Excerpt from Rare Old Chums But when the game was finished one of the players threw down his cards, laughed, and went about his business. But the other carried with him a great sorrow; for that player had lost in the game, and something beautiful and tender had gone out of his life. When we speak of it we call it Confidence; and we know that when it goes it leaves a great gap indeed, just as it left in this player's heart. And though the player filled his life with all that was beautiful, and though he cherished a great ambition, and did a splendid and worthy work for others, in a great profession, the empty place in his life that had been Faith's was never filled, never. And although he wrote great books that made the sad laugh and the erring weep, and the world loved him deeply, when he was alone in the silence of his chamber he would cry out to the silence, Oh, my empty heart' my empty heart! But no one ever knew this, or suspected how the filling in of a little gap in time had killed a loving faith. No one ever really filled his life, or really touched it; though a whole world knew him and loved him. It is often so, only it requires a very brave Spirit to make a temple out of a ruined life as he did. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.