“Come,” she said, after a while, “let us go to my father!”

And now, the rubicon being passed, there shone a quick and alert gladness upon her face. Her feet scarcely seemed to touch the ground. The mood of sedateness had passed away, and she hummed a gay tune as we went down the stairs.

Alexander Gordon was coming across the yard to speak with his wife as Mary and I appeared hand in hand at the stair foot.

He stopped as it had been suddenly aghast when he caught sight of us.

“Mary!” he cried.

She nodded and made him a little prim curtesy.

“What means this?” he said, sternly.

“Just that Quintin and I love one another!”

And as she spoke I saw the frown gather ominously on Alexander Gordon’s face. His wife came near and looked at him. I saw him flash a glance at her so quick, so stern, and full of meaning that the ready river of her speech froze on her lips.

“This is rank foolishness, Mary!” he cried; “go indoors this instant and get to your broidering. Let me hear no more of this!”

But the spirit of the Gordons was in the daughter as well as in the sire.

“I will not,” she said; “I am of age, and though in all else I have obeyed you, in this I will not.”

Glance for glance their eyes encountered, nor could I see that either pair quailed.

The Laird of Earlstoun turned to me.

“And you, sir, whom I trusted as my friend, how came you here under pretext of amity, thus to lead away my daughter?”

The question was fiercely spoken, the tone sullenly angry. Yet somehow both rang hollow.

I was about to answer when Mary interrupted.

“Nay, father,” she cried, looking him fearlessly in the face; “it was I that proffered my love. He would not ask me, though I tried to make him. I had to tell him that I loved him, and make him ask me to marry him!”

Was it fancy that the flicker of a smile passed at that moment over the grim countenance of the Bull?

His wife was again about to speak, but he turned fiercely on her and bade her be silent.

“And now,” he said, turning to his daughter, “what do you propose to do with your man when ye have ‘speered’ him?”

He used the local country expression for a proposal of marriage. “I will marry him here and now,” she said; adding hastily, “that is, if he will have me.”

“Ye had better speer him that too!” said her father, grimly.

“I will do better,” cried Mary Gordon. “I will acknowledge him!”

And holding up my hand in hers she cried aloud: “I take you for my husband, Quintin MacClellan!” She looked up at me with a challenge in her eye.

“My wife!” was all that I could utter.

“Well,” said Sandy, “that is your bed made, my lassie. You have both said it before witnesses. You must take him now, whether ye will or not!

“Hugh,” he cried, with a sudden roar towards the servants’ quarters. And from the haymow in the barn where he had been making a pretence of work a retainer appeared with a scared expression on his face.

“Run over to the cot-house at the road-end and tell the minister lad that the Dumfries Presbytery deposed to come to the Earlstoun and that smartly, else I will come down and fetch him myself!”

The man was already on his way ere the sentence was ended, and when the Laird roared the last words after him he fairly seemed to jump.

He was out of sight among the trees a moment after.

“Now,” said Alexander Gordon, “Mary and you have proclaimed yourselves man and wife. Ye shall be soundly married by a minister, and then ye shall go your ways forth. Think not that I will give you the worth of a boddle either in gear or land. Ye have asked me no permission. Ye have defied me. I say not that I will disown ye. But, at least, I owe you nothing.”

“Father,” said Mary, “did I ask you for aught, or did Quintin?”

“Nay,” said he, grimly, “not even for my daughter.”

“Then,” said she, “do not refuse that for which you have not been asked!”

“And how may you propose to live?” her father went on triumphantly. “Ye would not look at him when he had kirk and glebe, manse and stipend. And now ye take him by force when he is no better than a beggar at the dykeback. That it is to be a woman!”

She kindled at the words.

“And what a thing to be a man! Ye think that a woman’s love consists in goods and gear, comfortable beds and fine apparelling!”

“Comfortable beds are not to be lightlied,” said her father; “as ye will find, my lass, or a’ be done.”

She did not heed him, but flashed on with her defiance.

