CONCLUSION
Lola stood there, leaning against the partly-opened door, looking at
them, with a smile of curious amusement on her face. Maria, after one
long look, sank to her knees and hid her face in her arms. John and
the Doctor stood silent, both of them trying to find in this pale,
wonderfully gowned, hollow-eyed but beautiful woman some trace of the
girl they had loved. It was Lola--and yet----
"Ah!" She spoke quietly, but with a queer monotony of tone that struck
unpleasantly on the ear. "All my old friends. I hardly expected this."
"You have come back."
"Yes, John, as you so keenly observe, I have come back."
"To stay?"
"For the present, yes."
"I knew that you would come."
"Oh, yes, no doubt. You looked for me to return in rags and
repentance. That naturally would be your idea of a proper retribution.
Well, I am here, but I came in neither rags nor repentance. I do not
even come in fear. I came to claim what is mine by right." She stepped
forward very slowly and sat in the same little chair she had always
chosen. John noticed how languid were all her movements; the Doctor
saw more, and knew now the reason of her return. He would have spoken,
but he heard her father's step in the hall, and for one of the few
times in his life he lost his head. He tried to call out, to warn him,
in some way to prepare him for the shock, but he could not; he seemed
for a moment to have lost the power of speech, of movement, and before
he could recover himself Dr. Barnhelm came into the room.
"I could not sleep, Paul," he began; "I tried, but----" Then he saw
her. She sat in the chair looking at him with no trace of softening on
her face, no shame, just a half smile of amusement. Maria rose from
her knees and stepped toward him, her arms held out as if to offer him
protection. The two men stepped forward, watching his face for the
sign of love and forgiveness they both hoped to see there. It did not
come. He paused for just a moment, then spoke very quietly, with
extreme politeness.
"I had not expected you--quite yet."
"No?" She seemed quite as calm, quite as formal as he was himself.
"You are to remain with us?" He asked the question as one might ask it
of a perfect stranger.
"Yes."
"Your room is ready, I believe. Maria."
"Yes, sir." Maria stepped to his side.
"You will see to everything, Maria."
"Yes, sir."
"Martin!" Dr. Crossett could contain himself no longer. "Is this the
way you meet, you two?"
"Why not?" Lola looked up at him coldly. "We understand one another
quite well, I think."
"I think so," replied her father, "but I must be sure. I must speak
with you alone."
"Come, John. Come, Maria." Dr. Crossett went with them to the door,
but the sight of those two, father and daughter, coldly facing one
another, was more than he could bear, and he returned to Dr. Barnhelm
and, putting both hands on his shoulders, spoke to him with all his
tenderness, all his love for them, and for the dead mother to whom
this sight would have been so terrible, in his voice.
"Martin, if our old friendship means anything to you, I beg you to
remember that she has come back to us, not for blame or reproaches,
but for comfort, for love!"
"I must speak to her alone." Dr. Barnhelm's voice was so firm, his
manner so full of an iron resolution, that Dr. Crossett could say no
more. He turned to Lola with a pitiful attempt at his old lightness of
manner, and without again looking back he left the room, only pausing
to shut the door behind him.
She did not speak, but sat there, never for a moment taking her eyes
from his face and waiting; at last he began.
"Why are you here?"
"I am here because they tell me that I am going to die."
He had not expected this, and for a moment it broke through the stern
repose of his manner.
"What?"
"So they say," she answered calmly, "the best of them. There is
something here." She put her hand to her side.
"Your heart."
"Did you think," she said, her whole face lighting up with a flash of
merriment, "that it was my soul?" She laughed then, quite with her old
hearty laugh, at his cry of horror and at his look of mortal agony as
he shrank away from her, his arms thrown up, as if to ward off some
deadly peril. "They told me," she continued, "that it was not a
question of months or of years, but of hours, and so I came to you."
"Why?"
"Because you are the one man in all the world who can help me. You can
keep me from death, or if I die you can do the thing you did before!"
She made the first movement she had made since she had sunk into her
chair as she raised her hand and pointed to the gleaming brass, the
bright glass, and the coiled wires of his apparatus, which stood there
on the table.
He had known always that this moment was to come to him, had known
what his answer was to be, and he shook his head in refusal.
"You must! That you must swear. I cannot die! Not now! You know that!
You must not let me die! You owe me that, at least!"
She had lost her composure, her breath came in fitful, uneven gasps,
and as she sat there she pressed one hand over her heart.
"Wait!" He spoke quickly. "You must answer me some questions."
