White Gloves by Edgar Saltus (1913)
Ruis Ixar, a young man in white attire who keeps his gloves on even at midday, drifts into a quiet Massachusetts village and lodges at the inn opposite the church. He spends hours in the empty church, drawn by its melancholy chimes, and there the pastor, noting his generous donations, dismisses suspicion and introduces him to villagers, including Colonel Doremus and his daughter Elaine. Ixar tells them he was born of Spanish parentage in Santiago de Cuba and educated in England. Though he repeatedly declines the colonel's dinner invitations, he visits often, and Elaine gradually looks forward to his company; the colonel notes the odd, ashen quality beneath Ixar's dark skin, which Ixar attributes to sudden Caribbean sun after years of gray English skies, and to an illness that forced him north to recover. Ixar tells Elaine she is the most beautiful thing in the world and asks for her picture. She proposes they motor into Boston to have photographs taken; Ixar reveals he can drive, and the two go together, returning with prints. He selects two photographs for her, leaving them at her door when she has evening guests, and keeps another for himself in his room, propped near his paints. That night, restless and lonely, he sings a Hawaiian air at his window, then climbs out and walks to Elaine's house, where he glimpses her behind a curtain and blows a kiss — only for the colonel's angry face to appear, sending him back into the shadows. The next day Elaine thanks him for the photographs and mentions she sent his small picture to her half-brother, Herbert Duncan, along with a letter describing him. She recalls that her brother and the colonel never got on, evoking an old story of the colonel once trying to whip Herbert and being lashed back. When Ixar sings the same Hawaiian air unprompted, Elaine is startled, saying she'd just been thinking of Honolulu, where her brother — sent there twice by the government — had sung that very song. At the mention of Herbert Duncan, Ixar reacts with visible shock, claims his illness is returning, and abruptly leaves. Herbert Duncan arrives by motor, hands Elaine a letter addressed to her father, and drives off without explaining, saying he may return. The colonel reads the letter and is stricken, and when Elaine reads it too she faints. Ixar flees to the inn and begins packing, but finding no train for two hours, hesitates. Duncan arrives, calls him "Baxter," and confronts him at gunpoint, revealing that in Honolulu, once the truth was known, Ixar had broken his word and escaped before capture, and has now approached Elaine under a false name and a painted skin. Duncan says he wrote to the colonel to warn him but wants to spare Elaine public disgrace; he gives Ixar one of two pistols, declares he will guard the door with the other, and gives him fifteen minutes — until four o'clock — to use it himself, promising the true facts will otherwise die with him. Ixar, broken, agrees. Duncan stations himself across the street. At four, the bells ring and a pistol shot cracks from Ixar's room. Duncan, who never truly intended to enforce the threat, waits, then goes up to find the door locked and, after breaking it open, discovers the room empty: Ixar has escaped through the window into the motor car and sped toward the city. Duncan sees him from the window, and, turning to the mantel, seizes a crayon and scrawls across the remaining photograph the words: Baxter, alias Ixar, leper.
By Edgar Saltus · First published 1913 · Genre: Mystery, Tragedy, Gothic Fiction · 3 chapters · 3,827 words
First lines
"You are the most beautiful thing in the world!"
Elaine, who had been looking down, looked up. She was a pretty girl, but not beautiful, or at least not extravagantly so. She had fair hair, candid eyes, cameo features, a complexion of cream, which occasionally had claret in it, and an air of having no nonsense -- or, at any rate, very little nonsense -- about her.
What this Textopian page supports
White Gloves is listed on Textopian as a short story by Edgar Saltus, dated 1913 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Short story
- Author: Edgar Saltus
- Date: 1913 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Mystery, Tragedy, Gothic Fiction, Literary Fiction, Psychological Fiction
- Length: 3,827 words
- Structure: 3 chapters, 120 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for White Gloves by Edgar Saltus
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
- Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph
Genres
- Mystery — The narrative is structured around the mystery of Ixar's true identity and hidden past, with gradual revelations culminating in the climactic discovery that he is a criminal and leper.
- Tragedy — The work depicts the inevitable doom of its protagonist, ending in suicide and the destruction of Elaine's romantic innocence, exploring themes of inescapable fate and the corruption of hope.
- Gothic Fiction — The work employs gothic atmosphere through melancholy tone, a mysterious stranger harboring dark secrets, pervasive impending doom, and psychological horror centered on disease, social stigma, and moral transgression.
- Literary Fiction — The sophisticated prose style, deep psychological characterization, refined narrative technique, and aesthetic concerns with mood and atmospheric description establish this as serious literary fiction.
Tags
leprosy · contagion · deception · disguise · masquerade · forbidden love · romantic deception · shame · stigma · moral judgment · mysterious stranger · psychological tension