Chapter I: Front Matter

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THE GOLDEN ROAD

There is night and day, brother, both sweet things; sun,
moon, and stars, brother, all sweet things; there's likewise
a wind on the heath.

--GEORGE BORROW.

"_Good-night, dear Jean Francois," said she with gaiety._

"_May your dreams be of your beloved roads of Picardy."
She threw him an elfish kiss from her finger-tips and
hastened into her airy improvised bedroom._]

THE GOLDEN ROAD

by

FRANK WALLER ALLEN

Author of "Back to Arcady"

With Illustrations and Decorations by George Hood

New York Wessels & Bissell Co. 1910

Copyright, 1910, by Wessels & Bissell Co.

October

Entered at Stationers' Hall

All rights reserved

Premier Press New York

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I THE HAPPY PEDLER COMES TO TOWN 3

II THE JADE AND THE INQUISITION 13

III JEAN FRANCOIS' VAST POSSESSIONS 23

IV THE MISADVENTURE OF A CIRCUS 35

V TIMID CONQUEST COMES TO TOWN 48

VI THE JADE, A NONENTITY, BECOMES THE ILLUSTRIOUS NANCE 57

VII A PEDLER'S PACK OF DREAMS 68

VIII MONSIEUR L'ABBE PICOT OF THE BRAVE, OUTLANDISH HEART 74

IX THE CHILD IS FATHER TO THE MAN 86

X ON THE MORNING ROAD 97

XI THE SATISFACTORY EXPLANATION OF NANCE 107

XII A HEBE OF THE HIGHWAY 117

XIII THE NIGHT IN THE GREENWOOD 129

XIV VICARIOUS VAGABONDS 136

XV "IF I WERE MONSIEUR L'ABBE PICOT" 146

XVI HEBE'S FAREWELL TO PAN 155

XVII THE DAY OF FAITH 163

XVIII THE DAY OF DOUBT 171

XIX THE DAY OF LOST CONFIDENCE 176

XX MONSIEUR L'ABBE AT HOME 185

XXI "LITTLE ST. JACQUES OF THE STREET" 194

XXII MONSIEUR L'ABBE LIES ILL 201

XXIII "I WOULD TALK WITH SOME OLD LOVER'S GHOST, WHO
LIVED BEFORE THE GOD OF LOVE WAS BORN" 210

XXIV THE PRIEST AND FAUN 216

XXV MONSIEUR L'ABBE PICOT GOES UPON A JOURNEY 222

ILLUSTRATIONS

_She threw him an elfish kiss from her finger-tips and hastened
into her airy improvised bedroom._ (Page 135.) Frontispiece

_The Boy ceased his sobbing. After a while, looking up with a
tearful, smiling face, he announced, as if to the Voice that
had called him_: "_Now I must go to work._" Facing page 92

_A solitary man, standing on the hilltop, turned slowly from
mountain to valley, from sky to field, seeming to eat and
think and breathe--to make a part of him by some paganish
transubstantiation--the very day itself._ Facing page 98

PART FIRST

"'T WAS PAN HIMSELF HAD WANDERED HERE,
A-STROLLING THROUGH THE SORDID CITY,
AND PIPING TO THE CIVIC EAR
THE PRELUDE OF SOME PASTORAL DITTY!
THE DEMIGOD HAD CROSSED THE SEAS--
FROM HAUNTS OF SHEPHERD, NYMPH, AND SATYR,
AND SYRACUSAN TIMES--TO THESE
FAR SHORES...."

--_Edmund Clarence Stedman._

THE GOLDEN ROAD