The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Way of Ambition, by Robert Hichens

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Way of Ambition

Author: Robert Hichens

Illustrator: J. H. Gardner Soper

Release Date: October 7, 2006 [EBook #19491]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WAY OF AMBITION ***

Produced by Suzanne Shell, Janet Blenkinship and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

[Illustration: "CHARMIAN, WHAT'S ALL THIS ABOUT AN EXTRAORDINARY CORNISH
GENIUS? D'YOU LIKE HIM SO MUCH?"--_Page 76_]

THE

WAY OF AMBITION

BY

ROBERT HICHENS

_Author of "The Garden of Allah," "The Fruitful Vine,"
"The Woman with the Fan," "Tongues of
Conscience," "Felix," etc._

WITH A FRONTISPIECE IN COLOR
AND FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS IN BLACK-AND-WHITE BY
J. H. GARDNER SOPER

[Illustration]

NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1913, by
ROBERT HICHENS
Copyright, 1912, 1913, by
THE BUTTERICK PUBLISHING CO.
_August, 1913_

ILLUSTRATIONS

"'Charmian, what's all this about an extraordinary
Cornish genius? D'you like him so much?'" _Frontispiece_

"'This is the last thing I've done'" 40

"'Of course we wives of composers are apt to be
prejudiced'" 242

"At her feet the crouching Arabs never stirred" 258

"'Claudie, I want you to win, I want you to win!'" 378

THE WAY OF AMBITION

CHAPTER I

"We want a new note in English music," said Charmian, in her clear and
slightly authoritative voice. "The Hallelujah Chorus era has gone at
last to join all the Victorian relics. And the nation is drifting
musically. Of course we have a few composers who are being silly in the
attempt to be original, and a few others who still believe that all the
people can stand in the way of home-grown products is a ballad or a Te
Deum. But what we want is an English composer with a soul. I'm getting
quite sick of heads. They are bearable in literature. But when it comes
to music, one's whole be