So unimportant, was it?
She had thought it merely some folly of the children's; they were always taking silly little frights. She did remember that she had told Captain Baynell once before that the military salute was the child's sign for Julius Roscoe, and that she had repeated this information then. No—Captain Baynell made no search in the library where the supposed ghost was seen,—no,—nor elsewhere.
When Mrs. Gwynn, under the stress of these revelations, broke down and burst into tears, the eyes of the members of the court-martial intently regarding her were unsympathetic eyes, despite her beauty and charm,—the more unsympathetic because Judge Roscoe had also remembered these circumstances, stating, however, that they had not alarmed him, for Captain Baynell evidently did not understand.
"Is his knowledge of English, then, so limited?" he was ironically asked.
Old Ephraim, too, was able to recollect the fact of the child's disclosure of the presence of Julius Roscoe in the house to Captain Baynell,—declaring, though, that he himself had hindered its comprehension by upsetting the coffee urn full of scalding coffee, which he had just brought to the table where the group were sitting, thus effecting a diversion of interest.
All the witnesses were dismissed at last, and the final formal defence was presented in writing. The room was cleared and the judge-advocate read aloud to the members of the court the proceedings from the beginning. Laboriously, earnestly, impartially, they bent their minds to weigh all the details, and then for a time they sat in secluded deliberation—a long time, despite the fact that the conclusions of the majority admitted of no doubt. Several of the members revolted against the inevitable result, argued with vehemence, recapitulated all in Baynell's favor with the fervor of eager partisans, and at last protested with a passion of despair against the decision, for the finding was adverse and the unanimity of two-thirds of the votes rendered the penalty death.
The sentence was of course kept secret until it should be approved and formally promulgated by authority. But the public had readily divined the result and anticipated naught from the revision of the proceedings.
Suspense is itself a species of calamity. It has all the poignant acuteness of hope without the buoyancy of a sustained expectation, and all the anguish of despair without its sense of conclusiveness and the surcease of striving. Pending the review of the action of the court-martial Baynell discovered the wondrous scope of human suffering disassociated from physical pain. He had seriously thought he might die of his woundedpride, thus touched in honor, in patriotism, in life itself, and therefore he was amazed by the degree of solace he experienced in the sight of a woman's tears shed for his sake. For to Leonora Gwynn he seemed a persecuted martyr, with all a soldier's valor and a saint's impeccability. No one could know better than she the falsity of the charges against him, and in her resentment against the unhappy chances and the military law that had overwhelmed him, and her absolute despair for his fate, he enlisted all her heart. Those high and noble qualities which he possessed and which she revered were elicited in the extremity of his mortal peril. His exacting conscientiousness; his steadfast courage on the brink of despair; his absolute truth; his constancy in adversity; his strict sense of justice which would not suffer him to blame his friends whose concealments had wrought his ruin, nor his enemies who seemed indeed rancorously zealous in aspersing him that they might exculpate themselves at his risk; his lofty sense of honor which he valued more than life itself,—all showed in genuine proportions in the bleak unidealizing light which an actual vital crisis brings to bear on the incidents of personal character.
She had even a more tender sympathy for his simpler traits, the filial friendship which he still manifested for Judge Roscoe, his affectionate remembrance of the little children of the household, the blended pride and delicacy with whichhe restrained all expression of the feeling he entertained toward her, that might seem to seek to utilize and magnify her unguarded admissions on the witness-stand,—influenced, as he feared, by her anxiety lest her rejection of his suit should militate to his disadvantage in the estimation of the court. In truth, however, there was scant need of his reserve on this point, for she made no disguise of her sentiment toward him. It became obvious, not only to him, but to all with whom she spoke. Indeed, she would have married him then, that she might be near him, that she might share his calamities, even while his disgrace, his everlasting contumely, seemed already accomplished, and he had scarcely a chance for life itself. And yet, hardly less than he, she valued those finer vibrations of chivalric ethics to which his every fibre thrilled. "I know that you are the very soul of honor," she said to him, "and that this certain assurance ought to be sufficient to nullify the stings of calumny,—but I had rather that you had died long ago, that I had never seen you, that I were dead myself, than that your record as a soldier, your probity as a man, the truth, the eternal truth, should even be questioned."
