Norris, as he left Percival’s house, had a glimpse of Lena coming down the hall, wonderful in her shimmering evening gown, brave in jewels. She dazzled him, though he despised his eyes for admiring her and told himself that she was tinsel. He bowed in response to her curt nod, well aware that she thought him too unimportant to merit her courtesy, while she resented her husband’s inexplicable regard for him. He went out into a cold winter drizzle and turned his face toward home and Madeline, those new and thrilling possessions. For the moment, however, there was no exhilaration in his heart, rather a depressed questioning whether, after all, everything beautiful was a sham. Was the daily grind a mechanical millwheel? Dick and Dick’s marriage, were they but samples of the way life deals with hope? A pang stabbed through him as his There are not only great Sloughs of Despond waiting here and there for the pilgrim, but there are in almost every day little gutters of despond that must be jumped if one does not wish cold and soiled feet; so here his healthy mind cried out against morbid thoughts and he reviled himself for companioning the thing he held sacred with the thing he had always felt foredoomed to failure. He told himself that middle-age was not a dead level of hopes grown gray and withered, but rather a heightening of the contrasts between success and failure. A word of Mr. Elton’s spoken long ago, flashed back to him: “Don’t build your attics before you’ve finished your cellars.” That, after all, was a test. If one could but get a good solid foundation under hope, one might trust it to lift its pinnacle as far toward Heaven as the ethereal upper air. Alas for Dick! Then, though he still loved his one-time hero, Ellery put Dick from his mind. His feet quickened and his heart began to beat Then Madeline took his hand and drew him into the living-room, where the light was low and shaded, but blazing logs painted even far-shadowed corners with warmth, and pranked the girl’s white dress into glowing pink, while the fire hummed and crackled its own triumph: “I consumed the deep green forest with all its songs, Ellery stood with his arm around his wife’s waist and looked about with a quizzical expression that made her ask, “What are you thinking?” “I was remembering.” “And pray what business have you, sir, to live in anything but the present?” “Perhaps I get more from to-day because I don’t forget yesterday. When I first came to St. Etienne, sweetheart, Dick took me to his home. You know, with your mere mind, but you can not appreciate, how unrelated my life had been. You can’t imagine how hungrily I looked at that restful room and at Dick’s mother. I felt as though I would give anything—my soul—to have a home. And now, behold, I have one.” “And you had to pledge your soul to me to get it.” “True. I paid dearly,” he said. “But I was wondering how it was that you had managed to put so much atmosphere into so untried a place. It looks to me as impossible as a miracle. Here are some new walls, and new furniture and new curtains and new vases and new pictures. Even the books are mostly new. I always resented new books. They are like green fruit. A book isn’t ripe until it begins to be frayed around the edges. It would seem to me a hopeless job to make a home out of all this raw material. Yet this room already reminds me of Mrs. Percival’s library, Madeline, and it isn’t only because it is a long room with a big fireplace.” “I think it is a good beginning,” she answered. “You talk as though ‘living’ were a very easy matter,” he remonstrated. “I think it must be the hardest thing in the world, judging by the failures. I know heaps of people who are drifting, or grubbing, or wallowing, or stumbling, or racing, but only a handful that are living. The thought of it made me blue all the way home.” “Dick?” Madeline asked with ready intuition. “Yes, Dick. He voted with the combine and against the reform element in last night’s council meeting; and he did it on some one’s compulsion. I can’t tell you how it has stirred and disheartened me.” “Have you seen him?” “Yes.” “What did he say?” “That he could not explain.” “Then,” said his wife decisively, “it is some of Lena’s doings. About anything else—anything—he would have told you, Ellery.” “Very likely, though it is hard to see how Mrs. Percival could be mixed up in affairs like this.” Madeline was moving about restlessly. “Ellery,” she said at last, “I feel as though you and I had to be a sort of pair of god-parents to Dick. He is so dear, so lovable, so fine—and so unable to go alone. You, particularly, dearest, are the stanchest thing he has. I know just how he feels about you, for I feel so, too. You are going to push behind him and understand him and back up all his resolves, aren’t you, even if he does half disappoint you? You aren’t going to let anything alienate you or come between your friendship and his, are you? I know you love him, and I’m sure he needs you.” Ellery smiled down at her questioning eyes and the intoxicating appeal of her confidence in him—Madeline’s! “I rather think I am Dick’s friend for all I’m worth,” he said slowly, at last. “Even if I were tempted to disloyalty, I should be ashamed to harbor it with your faithfulness standing before me. And