The Project Gutenberg EBook of Faith and Unfaith, by Duchess

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Title: Faith and Unfaith

Author: Duchess

Release Date: August 1, 2010 [EBook #33312]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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FAITH AND UNFAITH

A NOVEL

BY THE AUTHOR OF

"PHYLLIS," "MOLLY BAWN," "AIRY FAIRY LILLIAN," "BEAUTY'S
DAUGHTERS," "MRS. GEOFFREY," ETC.

"In Love, if Love be Love, if Love be ours,
Faith and unfaith can ne'er be equal powers:
Unfaith in aught is want of faith in all."--TENNYSON.

NEW YORK AND CHICAGO
BUTLER BROTHERS

TROW'S
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY,
NEW YORK.

FAITH AND UNFAITH.

CHAPTER I.

"A heap of dust alone remains of thee:
'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be!"--POPE.

In an upper chamber, through the closed blinds of which the sun is
vainly striving to enter, Reginald Branscombe, fifth Earl of Sartoris,
lies dead. The sheet is reverently drawn across the motionless limbs;
the once restless, now quiet, face is hidden; all around is wrapt in
solemn unutterable silence,--the silence that belongs to death alone!

A sense of oppressive calm is upon everything,--a feeling of
loneliness, vague and shadowy. The clock has ticked its last an hour
ago, and now stands useless in its place. The world without moves on
unheeding; the world within knows time no more! Death reigns
triumphant! Life sinks into insignificance!

Once, a little flickering golden ray, born of the hot sun outside,
flashes in through some unknown chink, and casts itself gleefully upon
the fair white linen of the bed. It trembles vivaciously now here, now
there, in uncontrollable joyousness, as though seeking in its gayety
to mock the grandeur of the King of Terrors! At least so it seems to