Page:Marie Corelli - the writer and the woman (IA mariecorelliwrit00coat).pdf/15

CHAPTER X

"THE MIGHTY ATOM" AND "BOY"

Novels with a Purpose—The Criminally Mistaken Up-bringing
of Children—Lionel Valliscourt an Eleven-year-old
Atheist—The Cramming Process and its Effect on him—His
Breakdown and Holiday—His Return to find that
Little Jessamine is Dead—His Grief and Pathetic End—The
Power of a Book like "The Mighty Atom" to
Teach.

"Boy"—A somewhat Similar Work—The Responsibilities of
Parents—"Boy's" Childhood—His Neglected Condition—Miss
Letty and the Major—"Boy" goes to School—The
Change Wrought in him—His Entirely blasé Demeanor
at sixteen—"Boy" Guilty of Drunkenness and Fraud—His
Final Reformation and Death 192


CHAPTER XI

"THE MURDER OF DELICIA" AND "ZISKA"

Modern Husbands—The Money Marriage—The Average Man
and his Attitude in this Respect—Delicia Vaughan,
Novelist and Beauty—Her foolish Infatuation for Lord
Carlyon and Consequent Misery—"The Rare and Beautiful
Blindness of Perfect Love"—The Penalty Paid by
Delicia.

"Ziska": A Cairean Romance—Ziska the Flesh-clad Ghost
of a Long-ago Dancer—"The Mighty Araxes," her
Former Lover, Presented in Modern Shape as Armand
Gervase, a French Painter—The Renewal of his Passion
for Ziska—His Rival—"The Attraction we Call Love"
a Preordained Destiny—Dr. Dean, savant, and his Interesting
Theories—Beneath the Great Pyramid—Ziska's
Terrible Revenge 207