Fate Knocks at the Door

Fate Knocks at the Door - A
Novel

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Title: Fate Knocks at the Door A Novel
Author: Will Levington Comfort
Release Date: March 22, 2004 [EBook #11655]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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Fate Knocks At The Door

A Novel By
Will Levington Comfort
Author of
"Routledge Rides Alone," "She Buildeth Her House," etc.
1912
In speaking of the first four notes of the opening movement, Beethoven

said, some time after he had finished the Fifth Symphony: "So pocht
das Shicksal an die Pforte" ("Thus Fate Knocks at the Door"); and
between that opening knock, and the tremendous rush and sweep of the
Finale, the emotions which come into play in the great conflicts of life
are depicted.
--From Upton's Standard Symphonies.

To
THE MOTHERS OF MEN

Contents
I. ASIA. (Allegro con brio.)
First Chapter: The Great Wind Strikes Second Chapter: The Pack-Train
in Luzon Third Chapter: Red Pigment of Service Fourth Chapter: That
Adelaide Passion Fifth Chapter: A Flock of Flying Swans Sixth
Chapter: That Island Somewhere Seventh Chapter: _Andante con
Moto_--Fifth Eighth Chapter: The Man from The Pleiad II. NEW
YORK. (Andante con moto.)
Ninth Chapter: The Long-Awaited Woman Tenth Chapter: The Jews
and the Romans Eleventh Chapter: Two Davids Come to Beth Twelfth
Chapter: Two Lesser Adventures Thirteenth Chapter: About Shadowy
Sisters Fourteenth Chapter: This Clay-and-Paint Age Fifteenth Chapter:
The Story of the Mother Sixteenth Chapter: "Through Desire for Her."
Seventeenth Chapter: The Plan of the Builder Eighteenth Chapter: That
Park Predicament Nineteenth Chapter: In the House of Grey One
Twentieth Chapter: A Chemistry of Scandal Twenty-first Chapter: The
Singing Distances Twenty-second Chapter: Beth Signs the Picture
Twenty-third Chapter: The Last Ride Together Twenty-fourth Chapter:
A Parable of Two Horses
III. EQUATORIA. (_Allegro. Scherzo_.)
Twenty-fifth Chapter: Bedient for The Pleiad Twenty-sixth Chapter:
How Startling is Truth Twenty-seventh Chapter: The Art of Miss
Mallory Twenty-eighth Chapter: A Further Note from Rey
Twenty-ninth Chapter: At Treasure Island Inn Thirtieth Chapter: Miss
Mallory's Mastery Thirty-first Chapter: The Glow-worm's One Hour
Thirty-second Chapter: In the Little Room Next Thirty-third Chapter:

The Hills and the Skies Thirty-fourth Chapter: The Supreme Adventure
Thirty-fifth Chapter: Fate Knocks at the Door
IV. NEW YORK. (_Allegro. Finale_.)
Thirty-sixth Chapter: The Great Prince House Thirty-seventh Chapter:
Beth and Adith Mallory Thirty-eighth Chapter: A Self-Conscious
Woman Thirty-ninth Chapter: Another Smilax Affair Fortieth Chapter:
Full Day Upon the Plain

FATE KNOCKS AT THE DOOR

I
ASIA
Allegro con brio
FIRST
CHAPTER
THE GREAT WIND STRIKES
Andrew Bedient, at the age of seventeen, in a single afternoon,--indeed,
in one moment of a single afternoon,--performed an action which
brought him financial abundance for his mature years. Although this
narrative less concerns the boy Bedient than the man as he approaches
twice seventeen, the action is worthy of account, beyond the riches that
it brought, because it seems to draw him into somewhat clearer vision
from the shadows of a very strange boyhood.
April, 1895, the Truxton, of which Andrew was cook, found herself
becalmed in the China Sea, midway between Manila and Hong Kong,
her nose to the North. She was a smart clipper of sixty tons burden,
with a slightly uptilted stern, and as clever a line forward as a pleasure
yacht. She was English, comparatively new, and, properly used by the
weather, was as swift and sprightly of service as an affectionate woman.
Her master was Captain Carreras, a tubby little man of forty-five, bald,
modest, and known among the shipping as "a perfect lady." He wore a
skull-cap out of port; and as constantly, except during meals, carried

one of a set of rarely-colored meerschaum-bowls, to which were
attachable, bamboo-stems, amber-tipped and of various lengths.
The little Captain was fastidious in dress, wearing soft shirts of white
silk, fine duck trousers and scented silk handkerchiefs, which he carried
in his left hand with the meerschaum-bowl. The Carreras perfume,
mingled with fresh tobacco, was never burdensome, and unlike any
other. The silk handkerchief was as much a feature of the Captain's
appearance as the skull-cap. To it was due the really remarkable polish
of the perfect clays so regularly cushioned in his palm. Always for
dinner, the Captain's toilet was fresh throughout. Invariably, too, he
brought with him an unfolded handkerchief upon which he placed, at
the farther end of the table when the weather was