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Title: The Tyranny of Weakness

Author: Charles Neville Buck

Illustrator: Paul Stahr

Release Date: June 6, 2007 [EBook #21689]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE TYRANNY OF WEAKNESS

BY

CHARLES NEVILLE BUCK

AUTHOR OF

"THE CALL OF THE CUMBERLANDS,"
"DESTINY," Etc.

Frontispiece by
PAUL STAHR

[Illustration: Publisher's logo]

NEW YORK
W. J. WATT & COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

[Illustration: Stuart was a memory and she was trying very hard to make
him even less than that]

COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY
W. J. WATT & COMPANY

_OTHER BOOKS BY_ CHARLES NEVILLE BUCK

THE KEY TO YESTERDAY
THE LIGHTED MATCH
THE PORTAL OF DREAMS
THE CALL OF THE CUMBERLANDS
THE BATTLE CRY
THE CODE OF THE MOUNTAINS
DESTINY

PRESS OF
BRAUNWORTH & CO.
BOOK MANUFACTURERS
BROOKLYN. N. Y.

THE TYRANNY OF WEAKNESS

CHAPTER I

They were types in embryo, but of course they did not know it. No more
would a grain of wheat and a poppy seed dropping side-by-side in a
fallow place reflect upon their destinies, though one might typify a
working world's dependence for bread; the other a dreaming world's
reliance for opium.

They were a boy and a girl stepping artlessly into the wide chances of a
brand-new and vastly interesting adolescence. Just now her young eyes
were provocative with the starry light of mischief. His were smoldering
darkly under her badgering because his pride had been touched to the
quick. His forefathers had been gentlemen in England before they were
gentlemen in the Valley of Virginia and his heritage of knightly blood
must not be made a subject of levity. But the girl reflected only that
when his dark eyes blazed and his cheeks colored with that dammed-up
fury she found him a more diverting vassal than in calmer and duller
moods. A zo