THE GATES BETWEEN.
BY
ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS,
AUTHOR OF
"THE GATES AJAR," "GYPSY BREYNTON," Etc
Write the things which thou hast seen,
and the things which are,
and the things which shall be hereafter.
REVELATION.
WARD, LOCK AND Co.,
LONDON, NEW YORK, AND MELBOURNE.
[All rights reserved].
1887
THE GATES BETWEEN.
CHAPTER I.
If the narrative which I am about to recount perplex the reader, it canhardly do so more than it has perplexed the narrator. Explanations,let me say at the start, I have none to offer. That which took place Irelate. I have had no special education or experience as a writer;both my nature and my avocation have led me in other directions. I canclaim nothing more in the construction of these pages than thequalities of a faithful reporter. Such, I have tried to be.
It was on the twenty-fifth of November of the year 187-, that I,Esmerald Thorne, fell upon the event whose history and consequences Iam about to describe.
Autobiographies I do not like. I should have been positive at any timeduring my life of forty-nine years, that no temptation could drag meover that precipice of presumption and illusion which awaits the manwho confides himself to the world. As it is the unexpected whichhappens, so it is the unwelcome which we choose. I do not tell thisstory for my own gratification. I tell it to fulfil the heaviestresponsibility of my life. However I may present myself upon thesepages is the least of my concern; whether well or ill, that is of thesmallest possible consequence. Touching the manner of my telling thestory, I have heavy thoughts; for I know that upon the manner of thetelling will depend effects too far beyond the scope of any one humanpersonality for me to regard them indifferently. I wish I could. Ihave reason to believe myself the bearer of a message to many men.This belief is in itself enough, one would say, to deplete a man ofpaltry purpose. I wish to be considered only as the messenger, whocomes and departs, and is thought of no more. The message remains, andshould remain, the only material of interest.
Owing to some peculiarities in the situation, I am unable to delegate,and do not see my way to defer, a duty—for I believe it to be aduty—which I shall therefore proceed to perform with as little apologyas possible. I must trust to the gravity of my motive to overcomeevery trifling consideration in the mind of my readers; as it hassolemnly done in my own.
In order to give force to my narrative, it will be necessary for me tobe more personal in some particulars than I could have chosen, and torevert to certain details of my early history belonging to thatcategory which