Chapter I: Front Matter

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Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.)

THE ANCIENT LAW

BY

THE SAME AUTHOR

THE WHEEL OF LIFE
THE DELIVERANCE
THE BATTLE-GROUND
THE FREEMAN, AND OTHER POEMS
THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
PHASES OF AN INFERIOR PLANET
THE DESCENDANT

The Ancient Law

By

ELLEN GLASGOW

New York Doubleday, Page & Company 1908

COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY PUBLISHED, JANUARY, 1908

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN

TO MY GOOD FRIEND EFFENDI

CONTENTS

BOOK FIRST--THE NEW LIFE

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Road 3

II. The Night 15

III. The Return to Tappahannock 31

IV. The Dream of Daniel Smith 42

V. At Tappahannock 54

VI. The Pretty Daughter of the Mayor 62

VII. Shows the Graces of Adversity 72

VIII. "Ten Commandment Smith" 90

IX. The Old and the New 101

X. His Neighbour's Garden 111

XI. Bullfinch's Hollow 123

XII. A String of Coral 135

BOOK SECOND--THE DAY OF RECKONING

I. In Which a Stranger Appears 147

II. Ordway Compromises With the Past 162

III. A Change of Lodging 174

IV. Shows That a Laugh Does not Heal a Heartache 185

V. Treats of a Great Passion in a Simple Soul 196

VI. In Which Baxter Plots 209

VII. Shows That Politeness, Like Charity, Is an Elastic Mantle 222

VIII. The Turn of the Wheel 234

IX. At the Cross-roads 248

X. Between Man and Man 256

XI. Between Man and Woman 268

BOOK THIRD--THE LARGER PRISON

I. The Return to Life 281

II. His Own Place 290

III. The Outward Pattern 303

IV. The Letter and the Spirit 317

V. The Will of Alice 329

VI. The Iron Bars 341

VII. The Vision and the Fact 353

VIII. The Weakness in Strength 363

BOOK FOURTH--LIBERATION

I. The Inward Light 379

II. At Tappahannock Again 392

III. Alice's Marriage 409

IV. The Power of the Blood 420

V. The House of Dreams 434

VI. The Ultimate Choice 443

VII. Flight 454

VIII. The End of the Road 469

IX. The Light Beyond 482

BOOK FIRST

THE NEW LIFE