Judge Roscoe, too, was infinitely dismayed by this strange blunder of circumstance, and flinched under the sense of responsibility, of a breach of hospitality, albeit unintentional, that his guest should incur so desperate a disaster by reasonof a sojourn under his roof. Baynell was constrained to comfort them both, but in the hope to which he magnanimously affected to appeal he had scant confidence indeed.
Even amidst the turmoil of his emotions and the crisis of his personal jeopardy he did not forget that the hand that hurled the bolts of doom had been innocent of cruel intent. "Never let her know," he warned Judge Roscoe, again and again. For although the testimony of the deaf-mute must needs have been elicited, she would be grieved to learn that she had wrought all these woes. Though literally the truth, it had the deceptive functions of a lie. It traduced him. It convicted him, the faithful soldier, of treachery. It hurled him down from his honorable esteem, and he seemed the basest of the base, traitor to his comrades, false to his oath, renegade to his cause, recreant to every sanction that can control a gentleman, and stained with blood-guiltiness for every life that was sacrificed in the skirmish by reason of his secret colloguing with the enemy.
Nevertheless, he tenderly considered how frightful a shock she would experience should she realize that it was she who had set this hideous monster of falsehood grimly a-stalk as fact. "But never let her know!" he insisted with an unselfish thoughtfulness that endeared him the more to those who already loved him. In that silent life of hers, so much apart, he wouldfain that not even a vague echo of reproach should sound. In those mute thoughts, which none might divine, he would not evoke a suggestion of regret. One could hardly forecast the effect, he urged. A sorrow like this might prove beyond the reach of reason, of remonstrance, of consolation. She loved him, the silent, little thing! and he loved her. Never, never, let her know.
And thus, although in the storm centre all else was changed, swept with sudden gusts of tempestuous grief, now and again reverberating with strange echoes of tumults beyond, all a-tremor with terror and frightful presage, calm still prevailed in her restricted little life. But to maintain this placidity was not without its special difficulties. More than once her grandfather's deep depression caught her intelligent attention, and she would pause to gaze wistfully, helplessly, sadly, upon him. Upon discovering Leonora in tears one day she flung herself on her knees beside her cousin, and kissing her hands wept and sobbed bitterly in sympathy with she knew not what. Sometimes she was moved to ask the dreary little twins if aught were amiss, and when they shook their heads in negation, she promptly signed that she did not believe them. Once she came perilously near the solution of the mystery that baffled her. Missing the visits of Baynell, who of course was still in arrest, she asked the twins if he were ill, and when they hysterically protestedthat he was well, a shadow of aghast apprehension hovered over her face, and she solemnly queried if he were dead.
The phrase, "Never let her know," was like a dying wish, as sacred, as imperative, and Judge Roscoe hastily interfered to assure her that Baynell was indeed alive and well, and affected to rebuke the twins, saying that they were getting so dull and slow in the manual alphabet that they could scarcely answer a simple question of their sister's, and set them to spelling on their fingers under Lucille's instruction the first stanza of "The boy stood on the burning deck."
Thus the continued calm of her life was akin to the quiet languors of the sweet summer evening so mutely reddening in the west, so softly changing to the azure and silver of twilight, so splendid in the vast diffusive radiance of the soundless moon. All the growths were as speechless. The rose was full of the voiceless dew. What need of words when the magnolia buds burst into bloom without a rustle. With a placid heart she watched the echoless march of the constellations. The daily brightening of the sumptuous season, the vivid presentment of the great pageant of the distant mountains glowed noiselessly. Amidst this encompassing hush, in suave content she thought out her inconceivable, unexpressed thoughts, with a smile in her eyes and the seal of eternal silence on her lips. Forhis behest was a sacred charge,—and she did not know,—she never knew!
