The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Upas Tree, by Florence L. Barclay

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Title: The Upas Tree
A Christmas Story for all the Year

Author: Florence L. Barclay

Release Date: August 6, 2005 [EBook #16454]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE UPAS TREE ***

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[Illustration: "That figure was not his own."

From a drawing by F.H. Townsend. (_page 202_)]

The Upas Tree

_A Christmas Story for all the Year_

By

Florence L. Barclay

_Author of "The Rosary," etc_

G.P. Putnam's Sons

New York and London

The Knickerbocker Press

1912

COPYRIGHT, 1912

BY

FLORENCE L. BARCLAY

The Knickerbocker Press, New York

To

V.C.B.

53-22146 CONTENTS

PART I

CHAPTER PAGE

I.--WHICH SHALL SPEAK FIRST? 13

II.--THE SOB OF THE WOMAN 29

III.--HELEN TAKES THE INITIATIVE 40

IV.--FIRELIGHT IN THE STUDIO 44

PART II

V.--THE INFANT OF PRAGUE 67

VI.--AUBREY PUTS DOWN HIS FOOT 97

VII.--A FRIEND IN NEED 113

VIII.--PARADISE LOST 129

IX.--THE PINNACLE OF THE TEMPLE 137

PART III

X.--RONNIE ARRIVES IN A FOG 149

XI.--THE MIRAGE 160

XII.--A FRIEND IN DEED 174

XIII.--RONNIE FACES THE UPAS 192

XIV.--AS IN A MIRROR 200

PART IV

XV.--"THE FOG LIFTS" 209

XVI.--"HE _MUST_ REMEMBER" 223

XVII.--"HE NEVER KNEW!" 246

XVIII.--THE FACE IN THE MIRROR 258

XIX.--UNTO US A CHILD IS BORN 271

XX.--GOOD-NIGHT TO THE INFANT OF
PRAGUE 283

Part I CHAPTER I

WHICH SHALL SPEAK FIRST?

Ronald West stood at the window of his wife's sitting-room, looking
across the bright garden-borders to the wide park beyond, and wondering
how on earth he should open the subject of which his mind had been full
during their morning