Produced by Jason Kwong Juliet Sutherland Charles Franksand the Online Distributed Proofreading TeamA FOOL THERE WASBYPORTER EMERSON BROWNEA Fool there was and he made his prayer  Even as you and ITo a rag and a bone and a hank of hair   We called her the woman who did not careBut the fool he called her his lady fair  Even as you and IILLUSTRATED BYEDMUND MAGRATHANDW W FAWCETT1909TOROBERT HILLIARDCONTENTSChapterI      Of Certain PeopleII     Of Certain Other PeopleIII    Two Boys and a GirlIV     The Child and the StrangerV      As Time PassesVI     An AccidentVII    An IncidentVIII   Of Certain GoingsIX     Of Certain Other GoingsX      Two Boys and a DoctorXI     A ProposalXII    A Foreign MissionXIII   The GoingXIV    Parmaleeand The WomanXV     A WarningXVI    The BeginningXVII   In The NightXVIII  White RosesXIX    ShadowsXX     A Fairy StoryXXI    A LetterXXII   Again The Fairy StoryXXIII  AidXXIV   The RescueXXV    The ReturnXXVI   The Red RoseXXVII  The Red RoadXXVIII The BattleXXIX   DefeatXXX    And Its ConsequencesXXXI   That Which Men SaidXXXII  In the GardenXXXIII TemptationXXXIV  The Shroud of a SoulXXXV   The Thing that was a ManXXXVI  Again the BattleXXXVII The Pity of It AllILLUSTRATIONSBeautiful gloriously beautiful in her strange  weird dark beautyBye little sweetheartI do forgiveforgive and understandCant you find in that dead thing you call a  heart just one shred of pityCHAPTER ONEOF CERTAIN PEOPLETo begin a story of this kind at the beginning is hard for when thebeginning may have been no man knows Perhaps it was a hundred yearsagoperhaps a thousandperhaps ten thousand and it may well be yetlonger ago even than that Yet it can be told that John Schuyler camefrom a long line of cleanbodied cleansouled cleareyed clearheadedancestors and from these he had inherited cleanness of body and of soulclearness of eye and of head They had given him all that lay in theirpower to give had these honest impassive Dutchmen andwomenthesebroadshouldered narrowhipped English they had amalgamated for himtheir virtues and they had eradicated for him their vices they hadcultivated for him those things of theirs that it were well to cultivateand they had plucked ruthlessly from the gardens of heredity the weedsand tares that might have grown to check his growth And doing thisthey had died one after another knowing not what they had doneknowingnot why they had done itknowing not what the result would bedoingthat which they did because it was in them to do it and for no otherreason save that For so it is of this worldFirst then it is for you to know these things that I have toldSecondly it is for you to realize that there are things in this world ofwhich we know but little that there are other things of which we maysometime learn that there are infinitely more things that not even thewisest of us may ever begin to understand God chooses to tell us nothingof that which comes after and of that which comes therein He lets uslearn just enough that we may know how much more there isAnd knowing and realizing these things we may but go back as far towardthe beginning as it is in our power to see                                     Before the restless neverebbing of the tides of business hadoverwhelmed it with a seething flood of watered stocks and liquiddollars there stood on a corner of Fifth Avenue and one of its lowertributaries a stern heavyportalled mansion of brownstone It was ahouse not forbidding but dignified Its broad plateglass windows gazedout in silent impassive tolerance upon the streams of social life thatpassed it of pleasant afternoons in Spring and Fallon sleetsweptnights of winter when bus and brougham brought from theatre and operatheir little groups and pairs of furclad women and highhatted men Itwas a big housebig in sizebig in atmospherebig in mannerAt its left there was another big house much like the one that I havealready described It was possibly a bit more homelikea bit lessdignified for possibly its windows were a trifle more narrow and itsportal a little less imposing And across from that there lay a smallerhousea house of brick and this was much more inviting than either ofthe others for one might step from the very sidewalk within the broadhall hung with two very very old portraits and lighted warmly withshades of dull yellow and of pinkIn the first of the big houses there lived a boy and in the second therelived another boy and across in the little house of brick there liveda girl Of course in these houses there dwelt as well other peopleOf these was John Stuyvesant Schuyler who with his wife Gretchen livedin the big house on the corner was a man silent serious He livedintent honest upright He seldom laughed though when he did therecame at the corners of mouth and eye tiny telltale lines which showedthat beneath seriousness and silence lay a fund of humor unharmed bycontinual drain He was a tall man broadshouldered straightbackedAnd to that which had been left him he added in health in mind and inmoney and he added wisely and well and never at unjust expense toanyoneHis wife was much as he in trait and habit She too was silentserious intent Of her time of her effort of herself she gave freelywherein it were well to give In her youth she