"Well."
"You, my daughter, your mother's daughter, left my house with a
married man?"
"Yes."
"You robbed me; you were willing that a good, loyal girl, who
worshipped you, should suffer in your place. You broke the heart of a
young man who loved you?"
"Yes. I did those things."
"Do you feel sorrow for them?"
"No."
"Do you feel shame for what you did then or for all the things you
have done since then?"
"No!"
"You did them because they suited your mood? What you wanted you took;
the thing you felt that you wanted to do you did?"
"Yes."
"Without a regret? Without one single backward thought of us?"
"Why should I think of you?" she asked scornfully. "What did you mean
in my life, any of you, after I once put you all behind me? Does one
think again of the food that nourished him yesterday, or of the sun
that kept him warm? I was born into this world like any other thing
that breathes, to live if I was strong, to die if I was weak. I did
not ask for life, but when it came, why should I not get all of its
brightness if I could? Why should I think of anyone's pleasures or
pains but my own? What is the world to me but the place in which I am
to live my own life, in my own way, and for my own good?"
"You need not go on," he said quietly. "You have told me all that I
wished to know."
"But you have not given me the promise I came here to get." As she
spoke she rose unsteadily from her chair, clinging for support to the
back of it and looking at him with a fierce questioning in her eyes.
"Will you stay by me until my heart fails?"
"I will."
"Will you do your best to save me?"
"I will."
"And if you fail?" At her question her voice rose shrilly, almost to a
scream. "If I die, as they said that I must--what will you do then?
Answer! Answer! Will you bring my life back to me? Will you?"
He would not answer; for a moment she looked at him, her face frozen
into lines of awful terror; then screaming, panting, she staggered to
the door, and opening it she called wildly:
"John! Doctor! Come! Come!"
They rushed in, Maria following, and would have gone to her, but she
waved them back and pointed at her father, her face dreadful with its
look of fear and hatred. "Listen! You--you must help me. You must make
that man swear what I want him to swear, and you must see that he
keeps his word! He must! He won't if he can help it. I know he won't.
Look at him! Look at his face. What do you read there? Pity? Love?
Sympathy? Sympathy for me? Do you? No! Fear! He is afraid that I will
make him swear, and I will--I will----!"
She rushed at him, staggered forward as though she would tear the
promise from him, but as they cried out and threw themselves between,
she stopped suddenly and, throwing up her arms, screamed once and fell
at their feet. Dr. Crossett knelt beside her and in a moment looked up
gravely.
"No pulse! Her heart does not beat. Quick, Martin!" He left her and
sprang to the table, seeking frantically for the electric switch that
would start the machine.
"No!" The father's voice came quietly, but his eyes never left the
figure that lay motionless on the floor.
"What!" John cried out in amazement.
"You must!" Paul Crossett put his hand out and shook the old man
almost roughly. "You must! She is your daughter!"
"She is not my daughter. My daughter died ten months ago. My
daughter's soul is with her mother's, as pure and as white as on the
day I first held her in my arms. I owe no duty to this creature here.
This empty shell from which the soul has been driven out. I am not her
father, but if I were, I still would say--in God's name--let her die!"
He had taken a heavy mallet in his hand, and as he spoke he brought it
down with all his strength upon the delicate mechanism in front of
him. He struck twice, and there was nothing left but a mass of broken
glass and a heap of bent and twisted wires.
THE END
GROSSET & DUNLAP'S DRAMATIZED NOVELS
THE KIND THAT ARE MAKING THEATRICAL HISTORY
May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
WITHIN THE LAW. By Bayard Veiller & Marvin Dana. Illustrated by Wm.
Charles Cooke.
This is a novelization of the immensely successful play which ran for
two years in New York and Chicago.
The plot of this powerful novel is of a young woman's revenge directed
against her employer who allowed her to be sent to prison for three
years on a charge of theft, of which she was innocent.
WHAT HAPPENED TO MARY. By Robert Carlton Brown. Illustrated with
scenes from the play.
This is a narrative of a young and innocent country girl who is
suddenly thrown into the very heart of New York, "the land of her
dreams," where she is exposed to all sorts of temptations and dangers.
The story of Mary is being told in moving pictures and played in
theatres all over the world.
THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM. By David Belasco. Illustrated by John Rae.
This is a novelization of the popular play in which David Warfield, as
Old Peter Grimm, scored such a remarkable success.
The story is spectacular and extremely pathetic but withal, powerful,
both as a book and as a play.
