Chance - A Tale In Two Parts Author:Joseph. Conrad Text extracted from opening pages of book: CHANCE A TALE IN TWO PARTS BY JOSEPH CONRAD THOSE that hold that all things are governed by Fortune had not erred, had they not persisted there. SIR THOMAS BROWNE GARDEN CITY 1919 NEW YORK DQUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY Copyright, 1913, by DOTJBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY All rights reserved, including that of tra... more »nslation into foreign language^ including the Scandinavian Copyright, 1912, by THE NEW YORK HERALD Co. TO SIR HUGH CLIFFORD, KC. M. G. WHOSE STEADFAST FRIENDSHIP IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE KX1STHNCE OF THESE PAGES CONTENTS PART I THE DAMSEL CHAPTER ONE PAG* YOUNG POWELL AND His CHANCE 3 CHAPTER TWO THE FYNES AND THB GIBL-FBIEND . . . ,..-36 CHAPTER THREE THRIFT AND THE CHILD e . .69 CHAPTER FOUR THE GOVERNESS 102 CHAPTER FIV1 THB TEA PARTY 141 CHAPTER SIX FLORA - . . . m CHAPTER SEVfiN ON THE PAVEMENT . . . 206 vii viii CONTENTS PART II THE KNIGHT CHAPTER ONE PAOB THE FBRNDALE . . 269 CHAPTER TWO YOUNG POWELL, SEES AND HEARS ...... 285 CHAPTER THREE DEVOTED SERVANTS AND THE LIGHT OP A FLARB . . . 909 CHAPTER FOUR ANTHONY AND FLORA S40 CHAPTER FIVE THE GREAT DE BARRAL 865 CHAPTER SIX ... A MOONLESS NIGHT, THICK WITH STARS ABOVE, VERZ PARK ON THE WATER ......... 421 PARTI THE DAMSEL CHAPTER ONE YOUNG POWELL AND HIS CHANCE I BELIEVE he had seen us out of the window coming off to dine in an overloaded dinghy of a fourteen-ton yawl belonging to Marlow, my host and skipper. We helped the boy we had with us to haul the boat up on the landing-stage before we went to tiie riverside inn, where we found our new acquaintance eating his dinner in digni fied loneliness at the head of a long table, white and in hospitable like a snow bank. The red tint of his clear-cut face with trim short black whiskers under a cap of curly iron-gray hair was the only warm spot in the dinginess of that room cooled by the cheerless tablecloth. We knew him already by sight as the owner of a little five-ton cutter, which he sailed alone ap parently, a fellow yachtsman in the unpretending band of fanatics who cruise at the mouth of the Thames. But the first time he addressed the waiter sharply as steward we knew him at once for a sailor as well as a yachtsman. Presently he had occasion to reprove the same waiter for the slovenly manner in which the dinner was served. He did it with considerable energy and then turned to us. If we at sea/ 5 he declared, went about our work as people ashore high and low go about theirs, we should never make a living. No one would employ us. And moreover no ship navigated and sailed in the happy-go 4 CHANCE lucky manner people conduct their business on shore would ever arrive in port. Since he had retired from the sea he had been astonished to discover that the educated people were not much better than the others. No one seemed to take any proper pride in his work: from plumbers, who were simply thieves, to, say, newspaper men ( he seemed to think them a specially intellectual class) , who never by any chance gave a correct version of the simplest affair. This universal inefficiency of what he called the shore gang he ascribed in general to the want of responsibility and to a sense of security. They see, he went on, that no matter what they do, this tight little island won't turn turtle with them or spring a leak and go to the bottom with their wives and children. From that point the conversation took a special turn relating exclusively to sea-life. On that subject he got quickly in touch with Marlow, who in his time had followed the sea. They kept up a lively exchange of reminiscences while I listened. They agreed that the happiest time in their lives was as youngsters in good ships, with no care in the world, but not to lose a watch below when at sea and not a moment's time in going ashore after work hours in harbour. They agreed also as to the proudest moment they had known in that calling which is never embraced on rational and practical grounds, because of the glamour of its romantic assoc« less