“You, and those like you, think that the way to win a woman is to bide till ye have made all smooth, so that there be not a curl on the rose-leaves, nor yet a bitter drop in the cup. Even Quintin there thought thus, till he learned better.”

She did not so much as pause to smile, though I think her father did—but covertly.

“No!” she cried, “I love, and because I love I will (as you say floutingly) be ready to lie at a dykeback like a tinkler’s wench. I will follow my man through the world because he is my man—yes, all the more because he is injured, despised, one who has had little happiness and no satisfaction in life. And now I will give him these things. I—I only will make it all up to him. With my love I can do it, and I will!”

Her father nodded menacingly.

“Ye shall try the dykebacks this very nicht, my lass! And ye shall e’en see how ye like them, after the fine linen sheets and panelled chambers of the Earlstoun.”

But her mother broke out at last.

“No, my bairn!” she cried. “Married or single ye shall not go forth from us thus!”

“Hold your tongue, woman!” roared the Bull, shaking the very firmament with his voice.

“Be not feared, my lass; ye shall have your mother’s countenance, though your father cast you off,” said Janet Gordon, nodding at us with unexpected graciousness.

“Hold your peace, I tell you!”

“Aye, Sandy, when I have done!”

“Though he turn you to the doorstep I will pray for you,” she went on; “and for company on the way I will give you a copy of my meditations, which are most meet and precious.”

Her husband laughed a quick, mocking laugh.

“A bundle of clean sarks wad fit them better—but here comes the minister.”

I turned about somewhat shamefacedly, and there, bowing to the Laird of Earlstoun, was young Gilchrist of Dunscore, whom the Presbytery of Dumfries had lately deposed. He was about to begin a speech of congratulation, but the Bull broke through.

“Marry these two!” he commanded.

And with his finger he pointed at Mary and myself, as if he had been ordering us for immediate execution.

“But——” began the minister.

Instantly an astonishing volume of sound filled the house.

“But me no buts! Tie them up this moment! Or, by the Lord, I will eviscerate you with my sword!”

And with that he snatched his great basket-hilted blade from the scabbard, where it swung on a pin by the side of the door.

So, with a quaking minister, my own head dazed and uncertain with the whirl of events, and Mary Gordon giving her father back defiant glance for glance, we were married decently and in order.

“Now,” said Alexander Gordon, so soon as the “Amen” was out, “go to your chamber with your mother, Mistress Mary! Take whatever ye can carry, but no more, and get you gone out of this house with the man you have chosen. I will teach you to be fond of dykebacks and of throwing yourself away upon beggarly, broken men!”

And he frowned down upon her, as with head erect and scornful carriage she swept past him—her mother trotting behind like a frightened child.

I think Alexander Gordon greatly desired to say something to me while he and I stood waiting for her return. For he kept shifting his weight from one foot to the other, now turning to the window, anon humming half a tune and breaking off short in the midst. But ever as he came towards me with obvious intent to speak, he checked himself, shaking his head sagely, and so resumed again his restless marching to and fro.

Presently my lass came down with a proud high look on her face, her mother following after, all beblubbered with tears and wringing her hands silently.

“I bid you farewell, father!” Mary said; “till now you have ever been a kind father to me. And some day you will forgive this seeming disobedience!”

Then it was that her father made a strange speech.

“Quintin MacClellan has muckle to thank me for. For had it not been for the roaring of the Bull, he had not so easily gotten away the dainty quey!”

So side by side, and presently when we got to the wood’s edge hand in hand, Mary Gordon and I went out into the world together.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Final Addition and Conclusion by Hob MacClellan.

Thus my brother left the writing which has fallen into my hand. In a word I must finish what I cannot alter or amend.

His marriage with Mary Gordon was most happy and gracious, though I have ever heard that she retained throughout her life her high proud nature and hasty speech.

Her father relented his anger after the great renovation of the Covenants at Auchensaugh. Indeed, I question whether in driving them forth from Earlstoun, as hath been told, Alexander Gordon was not acting a part. For when he came to see my wife, Alexander-Jonita, after our little Quintin was born, he said, “Heard ye aught of your brother and his wife?”

