The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dawn, by H. Rider Haggard

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Title: Dawn

Author: H. Rider Haggard

Release Date: January 31, 2004 [EBook #10892]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAWN ***

Produced by John Bickers and Dagny

DAWN

BY

H. RIDER HAGGARD

1884

"Our natures languish incomplete;
Something obtuse in this our star
Shackles the spirit's winged feet;
But a glory moves us from afar,
And we know that we are strong and fleet."
Edmund Ollier.

"Once more I behold the face of her
Whose actions all had the character
Of an inexpressible charm, expressed;
Whose movements flowed from a centre of rest,
And whose rest was that of a swallow, rife
With the instinct of reposing life;
Whose mirth had a sadness all the while
It sparkled and laughed, and whose sadness lay
In the heaven of such a crystal smile
That you longed to travel the self-same way
To the brightness of sorrow. For round her breathed
A grace like that of the general air,
Which softens the sharp extremes of things,
And connects by its subtle, invisible stair
The lowest and the highest. She interwreathed
Her mortal obscureness with so much light
Of the world unrisen, that angel's wings
Could hardly have given her greater right
To float in the winds of the Infinity."
Edmund Ollier.

DAWN

CHAPTER I

"You lie; you always were a liar, and you always will be a liar. You
told my father how I spent the money."

"Well, and what if I did? I had to look after myself, I suppose. You
forget that I am only here on sufferance, whilst you are the son of
the house. It does not matter to you, but he would ha