Chapter I THE MAGNET ATTRACTING——A WAIF AMID FORCES
Chapter II WHAT POVERTY THREATENED——OF GRANITE AND BRASS
Chapter III WEE QUESTIONOF FORTUNE——FOUR-FIFTY A WEEK
Chapter IV THE SPENDINGS OF FANCY——FACTS ANSWER WITH SNEERS
Chapter V A GLITTERING NIGHT FLOWER——THE USE OF A NAME
Chapter VI THE MACHINE AND THE MAIDEN——A KNIGHT OF TODAY
Chapter VII THE LURE OF THE MATERIAL——BEAUTY SPEAKS FOR ITSELF
Chapter VIII INTIMATIONS BY WINTER——AN AMBASSADOR SUMMONED
Chapter IX CONVENTION'S OWN TINDERBOX——THE EYE THAT IS GREEN
Chapter X THE COUNSEL OF WINTER——FORTUNE'S AMBASSADOR CALLS
Chapter XI THE PERSUASION OF FASHION——FEELING GUARDS O'ER ITS OWN
Chapter XII OF THE LAMPS OF THE MANSIONS——THE AMBASSADOR'S PLEA
Chapter XIII HIS CREDENTIALS ACCEPTED——A BABEL OF TONGUES
Chapter XIV WITH EYES AND NOT SEEING——-ONE INFLUENCE WANES
Chapter XV THE IRK OF THE OLD TIES——THE MAGIC OF YOUTH
Chapter XVI A WITLESS ALADDIN——THE GATE TO THE WORLD
Chapter XVII A GLIMPSE THROUGH THE GATEW——HOPE LIGHTENS THE EYE
Chapter XVIII JUST OVER THE BORDER——A HAIL AND FAREWELL
Chapter ~IX AN HOUR IN ELFLAND——A CLAMOR HALF HEARD
Chapter XX THE LURE OF THE SPIRIT——THE FLESH IN PURSUIT
Chapter XXI THE LURE OF THE SPIRIT——THE FLESH IN PURSUIT
Chapter XXII THE BLAZE OF THE TINDER——FLESH WARS WITH THE FLESH
Chapter XXIII A SPIRIT IN TRAVAIL——ONE RUNG PUT BEHIND
Chapter XXW ASHES OF TINDER——A FACE AT THE WINDOW
Chapter XXV ASHES OF TINDER——THE LOOSING OF STAYS
Chapter XXVI THE AMBASSADOR FALLEN——A SEARCH FOR THE GATE
Chapter XXVII WHEN WATERS ENGULF US——WE REACH FOR A STAR
Chapter XXVIII A PILGRIM, AN OUTLAW——THE SPIRIT DETAINED
Chapter XXIX THE SOLACE OF TRAVEL——THE BOATS OF THE SEA
Chapter XXX THE KINGDOM OF GREATNESS——THE PILGRIM ADREAM
Chapter XXXI A PET OF GOOD FORTUNE——BROADWAY FLAUNTS ITS JOYS
Chapter XXXII THE FEAST OF BELSHAZZAR——A SEER TO TRANSLATE
Chapter XXXIU WITHOUT THE WALLED CITY——THE SLOPE OF THE YEARS
Chapter XXXIV THE GRIND OF THE MILLSTONES——A SAMPLE OF CHAFF
Chapter XXXV THE PASSING OF EFFORT——THE VISAGE OF CARE
Chapter XXXVI A GRIM RETROGRESSION——THE PHANTOM OF CHANCE
Chapter XXXVII THE SPIRIT AWAKENS——NEW SEARCH FOR THE GATE
Chapter XXXVIII IN ELF LAND DISPORTING——THE GRIM WORLD WITHOUT
Chapter XXXIX OF LIGHTS AND OF SHADOWS——THE PARTING OF WORLDS
Chapter XL A PUBLIC DISSENSION——A FINAL APPEAL
Chapter XLI THE STRIKE
Chapter XLII A TOUCH OF SPRING——THE EMPTY SHELL
Chapter XLIII THE WORLD TURNS FLATTERER——AN EYE IN THE DARK
Chapter XLIV AND THIS IS NOT ELF LAND——WHAT GOLD WILL NOT BUY
Chapter XLV CURIOUS SHIFTS OF THE POOR
Chapter XLVI STIRRING TROUBLED WATERS
Chapter XLVII THE WAY OF THE BEATEN——A HARP IN THE WIND
It was in August,1889.She was eighteen years ofage,bright,timid,and full of the illusions of ignorance andyouth.Whatever touch of regret at parting characterizedher thoughts,it was certainly not for advantages now beinggiven up.A gush of tears at her mother's farewell kiss,atouch in her throat when the cars clacked by the flour millwhere her father worked by the day,a pathetic sigh as thefamiliar green environs of the village passed in review,andthe threads which bound her so lightly to girlhood and homewere irretrievably broken.To be sure there was always the next station,where onemight descend and return.There was the great city,boundmore closely by these very trains which came up daily.Columbia City was not so very far away,even once she wasin Chicago.What,pray,is a few hours——a few hundred miles？She looked at the little slip bearing her sister's address andwondered.She gazed at the green landscape,now passing inswift review,until her swifter thoughts replaced its impressionwith vague conjectures of what Chicago might be.
When a girl leaves her home at eighteen,she does one oftwo things.Either she falls into saving hands and becomesbetter,or she rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standardof virtue and becomes worse.Of an intermediate balance under the circumstances,there is no possibility.The cityhas its cunning wiles,no less than the infinitely smaller andmore human tempter.There are large forces which allurewith all the soulfulness of expression possible in the mostcultured human.The gleam of a thousand lights is often aseffective as the persuasive light in a wooing and fascinatingeye.Half the undoing of the unsophisticated and naturalmind is accomplished by forces wholly superhuman.A blareof sound,a roar of life.a vast array of human hives,appealto the astonished senses in equivocal terms.Without acounselor at hand to whisper cautious interpretations,whatfalsehoods may not these things breathe into the unguardedear！Unrecognized for what they are,their beauty.like music,too often relaxes,then weakens,then perverts the simplerhuman perceptions.
Caroline,or Sister Carrie,as she had been halfaffectionately termed by the family,was possessed of amind rudimentary in its power of observation and analysis.Self-interest with her was high,but not strong.It was,nevertheless,her guiding characteristic.Warm with thefancies of youth,pretty with the insipid prettiness of theformative period.possessed of a figure promising eventualshapeliness and an eye alight with certain native inteUigence,she was a fair example of the middle American class——twogenerations removed from the emigrant.Books were beyondher interest——knowledge a sealed book.
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