I told him that they were well and hearty, full of honour, work, and the happiness of children.

“Aye,” said he, after a pause of reflection, “Quintin has indeed muckle to thank me for. I took the only way with our Mary, to make her ten times fonder o’ him than she was.”

And he chuckled a little deep laugh in his throat.

“But,” he said, “I wad gie a year’s rent to ken how she liked the dykeback the night she left the Earlstoun.”

THE END.

By S. R. CROCKETT.

Uniform edition. Each, 12mo, cloth, $1.50.

THE STANDARD BEARER. An Historical Romance.

Mr. Crockett stands on ground that he has made his own in this romance of the Scottish Covenanters. The story opens in 1685, “the Terrible Year,” with a vivid picture of the pursuit of fugitive Covenanters by the dragoons. The hero, who becomes a Covenanting minister, sees many strange and stirring adventures. The charming love story which runs through the book is varied by much excellent fighting and many picturesque incidents. “The Standard Bearer” is likely to be ranked by readers with Mr. Crockett’s most successful work.

LADS’ LOVE. Illustrated.

“It seems to us that there is in this latest product much of the realism of personal experience. However modified and disguised, it is hardly possible to think that the writer’s personality does not present itself in Saunders McQuhirr.... Rarely has the author drawn more truly from life than in the cases of Nance and ‘the Hempie’; never more typical Scotsman of the humble sort than the farmer Peter Chrystie.”—London AthenÆum.

CLEG KELLY, ARAB OF THE CITY. His Progress and Adventures. Illustrated.

“A masterpiece which Mark Twain himself has never rivaled.... If there ever was an ideal character in fiction it is this heroic ragamuffin.”—London Daily Chronicle.

“In no one of his books does Mr. Crockett give us a brighter or more graphic picture of contemporary Scotch life than in ‘Cleg Kelly.’ ... It is one of the great books.”—Boston Daily Advertiser.

BOG-MYRTLE AND PEAT. Third edition.

“Here are idyls, epics, dramas of human life, written in words that thrill and burn.... Each is a poem that has an immortal flavor. They are fragments of the author’s early dreams, too bright, too gorgeous, too full of the blood of rubies and the life of diamonds to be caught and held palpitating in expression’s grasp.”—Boston Courier.

“Hardly a sketch among them all that will not afford pleasure to the reader for its genial humor, artistic local coloring, and admirable portrayal of character.”—Boston Home Journal.

THE LILAC SUNBONNET. Eighth edition.

“A love story, pure and simple, one of the old-fashioned, wholesome, sun shiny kind, with a pure-minded, sound-hearted hero, and a heroine, who is merely a good and beautiful woman; and if any other love story half so sweet has been written this year it has escaped our notice.”—New York Times.

“The general conception of the story, the motive of which is the growth of love between the young chief and heroine, is delineated with a sweetness and a freshness, a naturalness and a certainty, which places ‘The Lilac Sunbonnet’ among the best stories of the time.”—New York Mail and Express.

“A VERY REMARKABLE BOOK.”

THE BETH BOOK. By Sarah Grand, author of “The Heavenly Twins,” etc. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.

“Readers will linger delightedly over one of the freshest and deepest studies of child character ever given to the world, and hereafter will find it an ever-present factor in their literary recollections and impressions.”—London Globe.

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“‘The Beth Book’ is important because it is one of the few intelligent and thoughtful studies of life that have appeared this season.... The essence of the whole book is the effort to study and to trace the evolution of character; and because the author has done this to admiration, her book is a success. Moreover, it is written with a masterly command of style, and is so utterly absorbing and so strongly and connectedly logical, that the author’s thought impresses you at every line. You skip nothing. Even a reader whom the deeper qualities of the book failed to hold would follow every incident from sheer pleasure in its vividness, its picturesqueness, and its entertainment.”—Boston Herald.

‘The Beth Book’ is distinctly a notable achievement in fiction.... Written in a style that is picturesque, vigorous, and varied, with abundance of humor, excellence of graphic description, and the ability to project her chief characters with a boldness of relief that is rare.”—Philadelphia Press.

