The Project Gutenberg EBook of Chance, by Joseph Conrad

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Title: Chance
A Tale in Two Parts

Author: Joseph Conrad

Release Date: November 16, 2007 [EBook #23506]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHANCE ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

Chance, A Tale in Two Parts, by Joseph Conrad.

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Although this story is written in fairly simple language it is strangely
difficult to follow. The setting is that of one man, an old ship's
officer, telling another of the same a long story. The language slides
between the two men, lighting pipes, making and answering comments, and
so forth, and then back into the detail of the story, and sometimes
deeper still, into conversations that take place in the story.

This has its effect on the use of quotation signs. This is the hardest
part of this book to edit. There are rules involving the use of these
signs, and most books obey them all the way through, but in this book
either the author was being experimental, or the typesetter was a bit
confused. Because of the sliding in and out of the depth of the story,
the quotes rules often vary from one paragraph to the next. What we
have done is to make the quotes rules hold true for each individual
paragraph right through the book, and as far as possible we have made
the rules consistent from paragraph to paragraph. This is the second
time that we have scanned the same copy of this book, and we just hope
that we have made a good job of it.

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CHANCE, A TALE IN TWO PARTS, BY JOSEPH CONRAD.

PART ONE, CHAPTER 1.

YOUNG POWELL AND HIS CHANCE.

I believe he had seen us out of the window coming off to dine in the
dinghy of a fourteen-ton yawl belonging to Marlow my host and skipper.
We helped the boy we had with us to haul the boat up on the
landing-stage before we went up to the riverside inn, where we found our
new acquaintance eating his dinner in dignified loneliness at the head
of a long table, white and inhospitable like a snow bank.

The