The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Colossus, by Opie Read

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Title: The Colossus
A Novel

Author: Opie Read

Release Date: February 15, 2005 [EBook #15073]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE COLOSSUS

A NOVEL
BY
OPIE READ

Author of "The Carpetbagger," "Old Ebenezer," "The Jucklins," "My
Young Master," "On The Suwanee River," "A Kentucky Colonel," "Emmett
Bonlore," "A Tennessee Judge," "The Wives of the Prophet," "Len
Gansett," "The Tear in the Cup and Other Stories".

CHICAGO
LAIRD & LEE, PUBLISHERS
1893.

[Illustration]

CONTENTS.

Chapter.

I. LOOKING BACK AT EARLY LIFE
II. A SLEEPY VILLAGE AND A FUSSY OLD MAN
III. ALL WAS DARKNESS
IV. A STRANGE REQUEST
V. DISSECTING A MOTIVE
VI. WAITING AT THE STATION
VII. A MOTHER'S AFFECTION
VIII. THE DOMAIN OF A GREAT MERCHANT
IX. THE INTERVIEWERS
X. ROMPED WITH THE GIRL
XI. ACKNOWLEDGED BY SOCIETY
XII. A DEMOCRACY
XIII. BUTTING AGAINST A WALL
XIV. A DIFFERENT HANDWRITING
XV. TOLD HIM HER STORY
XVI. AN AROUSER OF THE SLEEPY
XVII. AN OLD MAN WOULD INVEST
XVIII. THE INVESTMENT
XIX. ARRESTED EVERYWHERE
XX. CRIED A SENSATION
XXI. A HELPLESS OLD WOMAN
XXII. TO GO ON A VISIT
XXIII. HENRY'S INCONSISTENCY
XXIV. WORE A ROSE ON HIS COAT
XXV. IMPATIENTLY WAITING
XXVI. TOLD IT ALL
XXVII. POINTS OUT HER BROTHER'S DUTY
XXVIII. THE VERDICT
XXIX. A DAY OF REST
XXX. A MOTHER'S REQUEST
XXXI. A MOMENT OF ARROGANCE
XXXII. A MOST PECULIAR FELLOW
XXXIII. THE TIME WAS DRAWING NEAR
XXXIV. TOLD HIM A STORY
XXXV. CONCLUSION

CHAPTER I.

LOOKING BACK AT EARLY LIFE.

When the slow years of youth were gone and the hastening time of
manhood had come, the first thing that Henry DeGolyer, looking back,
could call from a mysterious darkness into the dawn of memory was that
he awoke one night in the cold arms of his dead mother. That was in
New Orleans. The boy's father had aspired to put the face of man upo