came into the library; "more than likely they'll send us a country elder anyhow, and he'll never know the difference—he'll think it's the spare room, I reckon."