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“‘The Beth Book’ is a powerful book. It is written with wonderful insight and equally wonderful vividness of portrayal. It is absorbingly interesting.... The heroine awakens our wonder, pity, and admiration. We soon become enthralled by the fascinating study, and follow her physical and spiritual footsteps with breathless eagerness from page to page, from stage to stage of her development and the foreshadowings of her destiny.”—Boston Advertiser.

“In ‘The Beth Book’ the novelist has given us a story at once a marvelously well-evolved study in psychology and at the same time an absorbing review of human life in its outward aspects. ‘The Beth Book’ is a wonder in its departure from conventional methods of fiction, and in an ever-growing charm in its development and sequence.”—San Francisco Call.

“Decidedly a notable addition to the few works which are of such quality to be classed as ‘books of the year.’ There are many reasons for this. First, it is an intelligent and faithful study of human life and character; second, because it has a depth of purpose rare indeed in ordinary fiction; and last, because from start to finish there is a charm which never ceases to hold the reader’s interest. Decidedly, ‘The Beth Book’ is a great book.”—Philadelphia Item.

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JASON EDWARDS. An Average Man.

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A MEMBER OF THE THIRD HOUSE. A Story of Political Warfare.

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A SPOIL OF OFFICE. A Story of the Modern West.

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NOVELS BY MAARTEN MAARTENS.

THE GREATER GLORY. A Story of High Life. By Maarten Maartens, author of “God’s Fool,” “Joost Avelingh,” etc. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.

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GOD’S FOOL. By Maarten Maartens. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.

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“A remarkable work.”—New York Times.

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“A story of remarkable interest and point.”—New York Observer.

JOOST AVELINGH. By Maarten Maartens. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.

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“Full of local color and rich in quaint phraseology and suggestion.”—London Telegraph.

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Books by Mrs. Everard Cotes (Sara Jeannette Duncan).

A VOYAGE OF CONSOLATION. Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.

Mrs. Cotes returns to the field which she developed with such success in “A Social Departure” and “An American Girl in London.”

HIS HONOUR, AND A LADY. Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.

THE STORY OF SONNY SAHIB. Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth, $1.00.

VERNON’S AUNT. With many Illustrations. 12mo. Cloth, $1.25.

A DAUGHTER OF TO-DAY. A Novel. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.

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A SOCIAL DEPARTURE: How Orthodocia and I Went Round the World by Ourselves. With 111 Illustrations by F. H. Townsend. 12mo. Paper, 75 cents; cloth, $1.75.

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AN AMERICAN GIRL IN LONDON. With 80 Illustrations by F. H. Townsend. 12mo. Paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.50.

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THE SIMPLE ADVENTURES OF A MEMSAHIB. With 37 Illustrations by F. H. Townsend. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.

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SOME LEADING FICTION.

EACH, 12MO, CLOTH, $1.00.

YEKL. A Tale of the New York Ghetto. By A. Cahan.

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THE SENTIMENTAL SEX. By Gertrude Warden.

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MAJESTY. By Louis Couperus. Translated by A. Teixeira and Ernest Dowson.

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A STREET IN SUBURBIA. By Edwin Pugh.

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THE WISH. By Hermann Sudermann. With a Biographical Introduction by Elizabeth Lee.

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THE NEW MOON. By C. E. Raimond, author of “George Mandeville’s Husband,” etc.

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MARCH HARES. By Harold Frederic, author of “The Damnation of Theron Ware,” “In the Valley,” etc.

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GREEN GATES. An Analysis of Foolishness. By Mrs. K. M. C. Meredith (Johanna Staats), author of “Drumsticks,” etc.

“Crisp and delightful.... Fascinating, not so much for what it suggests as for its manner, and the cleverly outlined people who walk through its pages.”—Chicago Times-Herald.

“An original strain, bright and vivacious, and strong enough in its foolishness and its unexpected tragedy to prove its sterling worth.”—Boston Herald.

THE STATEMENT OF STELLA MABERLY. By F. Anstey, author of “Vice Versa,” “The Giant’s Robe,” etc.