The evidence on which Baynell had been convicted and which had seemed so conclusive to the general court-martial, present during the testimony of the deaf-mute and its subsequent unwilling confirmation by the other witnesses for the defence, was not so decisive on a calm revision of the papers. The doubt remained as to how much he could be presumed to understand from the peculiar methods of the dumb child's disclosure and the scattered haphazard comments of the household. The circumstances were deemed by the reviewing authorities extra hazardous, difficult, and peculiar. The matter hung for a time in abeyance, but at last the court was ordered to reconvene for the rectification of certain irregularities in its proceedings, and for the reconsideration of its action in this case.
The interval of time which had elapsed, with its proclivity to annul the effects of surprise and the first convincing force of a definite and irrefutable testimony, had served to foster doubt, not of the fact itself, but as to Baynell's comprehension of it. Perhaps the incredulity obviously entertained in high quarters rendered certain members of the court-martial less sure of the justifiability of their own conclusions. The maturer deliberation of the body accomplished the amendment of those points in the record which had challenged criticism, and the ripenedjudgment exercised in the reconsideration was manifested in such modifications of the view of the evidence adduced that, although several members still adhered to the earlier findings, the strength of the opposing opinion was so recruited that a majority of the number concurred in it, and the vote resulted in an acquittal.
Hence Captain Baynell had again the stern pleasure of leading his battery into action. His pride never fully recovered its elasticity after the days of his humiliation, but his martyrdom was not altogether without guerdon. His marriage to Leonora, which was a true union of hearts and hands, took place almost immediately. Compassion, faith, the admiration of strength and courage in adversity, proved more potent elements with Leonora Gwynn than her appreciation of the prowess that stormed the fort.
Beyond his promotion and a captain's shoulder straps, Julius Roscoe gained naught by his signal victory. Although he seemed to meet his disappointment in love jauntily enough, he went abroad almost immediately after the cessation of hostilities in America, and still later attained distinction as a soldier of fortune especially in the Franco-Prussian war. Now and again echoes from those foreign drum-beats penetrated the tranquillities of the storm centre, and Lucille, looking over the shoulders of the other two "ladies," officiously opening the evening paper to discern some item perchance of the absent,would glance up elated at the elders of the group, lifting her hand to her forehead with that spirited military salute, so expressive of Soldier-Boy.
THE END
THE COMMON LOTBy ROBERT HERRICKAuthor of "The Real World," "The Web of Life," "The Gospel of Freedom," etc.Cloth12mo$1.50"Mr. Herrick has written a novel of searching insight and absorbing interest; a first-rate story ... sincere to the very core in its matter and in its art."—Hamilton W. Mabie."The book is a bit of the living America of to-day, a true picture of one of its most significant phases ... living, throbbing with reality."—New York Evening Mail."Novels of its style and quality are few and far between ... he tells a story that is worth the telling ... it is a study of life as he sees it, and as thousands of his readers try to avoid seeing it."—Boston Transcript.The Queen's Quair, or The Six Years' TragedyBy MAURICE HEWLETTAuthor of "Richard Yea-and-Nay," "The Forest Lovers," etc., etc.Cloth12mo$1.50"Mr. Hewlett has produced in this book an enthralling work. It is at once a chronicle of certain momentous years in the life of his famous heroine and a searching study of her character.... 'The Queen's Quair' is profoundly absorbing, and no one among the novelists of to-day save Mr. Hewlett could have written it. No one else could have sustained such a long narrative on so high a level with such consummate art."—New York Tribune."No piece of historical fiction has so adequately described the career of the unfortunate and misguided Queen of Scotland, and no other writer has approached Mr. Hewlett in dramatic power and literary skill. He uses words that express his meaning precisely.... His conciseness of forcible expression is indeed admirable. The story, too, is full of action and commands undivided attention. Mary's portrait leaves a lasting impression."