EBOOK FLAMES ***
Produced by Suzanne Shell, Beginners Projects, Mary Meehan and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team
FLAMES
BY ROBERT HICHENS
AUTHOR OF THE GARDEN OF ALLAH, ETC.
COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY HERBERT S. STONE & CO.
This edition published July, 1906, by Duffield & Company
BOOK I--VALENTINE
CHAPTER I
THE SAINT OF VICTORIA STREET
Refinement had more power over the soul of Valentine Cresswell than
religion. It governed him with a curious ease of supremacy, and held
him back without effort from most of the young man's sins. Each age
has its special sins. Each age passes them, like troops in review, before
it decides what regiment it will join. Valentine had never decided to
join any regiment. The trumpets of vice rang in his ears in vain, mingled
with the more classical music of his life as the retreat from the
barracks of Seville mingled with the click of Carmen's castanets. But he
heeded them not. If he listened to them sometimes, it was only to wonder
at the harsh and blatant nature of their voices, only to pity the poor
creatures who hastened to the prison, which youth thinks freedom and old
age protection, at their shrieking summons.
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