THE GARDEN OF ALLAH. By Robert Hichens.
This novel is an intense, glowing epic of the great desert, sunlit
barbaric, with its marvelous atmosphere of vastness and loneliness.
It is a book of rapturous beauty, vivid in word painting. The play has
been staged with magnificent cast and gorgeous properties.
BEN HUR. A Tale of the Christ. By General Lew Wallace.
The whole world has placed this famous Religious-Historical Romance on
a height of pre-eminence which no other novel of its time has reached.
The clashing of rivalry and the deepest human passions, the perfect
reproduction of brilliant Roman life, and the tense, fierce atmosphere
of the arena have kept their deep fascination. A tremendous dramatic
success.
BOUGHT AND PAID FOR. By George Broadhurst and Arthur Hornblow.
Illustrated with scenes from the play.
A stupendous arraignment of modern marriage which has created an
interest on the stage that is almost unparalleled. The scenes are laid
in New York, and deal with conditions among both the rich and poor.
The interest of the story turns on the day-by-day developments which
show the young wife the price she has paid.
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GROSSET & DUNLAP'S DRAMATIZED NOVELS
Original, sincere and courageous--often amusing--the kind that are
making theatrical history.
MADAME X. By Alexandre Bisson and J. W. McConaughy. Illustrated with
scenes from the play.
A beautiful Parisienne became an outcast because her husband would not
forgive an error of her youth. Her love for her son is the great final
influence in her career. A tremendous dramatic success.
THE GARDEN OF ALLAH. By Robert Hichens.
An unconventional English woman and an inscrutable stranger meet and
love in an oasis of the Sahara. Staged this season with magnificent
cast and gorgeous properties.
THE PRINCE OF INDIA. By Lew. Wallace.
A glowing romance of the Byzantine Empire, presenting with
extraordinary power the siege of Constantinople, and lighting its
tragedy with the warm underglow of an Oriental romance. As a play it
is a great dramatic spectacle.
TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY. By Grace Miller White. Illust. by Howard
Chandler Christy.
A girl from the dregs of society, loves a young Cornell University
student, and it works startling changes in her life and the lives of
those about her. The dramatic version is one of the sensations of the
season.
YOUNG WALLINGFORD. By George Randolph Chester. Illust. by F. R. Gruger
and Henry Raleigh.
A series of clever swindles conducted by a cheerful young man, each of
which is just on the safe side of a State's prison offence. As
"Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford," it is probably the most amusing expose
of money manipulation ever seen on the stage.
THE INTRUSION OF JIMMY. By P. G. Wodehouse. Illustrations by Will
Grefe.
Social and club life in London and New York, an amateur burglary
adventure and a love story. Dramatized under the title of "A Gentleman
of Leisure," it furnishes hours of laughter to the play-goers.
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STORIES OF WESTERN LIFE
May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE, By Zane Grey. Illustrated by Douglas Duer.
In this picturesque romance of Utah of some forty years ago, we are
permitted to see the unscrupulous methods employed by the invisible
hand of the Mormon Church to break the will of those refusing to
conform to its rule.
FRIAR TUCK, By Robert Alexander Wason. Illustrated by Stanley L. Wood.
Happy Hawkins tells us, in his humorous way, how Friar Tuck lived
among the Cowboys, how he adjusted their quarrels and love affairs and
how he fought with them and for them when occasion required.
THE SKY PILOT, By Ralph Connor. Illustrated by Louis Rhead.
There is no novel, dealing with the rough existence of cowboys, so
charming in the telling, abounding as it does with the freshest and
the truest pathos.
THE EMIGRANT TRAIL, By Geraldine Bonner. Colored frontispiece by John
Rae.
The book relates the adventures of a party on its overland pilgrimage,
and the birth and growth of the absorbing love of two strong men for a
charming heroine.
THE BOSS OF WIND RIVER, By A. M. Chisholm. Illustrated by Frank Tenney
Johnson.
This is a strong, virile novel with the lumber industry for its
central theme and a love story full of interest as a sort of subplot.
A PRAIRIE COURTSHIP, By Harold Bindloss.
A story of Canadian prairies in which the hero is stirred, through the
influence of his love for a woman, to settle down to the heroic
business of pioneer farming.
JOYCE OF THE NORTH WOODS, By Harriet T. Comstock. Illustrated by John
Cassel.
A story of the deep woods that shows the power of love at work among
its primitive dwellers. It is a tensely moving study of the human
heart and its aspirations that unfolds itself through thrilling
situations and dramatic developments.
