The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Purple Heights, by Marie Conway Oemler

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Title: The Purple Heights

Author: Marie Conway Oemler

Release Date: June 12, 2004 [EBook #12596]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: "We have met"]

THE PURPLE HEIGHTS

By

MARIE CONWAY OEMLER

Author of "Slippy McGee." "A Woman
Named Smith," etc.

NEW YORK
1920

_To_

JOHN NORTON OEMLER
FROM THE LADY
HIS SON USED TO CALL
"MRS. DADDY"

CONTENTS

CHAPTER
I THE RED ADMIRAL
II THE PROMISE
III AT GRIPS WITH LIFE
IV THE SOUL OF BLACK FOLKS
V THE PURPLE HEIGHTS
VI GOOD MORNING, GOOD LUCK!
VII WHERE THE ROAD DIVIDED
VIII CINDERELLA
IX PRICE-TAGS
X THE DEAR DAM-FOOL
XI HIS GRANDMOTHER'S HOUSE
XII "NOT BY BREAD ALONE"
XIII THE BRIGHT SHADOW
XIV SWAN FEATHERS
XV "I, TOO, IN ARCADIA"
XVI THE OTHER MAN
XVII THE GUTTER-CANDLE
XVIII KISMET!
XIX THE POWER
XX AND THE GLORY

CHARACTERS

PETER CHAMPNEYS: _Of Riverton, South Carolina, and Paris, France_.
MARIA CHAMPNEYS: _His Mother_.
CHADWICK CHAMPNEYS: _The God in the Machine_.
EMMA CAMPBELL: _A Colored Woman_.
ANNE CHAMPNEYS, NEE NANCY SIMMS: _Cinderella_.
MRS. JOHN HEMINGWAY: _Peter's First Teacher_.
JOHN HEMINGWAY: _An American_.
JASON VANDERVELDE: _An Attorney at Law_.
MRS. JASON VANDERVELDE: _Anne's Mentor_.
MRS. MacGREGOR: _A Disciple of Hannah More_.
GLENN MITCHELL: _A Bright Shadow_.
BERKELEY HAYDEN: _The Other Man_.
GRACIE: _A Gutter-Candle_.
DENISE: _A Perfume_.
THE QUARTIER LATIN.
RIVERTON, SOUTH CAROLINA.
THE CAROLINA COLORED FOLKS.
MARTIN LUTHER: _A Gray Cat_.
SATAN: _A Black Cat_.
THE RED ADMIRAL: _A Fairy_.

THE PURPLE HEIGHTS

CHAPTER I

THE RED ADMIRAL

The tiny brown house cuddling like a wren's nest on the edge of the
longest and deepest of the tide-water coves that cut through
Riverton had but fou