The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Torch Bearer, by Reina Melcher Marquis

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Title: The Torch Bearer

Author: Reina Melcher Marquis

Release Date: May 16, 2010 [EBook #32394]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TORCH BEARER ***

Produced by Al Haines

THE TORCH BEARER

BY

REINA MELCHER MARQUIS

NEW YORK AND LONDON

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

1914

COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

Printed in the United States of America

TO

MY HUSBAND

FOR WITHOUT HIS HEARTENING FAITH IN MY
WORK, HIS GENEROUS SYMPATHY WITH IT,
AND HIS DISCERNING CRITICISM OF IT, THIS
BOOK WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN WRITTEN.

THE TORCH BEARER

CHAPTER I

Peter Burnett stood on the top-most of the broad white steps leading to
the "Shadyville Seminary for Young Ladies." He had just closed the
door of that sacred institution behind him, and with a sigh of relief
which was incompatible with the honors of his professorship. But Peter
had never duly valued his position of instructor to Shadyville's
feminine youth, though his reverence for scholarship was deep and
sincere.

It was Friday afternoon, and freed from the chrysalis of his
bread-winning duties, he was about to spread his wings for the flight
of his inclination. He looked out on the April greenery of the town
with the fastidious gaze of one who has the world to choose from; for
though he was a poor young school-master, clad in a shirt that had been
darned too often, he was also a Burnett of Kentucky and born to a
manner of leisure and arrogance.

Slowly, and with this manner at its best, he began to descend the
steps. His whole lax figure assumed an air of indolence that, for all
his lack of imposing proportions, subtly invested him with distinction,
and he set a dallying, aristocratic foot upon the quiet street. In
that descent he triumphed over the mended shirt--and forgot it.

From Friday afternoon until Monday morning--the brief interval when
little girls are reprieved from lessons--he had indeed the world to
choose from; or, to be accurate, the social world of Shadyville, of
Kent