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STORIES OF RARE CHARM BY GENE STRATTON-PORTER
May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's list.
THE HARVESTER. Illustrated by W. L. Jacobs
"The Harvester," David Langston, is a man of the woods and fields, who
draws his living from the prodigal hand of Mother Nature herself. If
the book had nothing in it but the splendid figure of this man, with
his sure grip on life, his superb optimism, and his almost miraculous
knowledge of nature secrets, it would be notable. But when the Girl
comes to his "Medicine Woods," and the Harvester's whole sound,
healthy, large outdoor being realizes that this is the highest point
of life which has come to him--there begins a romance, troubled and
interrupted, yet of the rarest idyllic quality.
FRECKLES. Decorations by E. Stetson Crawford
Freckles is a nameless waif when the tale opens, but the way in which
he takes hold of life; the nature friendships he forms in the great
Limberlost Swamp; the manner in which everyone who meets him succumbs
to the charm of his engaging personality; and his love-story with "The
Angel" are full of real sentiment.
A GIRL OF THE LIMBERLOST. Illustrated by Wladyslaw T. Brenda.
The story of a girl of the Michigan woods; a buoyant, lovable type of
the self-reliant American. Her philosophy is one of love and kindness
towards all things; her hope is never dimmed. And by the sheer beauty
of her soul, and the purity of her vision, she wins from barren and
unpromising surroundings those rewards of high courage.
It is an inspiring story of a life worth while and the rich beauties
of the out-of-doors are strewn through all its pages.
AT THE FOOT OF THE RAINBOW. Illustrations in colors by Oliver Kemp.
Design and decorations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.
The scene of this charming, idyllic love story is laid in Central
Indiana. The story is one of devoted friendship, and tender
self-sacrificing love; the friendship that gives freely without
return, and the love that seeks first the happiness of the object. The
novel is brimful of the most beautiful word painting of nature, and
its pathos and tender sentiment will endear it to all.
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MYRTLE REED'S NOVELS
May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list
LAVENDER AND OLD LACE.
A charming story of a quaint corner of New England where bygone
romance finds a modern parallel. The story centers round the coming of
love to the young people on the staff of a newspaper--and it is 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 SPINNER IN THE SUN.
Miss Myrtle Reed may always be depended upon to write a story in which
poetry, charm, tenderness and humor are combined into a clever and
entertaining book. Her characters are delightful and she always
displays a quaint humor of expression and a quiet feeling of pathos
which give a touch of active realism to all her writings. In "A
Spinner in the Sun" she tells an old-fashioned love story, of a veiled
lady who lives in solitude and whose features her neighbors have never
seen. There is a mystery at the heart of the book that throws over it
the glamour of romance.
THE MASTER'S VIOLIN.
A love story in a musical atmosphere. A picturesque, old German
virtuoso is the reverent possessor of a genuine "Cremona." He consents
to take for his pupil a handsome youth who proves to have an aptitude
for technique, but not the soul of an artist. The youth has led the
happy, careless life of a modern, well-to-do young American and he
cannot, with his meagre past, express the love, the passion and the
tragedies of life and all its happy phases as can the master who has
lived life in all its fulness. But a girl comes into his life--a
beautiful bit of human driftwood that his aunt had taken into her
heart and home, and through his passionate love for her, he learns the
lessons that life has to give--and his soul awakes.
Founded on a fact that all artists realize.
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JOHN FOX, JR'S. STORIES OF THE KENTUCKY MOUNTAINS
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THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE. Illustrated by F. C. Yohn.
The "lonesome pine" from which the story takes its name was a tall
tree that stood in solitary splendor on a mountain top. The fame of
the pine lured a young engineer though Kentucky to catch the trail,
and when he finally climbed to its shelter he found not only the pine
but the _foot-prints of a girl_. And the girl proved to be lovely,
piquant, and the trail of these girlish foot-prints led the young
engineer a madder chase than "the trail of the lonesome pine."
THE LITTLE SHEPHERD OF KINGDOM COME. Illustrated by F. C. Yohn.
This is a story of Kentucky, in a settlement known as "Kingdom Come."
It is a life rude, semi-barbarous; but natural and honest from which
often springs the flower of civilization.
"Chad," the "little shepherd" did not know who he was nor whence he
came--he had just wandered from door to door since early childhood,
seeking shelter with kindly mountaineers who gladly fathered and
mothered this waif about whom there was such a mystery--a charming
waif, by the way, who could play the banjo better that anyone else in
the mountains.