“Most admirably done.... We read fascinated, and fully believing every word we read.... The book has deeply interested us, and even thrilled us more than once.”—London Daily Chronicle.

“A wildly fantastic story, thrilling and impressive.... Has an air of vivid reality, ... of bold conception and vigorous treatment.... A very noteworthy novelette.”—London Times.

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK.

STEPHEN CRANE’S BOOKS.

THE THIRD VIOLET. 12mo. Cloth, $1.00.

“By this latest product of his genius our impression of Mr. Crane is confirmed that, for psychological insight, for dramatic intensity, and for potency of phrase, he is already in the front rank of English and American writers of fiction, and that he possesses a certain separate quality which places him apart.”—London Academy.

“The whole book, from beginning to end, fairly bristles with fun.... It is adapted for pure entertainment, yet it is not easily put down or forgotten.”—Boston Herald.

THE LITTLE REGIMENT, and Other Episodes of the American Civil War. 12mo. Cloth, $1.00.

“In ‘The Little Regiment’ we have again studies of the volunteers waiting impatiently to fight and fighting, and the impression of the contest as a private soldier hears, sees, and feels it, is really wonderful. The reader has no privileges. He must, it seems, take his place in the ranks, and stand in the mud, wade in the river, fight, yell, swear, and sweat with the men. He has some sort of feeling, when it is all over, that he has been doing just these things. This sort of writing needs no praise. It will make its way to the hearts of men without praise.”—New York Times.

“Told with a verve that brings a whiff of burning powder to one’s nostrils.... In some way he blazons the scene before our eyes, and makes us feel the very impetus of bloody war.”—Chicago Evening Post.

MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS. 12mo. Cloth, 75 cents.

“By writing ‘Maggie’ Mr. Crane has made for himself a permanent place in literature.... Zola himself scarcely has surpassed its tremendous portrayal of throbbing, breathing, moving life.”—New York Mail and Express.

“Mr. Crane’s story should be read for the fidelity with which it portrays a life that is potent on this island, along with the best of us. It is a powerful portrayal, and, if somber and repellent, none the less true, none the less freighted with appeal to those who are able to assist in righting wrongs.”—New York Times.

THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE. An Episode of the American Civil War. 12mo. Cloth, $1.00.

“Never before have we had the seamy side of glorious war so well depicted.... The action of the story throughout is splendid, and all aglow with color, movement, and vim. The style is as keen and bright as a sword-blade, and a Kipling has done nothing better in this line.”—Chicago Evening Post.

“There is nothing in American fiction to compare with it.... Mr. Crane has added to American literature something that has never been done before, and that is, in its own peculiar way, inimitable.”—Boston Beacon.

“A truer and completer picture of war than either Tolstoy or Zola.”—London New Review.

By A. CONAN DOYLE.

Uniform edition. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50 per volume.

UNCLE BERNAC. A Romance of the Empire. Illustrated.

“‘Uncle Bernac’ is for a truth Dr. Doyle’s Napoleon. Viewed as a picture of the little man in the gray coat, it must rank before anything he has written. The fascination of it is extraordinary.”—London Daily Chronicle.

“From the opening pages the clear and energetic telling of the story never falters and our attention never flags.”—London Observer.

RODNEY STONE. Illustrated.

“A remarkable book, worthy of the pen that gave us ‘The White Company,’ ‘Micah Clarke,’ and other notable romances.”—London Daily News.

“A notable and very brilliant work of genius.”—London Speaker.

“‘Rodney Stone’ is, in our judgment, distinctly the best of Dr. Conan Doyle’s novels.... There are few descriptions in fiction that can vie with that race upon the Brighton road.”—London Times.

THE EXPLOITS OF BRIGADIER GERARD. A Romance of the Life of a Typical Napoleonic Soldier. Illustrated.

“The brigadier is brave, resolute, amorous, loyal, chivalrous; never was a foe more ardent in battle, more clement in victory, or more ready at need.... Gallantry, humor, martial gayety, moving incident, make up a really delightful book.”—London Times.

