Self-Doomed. A Novel

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Farjeon Benjamin Leopold. Self-Doomed. A Novel

CHAPTER I. MASTER FINK RELATES CERTAIN INTERESTING PARTICULARS CONCERNING HIS APPRENTICE, GIDEON WOLF

CHAPTER II. A LOVE-CHAPTER IN THE LIFE OF MASTER FINK

CHAPTER III. RELATES HOW GIDEON WOLF BECAME MASTER FINK'S APPRENTICE

CHAPTER IV. MASTER FINK HAS A SINGULAR DREAM

CHAPTER V. RELATES HOW GIDEON WOLF WAS SEEN BY OLD ANNA PLAYING CARDS WITH THE DEVIL

CHAPTER VI. PRETZEL THE MISER, WITH THE EVIL EYE

CHAPTER VII. GIDEON WOLF PROPOSES TO ADOPT MASTER FINK AS HIS FATHER

CHAPTER VIII. MASTER FINK RESOLVES TO UNDERTAKE A JOURNEY

CHAPTER IX. RELATES WHAT KIND OF HARVEST MASTER FINK GATHERED IN THE COURSE OF HIS JOURNEY

CHAPTER X. MASTER FINK HAS AN INTERVIEW WITH THE WOMAN HE LOVED

CHAPTER XI. RELATES HOW GIDEON WOLF LEFT MASTER FINK'S EMPLOYMENT

CHAPTER XII. MASTER FINK ENDEAVORS TO RESCUE KATRINE LOEBEG FROM THE EVIL INFLUENCE OF PRETZEL THE MISER

CHAPTER XIII. GIDEON WOLF AND HIS MOTHER BEGIN THE NEW YEAR TOGETHER

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The village in which I was born lies fifty miles from this spot, and is one of those places hidden in odd nooks and corners which the busy world seems either to have forgotten or to regard as of too slight importance to take any notice of. It moves neither backward nor forward; it is the same to-day as it was a hundred years ago. Its houses, its roads, its little shops, its bits of garden, its church, are the same now as then, and, unless something startling occurs, will be the same at the end of another hundred years. There are families living there at this moment whose great-great-grandfathers lived there-in the self-same cottages, grown now so old that their walls are rotting and crumbling away. The people, with scarcely an exception, are all of them poor, and live a life of contentment. As I should have done perhaps-my family for five generations having done so before me-had it not happened that I fell in love with Louisa Wagner.

I have spoken of the beauty of Katrine Loebeg. Louisa Wagner was even more beautiful. Do not think I say so because I loved her; it was universally acknowledged; and just in the way Katrine was sought after here so was Louisa sought after in the village in which I was born. I may say, without running the risk of being thought vain, that I was a well-looking lad. It is undoubtedly a fact that I was industrious, and not given to tippling. From my father I learned the mysteries of the art of watchmaking. Our family had been the village watch and clock menders for generations. There was, however, not enough business in that line to be picked up among the scanty and poor population to support us, so my grandfather, and my father after him, took to cobbling boots and shoes to eke out a living. I also learned to cobble, and was no mean hand at it. We were, therefore, the village watch-menders and cobblers, and managed to rub on, chiefly, it must be owned, by the patching of leather, which is a degree or two lower in the social scale than the art which teaches you how to put together the delicate works of a watch.

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"The prettiest foot in all the village," cried Steven Wolf, "and the prettiest mouth, and the loveliest eyes!"

His voice jarred upon me. It was like the voice of a brawler calling out in the church and interrupting the service. No wonder, I thought, that Louisa should blush as he gazed boldly at her. His look was a profanation. To save the girl I loved from further indignity I bade her good-bye and left her. Turning my head for a moment as I walked away, it pierced my heart like the thrust of a needle to see that Steven Wolf had followed her into her father's cottage.

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