Jason

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Jason

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Title: Jason
Author: Justus Miles Forman
Release Date: August 23, 2004 [EBook #13261]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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JASON
A ROMANCE

BY JUSTUS MILES FORMAN
AUTHOR OF "A STUMBLING BLOCK" "BUCHANAN'S WIFE"
"THE ISLAND OF ENCHANTMENT"
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY W. HATHERELL, R.I.
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS NEW YORK AND
LONDON MCMIX
COPYRIGHT, 1908.
* * * * *
À PARIS
MÈRE MYSTÉRIEUSE ... SOEUR CONSOLATRICE
ENCHANTERESSE AUX YEUX VOILÉS JÉ DÉDIE CE PETIT
ROMAN EN RECONNAISSANCE J.M.F.
* * * * *

CONTENTS
I. STE. MARIE HEARS OF A MYSTERY AND MEETS A DARK
LADY
II. THE LADDER TO THE STARS
III. STE. MARIE MAKES A VOW, BUT A PAIR OF EYES HAUNT
HIM
IV. OLD DAVID STEWART
V. JASON SETS FORTH UPON THE GREAT ADVENTURE
VI. A BRAVE GENTLEMAN RECEIVES A HURT, BUT
VOLUNTEERS IN A GOOD CAUSE

VII. CAPTAIN STEWART MAKES A KINDLY OFFER
VIII. JASON MEETS WITH A MISADVENTURE AND DREAMS A
DREAM
IX. JASON GOES UPON A JOURNEY, AND RICHARD HARTLEY
PLEADS FOR HIM
X. CAPTAIN STEWART ENTERTAINS
XI. A GOLDEN LADY ENTERS--THE EYES AGAIN
XII. THE NAME OF THE LADY WITH THE EYES--EVIDENCE
HEAPS UP SWIFTLY
XIII. THE VOYAGE TO COLCHIS
XIV. THE WALLS OF AEA
XV. A CONVERSATION AT LA LIERRE
XVI. THE BLACK CAT
XVII. THOSE WHO WERE LEFT BEHIND
XVIII. A CONVERSATION OVERHEARD
XIX. THE INVALID TAKES THE AIR
XX. THE STONE BENCH AT THE ROND POINT
XXI. A MIST DIMS THE SHINING STAR
XXII. A SETTLEMENT REFUSED
XXIII. THE LAST ARROW
XXIV. THE JOINT IN THE ARMOR

XXV. MEDEA GOES OVER TO THE ENEMY
XXVI. BUT THE FLEECE ELECTS TO REMAIN
XXVII. THE NIGHT'S WORK
XXVIII. MEDEA'S LITTLE HOUR
XXIX. THE SCALES OF INJUSTICE
XXX. JASON SAILS BACK TO COLCHIS--JOURNEY'S END
* * * * *

I
STE. MARIE HEARS OF A MYSTERY AND MEETS A DARK
LADY
From Ste. Marie's little flat, which overlooked the gardens, they drove
down the quiet rue du Luxembourg, and at the Place St. Sulpice turned
to the left. They crossed the Place St. Germain des Prés, where lines of
home-bound working-people stood waiting for places in the electric
trams, and groups of students from the Beaux Arts or from Julien's sat
under the awnings of the Deux Magots, and so, beyond that busy
square, they came into the long and peaceful stretch of the Boulevard St.
Germain. The warm, sweet dusk gathered round them as they went, and
the evening air was fresh and aromatic in their faces. There had been a
little gentle shower in the late afternoon, and roadway and pavement
were still damp with it. It had wet the new-grown leaves of the
chestnuts and acacias that bordered the street. The scent of that living
green blended with the scent of laid dust and the fragrance of the last
late-clinging chestnut blossoms; it caught up a fuller, richer burden
from the overflowing front of a florist's shop; it stole from open
windows a savory whiff of cooking, a salt tang of wood smoke; and the
soft little breeze--the breeze of coming summer--mixed all together and
tossed them and bore them down the long, quiet street; and it was the

breath of Paris, and it shall be in your nostrils and mine, a keen agony
of sweetness, so long as we may live and so wide as we may
wander--because we have known it and loved it--and in the end we
shall go back to breathe it when we die.
The strong white horse jogged evenly along over the wooden pavement,
its head down, the little bell at its neck jingling pleasantly as it went.
The cocher, a torpid, purplish lump of gross flesh, pyramidal, pearlike,
sat immobile in his place. The protuberant back gave him an
extraordinary effect of being buttoned into his fawn-colored coat wrong
side before. At intervals he jerked the reins like a large strange toy, and
his strident voice said:
"Hé!" to the stout white horse, which paid no attention whatever. Once
the beast stumbled and the pearlike lump of flesh insulted it, saying:
"Hé! veux tu, cochon!"
Before the War Office a little black slip of a milliner's girl dodged
under the horse's head, saving herself and the huge box slung to her