“May be set down without reservation as the most thoroughly enjoyable book that Dr. Doyle has ever published.”—Boston Beacon.

THE STARK MUNRO LETTERS. Being a Series of Twelve Letters written by Stark Munro, M. B., to his friend and former fellow-student, Herbert Swanborough, of Lowell, Massachusetts, during the years 1881-1884. Illustrated.

“Cullingworth, ... a much more interesting creation than Sherlock Holmes, and I pray Dr. Doyle to give us more of him.”—Richard le Gallienne, in the London Star.

“‘The Stark Munro Letters’ is a bit of real literature.... Its reading will be an epoch-making event in many a life.”—Philadelphia Evening Telegraph.

ROUND THE RED LAMP. Being Facts and Fancies of Medical Life.

“Too much can not be said in praise of these strong productions, that to read, keep one’s heart leaping to the throat, and the mind in a tumult of anticipation to the end.... No series of short stories in modern literature can approach them.”—Hartford Times.

“If Dr. A. Conan Doyle had not already placed himself in the front rank of living English writers by ‘The Refugees,’ and other of his larger stories, he would surely do so by these fifteen short tales.”—New York Mail and Express.

BY ANTHONY HOPE.

THE CHRONICLES OF COUNT ANTONIO. With Photogravure Frontispiece by S. W. Van Schaick. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.

“No adventures were ever better worth recounting than are those of Antonio of Monte Velluto, a very Bayard among outlaws.... To all those whose pulses still stir at the recital of deeds of high courage, we may recommend this book.... The chronicle conveys the emotion of heroic adventure, and is picturesquely written.”—London Daily News.

“It has literary merits all its own, of a deliberate and rather deep order.... In point of execution ‘The Chronicles of Count Antonio’ is the best work that Mr. Hope has yet done. The design is clearer, the workmanship more elaborate, the style more colored.”—Westminster Gazette.

“A romance worthy of all the expectations raised by the brilliancy of his former books, and likely to be read with a keen enjoyment and a healthy exaltation of the spirits by every one who takes it up.”—The Scotsman.

“A gallant tale, written with unfailing freshness and spirit.”—London Daily Telegraph.

“One of the most fascinating romances written in English within many days. The quaint simplicity of its style is delightful, and the adventures recorded in these ‘Chronicles of Count Antonio’ are as stirring and ingenious as any conceived even by Weyman at his best.”—New York World.

“No adventures were ever better worth telling than those of Count Antonio.... The author knows full well how to make every pulse thrill, and how to hold his readers under the spell of his magic.”—Boston Herald.

THE GOD IN THE CAR. New edition. Uniform with “The Chronicles of Count Antonio.” 12mo. Cloth, $1.25.

“‘The God in the Car’ is just as clever, just as distinguished in style, just as full of wit, and of what nowadays some persons like better than wit—allusiveness—as any of his stories. It is saturated with the modern atmosphere; is not only a very clever but a very strong story; in some respects, we think, the strongest Mr. Hope has yet written.”—London Speaker.

“A very remarkable book, deserving of critical analysis impossible within our limit; brilliant, but not superficial; well considered, but not elaborated; constructed with the proverbial art that conceals, but yet allows itself to be enjoyed by readers to whom fine literary method is a keen pleasure.”—London World.

“The book is a brilliant one.... ‘The God in the Car’ is one of the most remarkable works in a year that has given us the handiwork of nearly all our best living novelists.”—London Standard.

SOME LEADING FICTION.

THE GODS, SOME MORTALS, AND LORD WICKENHAM. By John Oliver Hobbes. With Portrait. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.

“One of the most refreshing novels of the period, full of grace, spirit, force, feeling, and literary charm.”—Chicago Evening Post.

“Here is the sweetness of a live love story.... It is to be reckoned among the brilliants as a novel.”—Boston Courier.

“Mrs. Craigie has taken her place among the novelists of the day. It is a high place and a place apart. Her method is her own, and she stands not exactly on the threshold of a great career, but already within the temple of fame.”—G. W. Smalley, in the Tribune.