I believe this very afternoon was a kind of crisis with him—that he was gathering himself together when I came away.” “And by your help, I dare say,” added his wife. “I hope so. I know but one thing that seems to me more worth while than the purpose “And what is that other better thing?” “You arrant fraud! Do you need to ask?” he said, laughing. “Well, comfort yourself. You are to go on fulfilling your two purposes in life—you and I together.” “I pray we may. I believe we shall,” answered her husband earnestly. “I know we shall, doubting Thomas. I’m one of the women who are strong in unreasoning faith.” They stood silently smiling at each other for a moment. “Shall we celebrate the beginning of home with pomp and music?” she asked. “There’s a little time before dinner. Make yourself comfortable. Push Mrs. Percival up to the fire.” “Mrs. Percival!” Ellery exclaimed, dropping his guilty arm and looking about in a startled manner. “Oh, I forgot you didn’t know. I’ve been all over the house this afternoon, christening our things with the names of the people that gave them to us. Doesn’t it make all the wedding presents seem very friendly and not She pushed him down laughing. “Ah, I begin to see that you stole your atmosphere. The things aren’t so new after all. They’re old acquaintances.” “Of course they are. Isn’t it jolly to have ‘your loving friends’ tucked around in spirit in every nook and corner of the house, without the nuisance of having the good people here in the body to disturb our privacy?” “I see,” he meditated, then went on ungratefully: “After all, I think I’m more taken with the privacy than with the spiritual presences, though they can hardly be considered skeletons at the feast.” “I should think not,” exclaimed Madeline indignantly. “I love them each and all—well, with a few exceptions, Ellery. You needn’t grin sarcastically. Now there’s the piano—such a piano as I have always dreamed of but never hoped to own. If I called it a Steinway Grand, I should know that it was an excellent instrument; but when I call it ‘Vera,’ it warms and delights my heart a thousand times.” Ellery rose and bowed ceremoniously to the piano. “Vera, will you and Mrs. Norris favor me with Schubert’s Serenade, while I sit on Mrs. Percival?” he asked. “I am ragingly hungry, but perhaps the Serenade will keep me harmless and quiet for a little.” He sat and listened and looked into the warm deep heart of the friendly fire. Dreams and hopes came back to him, as things once seen through a glass darkly, but now face to face. Without turning, he was conscious of Madeline, across the room, filling life with music. When a small maid, as new as the books, appeared to announce dinner, he looked up startled. “Shall we go?” asked Madeline, rising. “To our own private particular family communion-table,” he answered, drawing her arm through his. FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size. Printed on excellent paper—most of them with illustrations of marked beauty—and handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume, postpaid. THE CIRCULAR STAIRCASE, By Mary Roberts Reinhart With illustrations by Lester Ralph. In an extended notice the New York Sun says: “To readers who care for a really good detective story ‘The Circular Staircase’ can be recommended without reservation.” The Philadelphia Record declares that “The Circular Staircase” deserves the laurels for thrills, for weirdness and things unexplained and inexplicable. THE RED YEAR, By Louis Tracy “Mr. Tracy gives by far the most realistic and impressive pictures of the horrors and heroisms of the Indian Mutiny that has been available in any book of the kind***There has not been in modern times in the history of any land scenes so fearful, so picturesque, so dramatic, and Mr. Tracy draws them as with the pencil of a Verestschagin or the pen of a Sienkiewics.” ARMS AND THE WOMAN, By Harold MacGrath With inlay cover in colors by Harrison Fisher. The story is a blending of the romance and adventure of the middle ages with nineteenth century men and women; and they are creations of flesh and blood, and not mere pictures of past centuries. The story is about Jack Winthrop, a newspaper man. Mr. MacGrath’s finest bit of character drawing is seen in Hillars, the broken down newspaper man, and Jack’s chum. LOVE IS THE SUM OF IT ALL, By Geo. Cary Eggleston With illustrations by Hermann Heyer. In this “plantation romance” Mr. Eggleston has resumed the manner and method that made his “Dorothy South” one of the most famous books of its time. There are three tender love stories embodied in it, and two unusually interesting heroines, utterly unlike each other, but each possessed of a peculiar fascination which wins and holds the reader’s sympathy. A pleasing vein of gentle humor runs through the work, but the “sum of it all” is an intensely sympathetic love story. HEARTS AND THE CROSS, By Harold Morton Cramer With illustrations by Harold Matthews Brett. The hero is an unconventional preacher who follows the line of the Man of Galilee, associating with the lowly, and working for them in the ways that may best serve them. He is not recognized at his real value except by the one woman who saw clearly. Their love story is one of the refreshing things in recent fiction.
FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size. Printed on excellent paper—most of them with illustrations of marked beauty—and handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume, postpaid. NEW CHRONICLES OF REBECCA, By Kate Douglas Wiggin With illustrations by F. C. Yohn Additional episodes in the girlhood of the delightful little heroine at Riverboro which were not included in the story of “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm,” and they are as characteristic and delightful as any part of that famous story. Rebecca is as distinct a creation in the second volume as in the first. THE SILVER BUTTERFLY, By Mrs. Wilson Woodrow With illustrations in colors by Howard Chandler Christy. A story of love and mystery, full of color, charm, and vivacity, dealing with a South American mine, rich beyond dreams, and of a New York maiden, beyond dreams beautiful—both known as the Silver Butterfly. Well named is The Silver Butterfly! There could not be a better symbol of the darting swiftness, the eager love plot, the elusive mystery and the flashing wit. BEATRIX OF CLARE, By John Reed Scott With illustrations by Clarence F. Underwood. A spirited and irresistibly attractive historical romance of the fifteenth century, boldly conceived and skilfully carried out. In the hero and heroine Mr. Scott has created a pair whose mingled emotions and alternating hopes and fears will find a welcome in many lovers of the present hour. Beatrix is a fascinating daughter of Eve. A LITTLE BROTHER OF THE RICH, By Joseph Medill Patterson Frontispiece by Hazel Martyn Trudeau, and illustrations by Walter Dean Goldbeck. Tells the story of the idle rich, and is a vivid and truthful picture of society and stage life written by one who is himself a conspicuous member of the Western millionaire class. Full of grim satire, caustic wit and flashing epigrams. “Is sensational to a degree in its theme, daring in its treatment, lashing society as it was never scourged before.”—New York Sun.
FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size. Printed on excellent paper—most of them with illustrations of marked beauty—and handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume, postpaid. THE FAIR GOD; OR, THE LAST OF THE TZINS. By Lew Wallace. With illustrations by Eric Pape. “The story tells of the love of a native princess for Alvarado, and it is worked out with all of Wallace’s skill***it gives a fine picture of the heroism of the Spanish conquerors and of the culture and nobility of the Aztecs.”—New York Commercial Advertiser. “Ben Hur sold enormously, but The Fair God was the best of the General’s stories—a powerful and romantic treatment of the defeat of Montezuma by Cortes.”—AthenÆum. THE CAPTAIN OF THE KANSAS. By Louis Tracy. A story of love and the salt sea—of a helpless ship whirled into the hands of cannibal Fuegians—of desperate fighting and tender romance, enhanced by the art of a master of story telling who describes with his wonted felicity and power of holding the reader’s attention***filled with the swing of adventure. A MIDNIGHT GUEST. A Detective Story. By Fred M. White. With a frontispiece. The scene of the story centers in London and Italy. The book is skilfully written and makes one of the most baffling, mystifying, exciting detective stories ever written—cleverly keeping the suspense and mystery intact until the surprising discoveries which precede the end. THE HONOUR OF SAVELLI. A Romance. By S. Levett Yeats. With cover and wrapper in four colors. Those who enjoyed Stanley Weyman’s A Gentleman of France will be engrossed and captivated by this delightful romance of Italian history. It is replete with exciting episodes, hair-breath escapes, magnificent sword-play, and deals with the agitating times in Italian history when Alexander II was Pope and the famous and infamous Borgias were tottering to their fall. SISTER CARRIE. By Theodore Drieser. With a frontispiece, and wrapper in color. In all fiction there is probably no more graphic and poignant study of the way in which man loses his grip on life, lets his pride, his courage, his self-respect slip from him, and, finally, even ceases to struggle in the mire that has engulfed him.***There is more tonic value in Sister Carrie than in a whole shelfful of sermons.
FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size. Printed on excellent paper—most of them with illustrations of marked beauty—and handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume, postpaid. LAVENDER AND OLD LACE. By Myrtle Reed. A charming story of a quaint corner of New England where bygone romance finds a modern parallel. One of the prettiest, sweetest, and quaintest of old-fashioned love stories***A rare book, exquisite in spirit and conception, full of delicate fancy, of tenderness, of delightful humor and spontaneity. A dainty volume, especially suitable for a gift. DOCTOR LUKE OF THE LABRADOR. By Norman Duncan. With a frontispiece and inlay cover. How the doctor came to the bleak Labrador coast and there in saving life made expiation. In dignity, simplicity, humor, in sympathetic etching of a sturdy fisher people, and above all in the echoes of the sea, Doctor Luke is worthy of great praise. Character, humor, poignant pathos, and the sad grotesque conjunctions of old and new civilizations are expressed through the medium of a style that has distinction and strikes a note of rare personality. THE DAY’S WORK. By Rudyard Kipling. Illustrated. The London Morning Post says: “It would be hard to find better reading***the book is so varied, so full of color and life from end to end, that few who read the first two or three stories will lay it down till they have read the last—and the last is a veritable gem***contains some of the best of his highly vivid work***Kipling is a born story-teller and a man of humor into the bargain.” ELEANOR LEE. By Margaret E. Sangster. With a frontispiece. A story of married life, and attractive picture of wedded bliss***an entertaining story or a man’s redemption through a woman’s love***no one who knows anything of marriage or parenthood can read this story with eyes that are always dry***goes straight to the heart of everyone who knows the meaning of “love” and “home.” THE COLONEL OF THE RED HUZZARS. By John Reed Scott. Illustrated by Clarence F. Underwood. “Full of absorbing charm, sustained interest, and a wealth of thrilling and romantic situations.” “So naÏvely fresh in its handling, so plausible through its naturalness, that it comes like a mountain breeze across the far-spreading desert of similar romances.”—Gazette-Times, Pittsburg. “A slap-dashing day romance.”—New York Sun.
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