silent houses with their wrecked windows. A child came whistling along
behind her, the little grandson of the bedridden Madame Duguet.
Madeleine did what she had never done before in her life. She stopped
him, made him take off his cap and put into it a part of her loaf of
bread and one of the pieces of meat.
"Oh, meat!" cried the child. "We never had meat before!"
He set off at a run and disappeared.
As she passed the butcher-shop, she saw an old man hobbling about on
crutches, attempting to sweep up the last of the broken glass. It was
the father of the butcher. She stepped in, and stooping, held the
dustpan for him. He recognized her, after a moment's surprise at the
alteration in her expression, and said, "Merci, madame." They worked
together silently a moment, and then he said: "I'm going to try to keep
Louis' business open for him. I think I can till he gets back. The war
_can't_ be long. You, madame, will you be going back to your parents?"
Madeleine walked out without speaking. She could not have answered him
if she had tried. In front of the Town Hall she saw a tall old woman in
black toiling up the steps with a large package under each arm. She put
down her basket and went to help. It was the white-haired wife of the
old mayor, who turned a ghastly face on Madeleine to explain: "I am
bringing back the papers to put them in place as he always kept them.
And then I shall stay here to guard them and to do his work till
somebody else can come." She laid the portfolios down on a desk and said
in a low, strange voice, looking out of the window: "It was before that
wall. I heard the shots."
Madeleine clasped her hands together tightly, convulsively, in a gesture
of utter horror, of utter sympathy, and looked wildly at the older
woman. The wife of the mayor said: "I must go back to the house now and
get more of the papers. Everything must be in order." She added, as
they went down the steps together: "What will you do about going on with
your husband's business? Will you go back to live with your mother? We
need a pharmacy so much in town. There will be no doctor, you know. You
would have to be everything in that way."
This time Madeleine answered at once: "Yes, oh yes, I shall keep the
pharmacy open. I already know about the accounts and the simple things.
And I have thought how I can study my husband's books on pharmacy, at
night after the children are in bed. I can learn. Jules learned."
She stooped to pick up her basket. The other woman went her way.
Madeleine stepped forward into a new and awful and wonderful world along
a new and thorny and danger-beset path into a new and terrifying and
pleasureless life.
A wave of something stern and mighty swelled within her. She put down
her head and walked forward strongly, as though breasting and conquering
a great wind.
BY DOROTHY CANFIELD
THE BENT TWIG
The story of a lovely, opened-eyed, opened-minded American girl.
"The romance holds you, the philosophy grips you, the
characters delight you, the humor charms you--one of the most
realistic American families ever drawn."--_Cleveland
Plaindealer._
THE SQUIRREL-CAGE
An unusual personal and real story of American family life.
"We recall no recent interpretation of American life which has
possessed more of dignity and less of shrillness than
this."--_The Nation._
HILLSBORO PEOPLE
With occasional Vermont verse by SARAH N. CLEGHORN.
"No writer since Lowell has interpreted the rural Yankee more
faithfully."--_Review of Reviews._
THE REAL MOTIVE
Unlike "Hillsboro People," this collection of stories has many
backgrounds, but it is unified by the underlying humanity which unites
all the characters.
UNDERSTOOD BETSY
Illustrated by ADA C. WILLIAMSON.
"Children will read it eagerly for the story of a very real
little girl. Parents will find it worth a whole shelf of books
on child training. Teachers will get more than one pointer from
its pages, and anyone with a grain of humor can't afford to
miss it."--_Publishers' Weekly._
BY SIMEON STRUNSKY
PROFESSOR LATIMER'S PROGRESS
The "sentimental journey" of a middle-aged American scholar upon whose
soul the war has come down heavily, and who seeks a cure--and an
answer--in a walking trip up-State.
"The war has produced no other book like 'Professor Latimer's
Progress,' with its sanative masculine blend of deep feeling,
fluid intelligence, and heart-easing mirth, its people a joyous
company. It is a spiritual adventure, the adventure of the
American soul in search of a new foothold in a tottering world.
We have so many books of documents, of animus, or argument;
what a refreshment to fall in, for once in a way, with a book
of that quiet creative humor whose 'other name' is
wisdom."--_The Nation._
LITTLE JOURNEYS TOWARDS PARIS (1914-1918)
By W. HOHENZOLLERN, translated and adapted for unteutored minds by
SIMEON STRUNSKY.
"If only the Germans could be supplied with translations of
this exquisite satire they would die laughing at the grisly
joke on themselves. Not only funny, it is a final reductio ad
absurdum of the Hun philosophy."--_Chicago Tribune._
BELSHAZZAR COURT
Or Village Life in New York City
Graceful essays about the average citizen in his apartment house, in the
street, at the theater, the baseball park, with his children, etc.
BY MARGARET WIDDEMER
_NOVELS_
THE WISHING-RING MAN
A romance of a New England summer colony.
"Margaret Widdemer, who says she likes happy stories, proves it
by writing them for other people to read.... The book is full
of charm, amusing incident, and gay conversation; and the
interest in the situation holds to the last half page."--_N.Y.
Evening Post._
YOU'RE ONLY YOUNG ONCE
Miss Widdemer's new novel is the story of youth's romance as it came to
the five girls and three boys of a happy American family.
_POETRY_
FACTORIES, AND OTHER POEMS
Second printing.
"An art which speaks ever so eloquently for itself.... Splendid
effort both in thought and execution, and ranks with the cry of
the children as voiced by Mrs. Browning."--_San Francisco
Chronicle._
"Among the foremost of American versifiers when she touches the
great passionate realities of life."--_Living Age._
THE OLD ROAD TO PARADISE
_In Press._
By ROMAIN ROLLAND
JEAN-CHRISTOPHE
Translated from the French by GILBERT CANNAN. In three volumes.
This great trilogy, the life story of a musician, at first the
sensation of musical circles in Paris, has come to be one of
the most discussed books among literary circles in France,
England and America.
Each volume of the American edition has its own individual
interest, can be understood without the other, and comes to a
definite conclusion.
_The three volumes with the titles of the French volumes
included are_:
JEAN-CHRISTOPHE
DAWN--MORNING--YOUTH--REVOLT
JEAN-CHRISTOPHE IN PARIS
THE MARKET PLACE--ANTOINETTE--THE HOUSE
JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: JOURNEY'S END
LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP--THE BURNING BUSH--THE NEW DAWN
_Some Noteworthy Comments_
"'Hats off, gentlemen--a genius.' One may mention
'Jean-Christophe' in the same breath with Balzac's 'Lost
Illusions'; it is as big as that.... It is moderate praise to
call it with Edmund Gosse 'the noblest work of fiction of the
twentieth century.' A book as big, as elemental, as original
as though the art of fiction began to-day. . We have nothing
comparable in English literature. ."--_Springfield Republican._
"If a man wishes to understand those devious currents which
make up the great, changing sea of modern life, there is hardly
a single book more illustrative, more informing and more
inspiring."--_Current Opinion._
"Must rank as one of the very few important works of fiction of
the last decade. A vital compelling work. We who love it feel
that it will live."--_Independent._
"The most momentous novel that has come to us from France, or
from any other European country, in a decade."--_Boston
Transcript._
_A 32-page booklet about Romain Rolland and Jean-Christophe, with
portraits and complete reviews, on request._
End of Project Gutenberg's Home Fires in France, by Dorothy Canfield