THE VEHEMENT FLAME

A NOVEL

BY MARGARET DELAND

AUTHOR OF DR. LAVENDAR'S PEOPLE, OLD CHESTER TALES, ETC.

1922

TO LORIN:

Together, so many years ago—seven, I think, or eight—you and I plannedthis story. The first chapters had the help of your criticism ... then,I had to go on alone, urged by the memory of your interest. But all theblunders are mine, not yours; and any merits are yours, not mine. Thatit has been written, in these darkened years, has been because yourhappy interest still helped me.

MARGARET
May 12th, 1922

CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVIII
CHAPTER XIX
CHAPTER XX
CHAPTER XXI
CHAPTER XXII
CHAPTER XXIII
CHAPTER XXIV
CHAPTER XXV
CHAPTER XXVI
CHAPTER XXVII
CHAPTER XXVIII
CHAPTER XXIX
CHAPTER XXX
CHAPTER XXXI
CHAPTER XXXII
CHAPTER XXXIII
CHAPTER XXXIV
CHAPTER XXXV
CHAPTER XXXVI
CHAPTER XXXVII

CHAPTER I

Love is as strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coalsthereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.

THE SONG OF SOLOMON, VIII, 6.

There is nothing in the world nobler, and lovelier, and more absurd,than a boy's lovemaking. And the joyousness of it!...

The boy of nineteen, Maurice Curtis, who on a certain June day lay inthe blossoming grass at his wife's feet and looked up into her darkeyes, was embodied Joy! The joy of

...