A KNIGHT OF THE CUMBERLAND. Illustrated by F. C. Yohn.
The scenes are laid along the waters of the Cumberland, the lair of
moonshiner and feudsman. The knight is a moonshiner's son, and the
heroine a beautiful girl perversely christened "The Blight." Two
impetuous young Southerners' fall under the spell of "The Blight's"
charms and she learns what a large part jealousy and pistols have in
the love making of the mountaineers.
Included in this volume is "Hell fer-Sartain" and other stories, some
of Mr. Fox's most entertaining Cumberland valley narratives.
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B. M. Bower's Novels Thrilling Western Romances
Large 12 mos. Handsomely bound in cloth. Illustrated
CHIP, OF THE FLYING U
A breezy wholesome tale, wherein the love affairs of Chip and Delia
Whitman are charmingly and humorously told. Chip's jealousy of Dr.
Cecil Grantham, who turns out to be a big, blue eyed young woman is
very amusing. A clever, realistic story of the American Cow-puncher.
THE HAPPY FAMILY
A lively and amusing story, dealing with the adventures of eighteen
jovial, big hearted Montana cowboys. Foremost amongst them, we find
Ananias Green, known as Andy, whose imaginative powers cause many
lively and exciting adventures.
HER PRAIRIE KNIGHT
A realistic story of the plains, describing a gay party of Easterners
who exchange a cottage at Newport for the rough homeliness of a
Montana ranch-house. The merry-hearted cowboys, the fascinating
Beatrice, and the effusive Sir Redmond, become living, breathing
personalities.
THE RANGE DWELLERS
Here are everyday, genuine cowboys, just as they really exist.
Spirited action, a range feud between two families, and a Romeo and
Juliet courtship make this a bright, jolly, entertaining story,
without a dull page.
THE LURE OF DIM TRAILS
A vivid portrayal of the experience of an Eastern author, among the
cowboys of the West, in search of "local color" for a new novel. "Bud"
Thurston learns many a lesson while following "the lure of the dim
trails" but the hardest, and probably the most welcome, is that of
love.
THE LONESOME TRAIL
"Weary" Davidson leaves the ranch for Portland, where conventional
city life palls on him. A little branch of sage brush, pungent with
the atmosphere of the prairie, and the recollection of a pair of large
brown eyes soon compel his return. A wholesome love story.
THE LONG SHADOW
A vigorous Western story, sparkling with the free, outdoor, life of a
mountain ranch. Its scenes shift rapidly and its actors play the game
of life fearlessly and like men. It is a fine love story from start to
finish.
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CHARMING BOOKS FOR GIRLS
May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list
WHEN PATTY WENT TO COLLEGE, By Jean Webster. Illustrated by C. D.
Williams.
One of the best stories of life in a girl's college that has ever been
written. It is bright, whimsical and entertaining, lifelike, laughable
and thoroughly human.
JUST PATTY, By Jean Webster. Illustrated by C. M. Relyea.
Patty is full of the joy of living, fun-loving, given to ingenious
mischief for its own sake, with a disregard for pretty convention
which is an unfailing source of joy to her fellows.
THE POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL, By Eleanor Gates. With four full page
illustrations.
This story relates the experience of one of those unfortunate children
whose early days are passed in the companionship of a governess,
seldom seeing either parent, and famishing for natural love and
tenderness. A charming play as dramatized by the author.
REBECCA OF SUNNYBROOK FARM, By Kate Douglas Wiggin.
One of the most beautiful studies of childhood--Rebecca's artistic,
unusual and quaintly charming qualities stand out midst a circle of
austere New Englanders. The stage version is making a phenomenal
dramatic record.
NEW CHRONICLES OF REBECCA, By Kate Douglas Wiggin. Illustrated by F.
C. Yohn.
Additional episodes in the girlhood of this delightful heroine that
carry Rebecca through various stages to her eighteenth birthday.
REBECCA MARY, By Annie Hamilton Donnell. Illustrated by Elizabeth
Shippen Green.
This author possesses the rare gift of portraying all the grotesque
little joys and sorrows and scruples of this very small girl with a
pathos that is peculiarly genuine and appealing.
EMMY LOU: Her Book and Heart, By George Madden Martin. Illustrated by
Charles Louis Hinton.
Emmy Lou is irresistibly lovable, because she is so absolutely real.
She is just a bewitchingly innocent, huggable little maid. The book is
wonderfully human.
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