—Boston Budget.DOCTOR TOM, The Coroner of BrettBy JOHN WILLIAMS STREETERAuthor of "The Fat of the Land," etc.Cloth12mo$1.50"A good story of the Kentucky mountains. The reader is caught at the start and held to the end."—New York Sun."One of the best and manliest novels that have appeared in a year."—Philadelphia Press.THE CROSSINGBy WINSTON CHURCHILLAuthor of "Richard Carvel," "The Crisis," etc.Illustrated in ColorsCloth12mo$1.50"Mr. Churchill's work, for one reason or another, always commands the attention of a large reading public."—The Criterion."'The Crossing' is a thoroughly interesting book, packed with exciting adventure and sentimental incident, yet faithful to historical fact both in detail and in spirit."—The Dial."Mr. Churchill's romance fills in a gap which history has been unable to span, that gives life and color, even the very soul, to events which otherwise treated would be cold and dark and inanimate."—Mr.Horace R. Hudsonin theSan Francisco Chronicle.WHOSOEVER SHALL OFFENDBy F. MARION CRAWFORDAuthor of "The Heart of Rome," "Saracinesca," "Via Crucis," etc.Illustrated by Horace T. CarpenterCloth12mo$1.50"Not since George Eliot's 'Romola' brought her to her foreordained place among literary immortals has there appeared in English fiction a character at once so strong and sensitive, so entirely and consistently human, so urgent and compelling in its appeal to sustained, sympathetic interest."—Philadelphia North American."She is the most womanly woman Mr. Crawford has given us in many a day, and after her another peasant, bloody, brooding Ercole, is most alive."—Boston Daily Advertiser.THE QUEST OF JOHN CHAPMANTHE STORY OF A FORGOTTEN HEROBy NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS, D.D.Author of "The Influence of Christ in Modern Life," etc.Cloth12mo$1.50"In this story Mr. Hillis has woven the life of the Middle West, the heroism and holiness of those descendants of the New England Puritans who emigrated still further into the wilderness. The story is of great spiritual significance, and yet of the earth, earthy—hence its strength and vitality.—Montreal Daily Star."No practised technist takes hold of his reader's interest with a prompter or surer grip than does this author at the very outset. Nowhere else in his book does he demonstrate his fitness for the work of fiction better than in the purely creative work. The style leaves little to be desired, for Dr. Hillis is, as we all know, a stylist. What perhaps is a surprise and also a pleasure, is the dramatic power revealed by the author. The book is forceful, its poetic opportunities are never missed, it is vivid and striking in its scenes, and pathos is a powerful element in the work."—Brooklyn Daily Eagle.THE TWO CAPTAINSA STORY OF BONAPARTE AND NELSONBy CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADYAuthor of "A Little Traitor to the South," etc.IllustratedCloth12mo$1.50The action takes place in the years 1793 and 1798. The historic incidents centre around the siege of Toulon in Southern France in 1793, in which General Bonaparte first attracts the attention of the world to his genius; and the epoch-marking Battle of the Nile in the Bay of Aboukir, in Egypt, in 1798, in which Admiral Nelson forever shatters the Frenchman's dream of empire in the East. The story revolves around the love of Captain Robert Macartney, an Irishman who is an officer in the English Navy under Nelson, and Louise de Vaudémont, granddaughter of Vice-Admiral de Vaudémont, a great Royalist noble and officer of the old Navy of France before the Revolution. One of the leading characters is Brœboeuf, a silent Breton sailor—he does not speak a dozen words in the whole story—who interferes at critical points to promote the welfare of the young lovers in most striking and unconventional ways. The coast of Provence, the land of the minstrel and the troubadour, the city of Toulon, grim-walled, cannon-circled, the blue waters of the Mediterranean, the great ships-of-the-line, the sandy shores of Egypt, the ancient city of Alexandria, the palace of the Khedive, the Bay of Aboukir, are the successive settings of the dramatic story. General Bonaparte and Admiral Nelson both take prominent parts in the romance, and the characters of these fascinating men are described with fidelity, accuracy, and brilliancy.THE SECRET WOMANBy EDEN PHILLPOTTSAuthor of "The American Prisoner," "My Devon Year," etc.Cloth12mo$1.50Rude and romantic characters, descriptions of lonely and picturesque Devonshire scenery, and a simple plot in which love and passion play strong parts, are part of the secret of Mr. Eden Phillpotts' very strong hold on the public. Slow-acting and slow-speaking but deep-feeling peasants play their parts in each drama amid a characteristically wild but sympathetic environment. The present powerful story shows the author at his best. The real tragedy is not in the actual murder and in the shadow of the gallows, but in the moral situation and the intense, engrossing moral struggle. Despite certain faults, each character in the story is of high mind and purpose, unselfish and deserving of respect. What might else be a gloomy theme is relieved by the minor characters. The talk of the Devonshire rustics is amusing, and every minor figure in the book is a distinct, true-to-nature character. The descriptions of external nature are done with feeling and knowledge; in this field no other living romancer equals Mr. Phillpotts. This work has some of the great qualities of serious literature—single in purpose, deep in study of motive and passion.THE WOMAN ERRANTBeing Some Chapters from the Wonder Book of BarbaraBy the author of "The Garden of a Commuter's Wife," etc.With Illustrations by Will GreféCloth12mo$1.50"This clear-visioned writer, calmly surveying life from the wholesome vantage ground of a modest, contented suburban home, is not merely entertaining each year a growing number of appreciative readers, but she is inculcating in her own incisive way much of that same wise and simple philosophy of life that forms the enduring charm of the essays of Charles Wagner."—New York Globe.RECENT FICTIONCloth12mo$1.50 eachBARNES—The Unpardonable War.ByJames Barnes, author of "Yankee Ships and Yankee Sailors," "Drake and his Yeomen," etc.A queer turn in the political game; a clever scheme in Newspaper Row; a perfectly plausible invention; these are a few of the elements of interest in this absorbing story.DAVIS—Falaise of the Blessed Voice: A Tale of the Youth of St. Louis, King of France. ByWilliam Stearns Davis, author of "A Friend of Cæsar," "God Wills It," etc.A quick-moving, interesting tale of the development of the young King Louis IX of France under the stress of a great crisis.DEEPING—Love among the Ruins. ByWarwick Deeping, author of "Uther and Igraine." With illustrations by W. Benda."A vigorous story ... told in the spirit of pure romance."—New York Evening Post.HOUSMAN—Sabrina Warham: The Story of Her Youth. ByLaurence Housman, author of "Gods and Their Makers," etc.A fascinating study of a woman's youth in one of the coast counties of England, a carefully drawn picture of ever interesting human types.LOVETT—Richard Gresham.ByRobert Morss Lovett."Goes forward determinedly from a singular opening to an unsuspected close, without faltering or wavering ... a very honest piece of workmanship."—New York Evening Post.LUTHER—The Mastery. ByMark Lee Luther, author of "The Henchman," "The Favor of Princes," etc.A vigorous and convincing story of modern practical politics, so notably strong in its sense of reality as to give the reader the thrill of a privileged glimpse into the mysteries of the one great game.OVERTON—Captains of the World. ByGwendolen Overton, author of "Anne Carmel," "The Heritage of Unrest," etc.An unusually fascinating book ... has the double attractive power of earnestness and a subject which compels sympathetic attention.POTTER—The Flame Gatherers. ByMargaret Horton Potter, author of "Istar of Babylon," etc."A wonderful romance of intensity and color."—Book News.SINCLAIR—Manassas.ByUpton Sinclair, author of "Springtime and Harvest," etc."In no single volume which we can call to mind have the undercurrents of feeling, so intense and so varied, that swayed men's minds in those troublous times, been so fully and well portrayed."—The Times Dispatch(Richmond).WEBSTER—Traitor and Loyalist: Or, The Man who Found his Country. ByHenry Kitchell Webster, author of "Roger Drake: Captain of Industry," "The Banker and the Bear," etc. With illustrations by Joseph Cummings Chase.Mr. Webster's new romance is one in which love and war contribute a full quota of interest, intrigue, thrilling suspense, and hairbreadth escapes.THE MACMILLAN COMPANY64-66 Fifth Avenue, New York
THE COMMON LOTBy ROBERT HERRICK
Author of "The Real World," "The Web of Life," "The Gospel of Freedom," etc.
