"What do you suppose has become of them, my dear? Gwendolen! Horatio!
Where are you?"
Ah, but the pathos of it all! Gwendolen! Horatio! Where are you? Were
you wilfully, heartlessly selfish, indifferent, in your strange ecstasy,
to the sorrow that you brought to others, or were you powerless in the
grasp of fate, forced through psychical affinity to disappear thus
weirdly from the sight of men?
You must see, dear reader, that what I have written cannot come to an
end that will satisfy either your mind or your heart. I began with an
exclamation point; I must conclude with an interrogation mark. And in
that obligation I find that my tale resembles every human life. We come
to earth with a cry, and we leave it with a question. So far as man is
concerned, evolution has been merely a zigzag progress up from
protoplasm to a problem.
And how has Tom withstood the unmaterialistic revelation that I have
been forced to make to him and to the public? Has he been shaken in his
faith in the teachings of Buechner, Haeckel and Herr Plaetner? Of
course, being a man, he is slow to admit that his nursery has vouchsafed
to him more enlightenment than his library, but he has grown very gentle
and sympathetic when I talk to him about the possibility that the dreams
of the brooding East may be nearer the ultimate truth than the
syllogisms of the practical West. You see, it was a condition, not a
theory, which confronted Tom that morning in our empty nursery.
Nevertheless, he tells me that he has just hired a young detective, who
is said to have a genius for solving mysteries that his older colleagues
have abandoned as beyond their skill. Let me assure you, dear reader,
that if Tom's latest employee gets on the track of Gwendolen Van
Voorhees and little Horatio Minturn, I shall see to it that the public
be instantly informed of the fact.
* * * * * * * *
*A PURITAN WITCH*
_*A Romantic Love Story*_
*By MARVIN DANA*
_*Author of "The Woman of Orchids," etc.*_
*THRILLING * TENDER * ABSORBING*
This is a romance that abounds in the best qualities of the best
fiction: action that is essential and vigorous, sentiment that is
genuine and pure, a plot that is new and stirring, a setting that is
fitting and distinctive. The artistic conception of the story happily
unites realism and romance. The reader's interest is aroused in the
first chapter; it is increased steadily to the climax of a happy ending.
*THE ILLUSTRATIONS ARE FROM
DRAWINGS IN PHOTOGRAVURE*
*By P. R. AUDIBERT*