The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Great Amulet, by Maud Diver

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Title: The Great Amulet

Author: Maud Diver

Release Date: December 31, 2006 [eBook #20238]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT AMULET***

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THE GREAT AMULET

by

MAUD DIVER

"Love is the greatest Amulet that makes this world a garden: and 'Hope
comes to all' outwears the accidents of life; and reaches with
tremulous hands beyond the grave and Death."

--R. L. S.

"Four things come not back to man or woman: the sped arrow; the spoken
word; the past life; and the neglected opportunity."

--Omar El Khuttub.

THE GREAT AMULET

by

MAUD DIVER

Author of "Captain Desmond, V.C."

Shilling Edition

William Blackwood and Sons
Edinburgh and London
MCMXV
All rights reserved

_THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO_

_TRIX FLEMING_

_IN MEMORY OF DALHOUSIE DAYS._

Let thy heart see that still the same
Burns early friendship's sacred flame,
The affinities have strongest part
In youth, to draw men heart to heart:
As life draws on, and finds no rest,
The individual in each breast
Is tyrannous to sunder them.

--Rossetti.

CONTENTS.

PROLOGUE

BOOK I.

AFTER FIVE YEARS

BOOK II.

JUST IMPEDIMENT

BOOK III.

THE TENTS OF ISHMAEL

BOOK IV.

THE VALLEY OF DECISION

THE GREAT AMULET.

PROLOGUE.

I.

"The little more, and how much it is!
The little less, and what worlds away."
--Browning.

No one in Zermatt dreamed that a wedding had been solemnised in the
English church on that September afternoon of the early eighties.
Tourists and townsfolk alike had been cheated of a legitimate thrill of
interest and speculation. Nor would even the most percipient have
recognised as bride and bridegroom the tall dark Englishman, in a rough
shooting suit, and the girl, in simple white travelling gear, who stood
together, an hour later, on the outskirts of the little town, and took
leave of their solitary wedding guest:--an artist _cap-a-pie_;
velveteen coat, loosely