afraid I am much better off than I deserve. I wrote to the governor last
night: dear old boy! he will do anything _I_ ask him. By the by, Mary
will be married soon too. I hope you are not _epris_ in that quarter,
Fred?--pray do not faint if you are. _My_ Florence, who can do anything
she likes with anybody (do you think any one _could_ be angry with
_her_?) coaxed old Aspeden into consenting to Mary's marriage with a
fellow she really is in love with--Graham, a barrister. I think she
would have had more difficulty with the lady-mother, if a letter had not
most opportunely come from Graham this morning, announcing the agreeable
fact that he had lots of tin left him unexpectedly. I wish somebody
would do the same by me. And so this Graham will fly down on the wings
of love--represented in these days by the express train--to-morrow
evening."
"And how about the foreign service, Fane?" I could not help asking.
"And do you intend going to London to-morrow?"
"I made those two resolutions under very different circumstances to the
_present_, my dear fellow," laughed Fane: "the first, when I determined
to cut away from Florence altogether, as the only chance of forgetting
her; sad the second, when I thought poor Mount was an accepted lover,
and I confess that I did not feel to have stoicism enough to witness his
happiness. But how absurd it seems that _I_ should have fallen in love,"
continued he; "_I_, that defied the charms of all the Venuses upon
earth--the last person any one would have taken for a marrying man. I am
considerably astonished myself! But I suppose love is like the
whooping-cough, one must have it some time or other." And with these
words the gallant captain raised himself from the sofa, lighted a cigar,
and, strolling out of the room, mounted his horse for Woodlands, where
he was engaged of course to dinner that evening.
And now, gentle reader, what more is there to tell? I fear as it is I
have written too "much about nothing," and as thou hast, I doubt not, a
fine imagination, what need to tell how Lord Avanley and Mr. Aspeden
arranged matters, not like the cross papas in books and dramas, but
amicably, as gentlemen should; how merrily the bells pealed for the
double wedding; how I, as _garcon d'honneur_, flirted with the
bridesmaids to my heart's content; how Fane is my friend, _par
excellence_, still, and how his love is all the stronger for having
"come late," he says. How all the young ladies hated Florence, and all
the mammas and chaperones blessed her for having carried off the
"fascinating younger son," until his brother Lord Castleton dying at the
baths, Fane succeeded of course to the title; how she is, if possible,
even more charming as Lady Castleton than as Florence Aspeden, and how
they were _really_ heart-happy until the Crimean campaign separated
them; and how she turns her beautiful eyes ever to the East and heeds
not, save to repulse, the crowd of admirers who seek to render her
forgetful of her soldier-husband.
True wife as she is, may he live to come back with laurels hardly won,
still to hold her his dearest treasure.
_May 1, 1856._--Fane _has_ come back all safe. I hope, dear reader, you
are as glad as I am. He has distinguished himself stunningly, and is now
lieutenant-colonel of the dear old 110th. You have gloried in the charge
of ours at Balaklava, but as I have not whispered to you my name, you
cannot possibly divine that a rascally Russian gave me a cut on the
sword-arm that very day in question, which laid me _hors de combat_, but
got me my majority.
Well may I, as well as Fane, bless the remembrance of Layton Rise, for
if I had never made the acquaintance of Mary Aspeden--I mean Graham--I
might never have known her _belle-soeur_ (who is now shaking her head
at me for writing about her), and whom, either through my interesting
appearance when I returned home on the sick-list, and my manifold
Crimean adventures, or through the usual perversity of women, who will
fall always in love with scamps who do not deserve half their
goodness--(Edith, you shall _not_ look over my shoulder)--I prevailed on
to accept my noble self and Lancer uniform, with the "_puppyism_" shaken
pretty well out of it! And so here we are _very happy of course_.--"As
yet," suggests Edith.
Ah! Fane and I little knew--poor unhappy wretches that we were--what our
fate was preparing for us when it led us discontented _blases_ and
_ennuyes_ down to our Country Quarters!
THE CHALLONERS
BY E. F. BENSON
_12mo. Cloth, $1.50._
The theme is a father's concern lest his children become
contaminated by what he considers an unwholesome social
atmosphere. The book is filled with Mr. Benson's clever
observations on the English smart set, and the love-story
shows him at his best.
MORGANATIC
BY MAX NORDAU
_12mo. Decorated cloth, $1.50._
This new book by the author of "Degeneration," has many of the
qualities which gave its predecessor such a phenomenal sale. It
is a study of morganatic marriage, and full of strong
situations.
OLIVE LATHAM
By E. L. VOYNICH
Author of "Jack Raymond" and "The Gadfly." Cloth, $1.50
"The author's knowledge of this matter has been painfully personal. Her
husband, a Polish political refugee, at the age of twenty-two, was
arrested and thrown into a vile Russian prison without trial, and spent
five years of his life thereafter in Siberian exile, escaping in 1890
and fleeing to England. Throughout 'Olive Latham' you get the impression
that it is a veritable record of what one woman went through for
love.... This painful, poignant, powerfully-written story permits one
full insight into the cruel workings of Russian justice and its effects
upon the nature of a well-poised Englishwoman. Olive comes out of the
Russian hell alive, and lives to know what happiness is again, but the
horror of those days in St. Petersburg, the remembrance of the
inhumanity which killed her lover never leaves her.... It rings true. It
is a grewsome study of Russian treatment of political offenders. Its
theme is not objectionable--a criticism which has been brought against
other books of Mrs. Voynich's."--_Chicago Record-Herald._
"So vividly are the coming events made to cast their shadows before,
that long before the half-way point is reached the reader knows that
Volodya's doom is near at hand, and that the chief interest of the story
lies not with him, but with the girl, and more specifically with the
curious mental disorders which her long ordeal brings upon her. It is
seldom that an author has succeeded in depicting with such grim horror
the sufferings of a mind that feels itself slipping over the brink of
sanity, and clutches desperately at shadows in the effort to drag itself
back."--_New York Globe._
BACCARAT
BY FRANK DANBY
AUTHOR OF "PIGS IN CLOVER"
_12 mo. Six illustrations in color. Cloth, $1.50._
The story of a young wife left by her husband at a Continental
watering place for a brief summer stay, who, before she is
aware, has drifted into the feverish current of a French Monte
Carlo.
A dramatic and intense book that stirs the pity. One cannot read
"Baccarat" unmoved.
"The finished style and unforgettable story, the living characters, and
compact tale of the new book show it to be a work on which care and time
have been expended.
"Much more dramatic than her first novel, it possesses in common with it
a story of deep and terrible human interest."--_Chicago Tribune._
THE ISSUE
By GEORGE MORGAN
Illustrated. Cloth, $1.50
"Will stand prominently forth as the strongest book that the season has
given us. The novel is a brilliant one, and will command wide
attention."--_Philadelphia Public Ledger._
"The love story running through the book is very tender and
sweet."--_St. Paul Despatch._
"Po, a sweet, lovable heroine."--_The Milwaukee Sentinel._
"Such novels as 'The Issue' are rare upon any theme. It is a work that
must have cost tremendous toil, a masterpiece. It is superior to 'The
Crisis.'"--_Pittsburg Gazette._
"The best novel of the Civil War that we have had."--_Baltimore Sun._
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA.
End of Project Gutenberg's Beatrice Boville and Other Stories, by Ouida