Excerpt from The Open DoorMore than a score of swift years passed. The child became a man. His throne was an invalid's chair, his sceptre, a crutch, his crown, pain.He had had, indeed, his bright, brief reign, his goodly share of the purple state which by the grace of this obsequious world encompasses the heir to an old name and large wealth, and he had revelled in that more glorious sovereignty which nature may deny a prince and lovingly bestow upon a vagabond, - the absolute monarchy of youth, beauty, and strength, the kingship of a fearless Spirit.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis 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.