MAELCHO. By the Hon. Emily Lawless, author of “Grania,” “Hurrish,” etc. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.

“A paradox of literary genius. It is not a history, and yet it has more of the stuff of history in it, more of the true national character and fate, than any historical monograph we know. It is not a novel, and yet it fascinates us more than any novel.”—London Spectator.

“Abounds in thrilling incidents.... Above and beyond all, the book charms by reason of the breadth of view, the magnanimity, and the tenderness which animate the author.”—London AthenÆum.

AN IMAGINATIVE MAN. By Robert S. Hichens, author of “The Folly of Eustace,” “The Green Carnation,” etc. 12mo. Cloth, $1.25.

“A study in character.... Just as entertaining as though it were the conventional story of love and marriage. The clever hand of the author of ‘The Green Carnation’ is easily detected in the caustic wit and pointed epigram.”—Jeannette L. Gilder, in the New York World.

CORRUPTION. By Percy White, author of “Mr. Bailey-Martin,” etc. 12mo. Cloth, $1.25.

“A drama of biting intensity. A tragedy of inflexible purpose and relentless result.”—Pall Mall Gazette.

“There is intrigue enough in it for those who love a story of the ordinary kind, and the political part is perhaps more attractive in its sparkle and variety of incident than the real thing itself.”—London Daily News.

A HARD WOMAN. A Story in Scenes. By Violet Hunt. 12mo. Cloth, $1.25.

“A good story, bright, keen, and dramatic.... It is out of the ordinary, and will give you a new sensation.”—New York Herald.

“A creation that does Mrs. Hunt infinite credit, and places her in the front rank of the younger novelists.... Brilliantly drawn, quivering with life, adroit, quiet-witted, unfalteringly insolent, and withal strangely magnetic.”—London Standard.

GILBERT PARKER’S BEST BOOKS.

Uniform Edition.

THE SEATS OF THE MIGHTY. Being the Memoirs of Captain Robert Moray, sometime an Officer in the Virginia Regiment, and afterwards of Amherst’s Regiment. Illustrated, $1.50.

“Another historical romance of the vividness and intensity of ‘The Seats of the Mighty’ has never come from the pen of an American. Mr. Parker’s latest work may without hesitation be set down as the best he has done. From the first chapter to the last word interest in the book never wanes; one finds it difficult to interrupt the narrative with breathing space. It whirls with excitement and strange adventure.... All of the scenes do homage to the genius of Mr. Parker, and make ‘The Seats of the Mighty’ one of the books of the year.”—Chicago Record.

“Mr. Gilbert Parker is to be congratulated on the excellence of his latest story, ‘The Seats of the Mighty,’ and his readers are to be congratulated on the direction which his talents have taken therein.... It is so good that we do not stop to think of its literature, and the personality of Doltaire is a masterpiece of creative art.”—New York Mail and Express.

THE TRAIL OF THE SWORD. A Novel. $1.25.

“Mr. Parker here adds to a reputation already wide, and anew demonstrates his power of pictorial portrayal and of strong dramatic situation and climax.”—Philadelphia Bulletin.

“The tale holds the reader’s interest from first to last, for it is full of fire and spirit, abounding in incident, and marked by good character drawing.”—Pittsburg Times.

THE TRESPASSER. $1.25.

“Interest, pith, force, and charm—Mr. Parker’s new story possesses all these qualities.... Almost bare of synthetical decoration, his paragraphs are stirring because they are real. We read at times—as we have read the great masters of romance—breathlessly.”—The Critic.

“Gilbert Parker writes a strong novel, but thus far this is his masterpiece.... It is one of the great novels of the year.”—Boston Advertiser.

THE TRANSLATION OF A SAVAGE. $1.25.

“A book which no one will be satisfied to put down until the end has been matter of certainty and assurance.”—The Nation.

“A story of remarkable interest, originality, and ingenuity of construction.”—Boston Home Journal.

MRS. FALCHION. $1.25.

“A well-knit story, told in an exceedingly interesting way, and holding the reader’s attention to the end.”

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK.