Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 363

1885 · 32 pages

"Pitiless as Death" by Albert W. Aiken This serialized tale opens with three young Boston friends—Howard Crowningshield (artist), Gordon Endicott (law student), and Washington Winslow (medical student)—celebrating in their shared attic room. Crowningshield has sold a painting for one thousand dollars and received a lucrative commission, prompting toasts and camaraderie invoked through their motto "One for all and all for one." When companions press Crowningshield about marrying heiress Letitia Hancock, he confesses a stunning secret: he has already been married for fifteen months and fathers a son. He then begins recounting the circumstances—an evening eighteen months prior when, walking home from Cambridge, he noticed a distressed young woman on a bridge apparently contemplating suicide. Following her to a pier jutting into dark water, he observes her gazing intensely downward. The narrative breaks mid-scene, leaving the rescue or encounter unresolved.

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