"Mr. Herrick has written a novel of searching insight and absorbing interest; a first-rate story ... sincere to the very core in its matter and in its art."—Hamilton W. Mabie.
"The book is a bit of the living America of to-day, a true picture of one of its most significant phases ... living, throbbing with reality."—New York Evening Mail.
"Novels of its style and quality are few and far between ... he tells a story that is worth the telling ... it is a study of life as he sees it, and as thousands of his readers try to avoid seeing it."—Boston Transcript.
The Queen's Quair, or The Six Years' Tragedy
By MAURICE HEWLETT
Author of "Richard Yea-and-Nay," "The Forest Lovers," etc., etc.
"Mr. Hewlett has produced in this book an enthralling work. It is at once a chronicle of certain momentous years in the life of his famous heroine and a searching study of her character.... 'The Queen's Quair' is profoundly absorbing, and no one among the novelists of to-day save Mr. Hewlett could have written it. No one else could have sustained such a long narrative on so high a level with such consummate art."—New York Tribune.
"No piece of historical fiction has so adequately described the career of the unfortunate and misguided Queen of Scotland, and no other writer has approached Mr. Hewlett in dramatic power and literary skill. He uses words that express his meaning precisely.... His conciseness of forcible expression is indeed admirable. The story, too, is full of action and commands undivided attention. Mary's portrait leaves a lasting impression."—Boston Budget.
DOCTOR TOM, The Coroner of Brett
By JOHN WILLIAMS STREETER
Author of "The Fat of the Land," etc.
"A good story of the Kentucky mountains. The reader is caught at the start and held to the end."—New York Sun.
"One of the best and manliest novels that have appeared in a year."
—Philadelphia Press.
THE CROSSING
By WINSTON CHURCHILL
Author of "Richard Carvel," "The Crisis," etc.
Illustrated in Colors
"Mr. Churchill's work, for one reason or another, always commands the attention of a large reading public."—The Criterion.
"'The Crossing' is a thoroughly interesting book, packed with exciting adventure and sentimental incident, yet faithful to historical fact both in detail and in spirit."—The Dial.
"Mr. Churchill's romance fills in a gap which history has been unable to span, that gives life and color, even the very soul, to events which otherwise treated would be cold and dark and inanimate."—Mr.Horace R. Hudsonin theSan Francisco Chronicle.
WHOSOEVER SHALL OFFEND
By F. MARION CRAWFORD
Author of "The Heart of Rome," "Saracinesca," "Via Crucis," etc.
Illustrated by Horace T. Carpenter
"Not since George Eliot's 'Romola' brought her to her foreordained place among literary immortals has there appeared in English fiction a character at once so strong and sensitive, so entirely and consistently human, so urgent and compelling in its appeal to sustained, sympathetic interest."—Philadelphia North American.
"She is the most womanly woman Mr. Crawford has given us in many a day, and after her another peasant, bloody, brooding Ercole, is most alive."—Boston Daily Advertiser.
THE QUEST OF JOHN CHAPMANTHE STORY OF A FORGOTTEN HERO
By NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS, D.D.
Author of "The Influence of Christ in Modern Life," etc.
"In this story Mr. Hillis has woven the life of the Middle West, the heroism and holiness of those descendants of the New England Puritans who emigrated still further into the wilderness. The story is of great spiritual significance, and yet of the earth, earthy—hence its strength and vitality.—Montreal Daily Star.
"No practised technist takes hold of his reader's interest with a prompter or surer grip than does this author at the very outset. Nowhere else in his book does he demonstrate his fitness for the work of fiction better than in the purely creative work. The style leaves little to be desired, for Dr. Hillis is, as we all know, a stylist. What perhaps is a surprise and also a pleasure, is the dramatic power revealed by the author. The book is forceful, its poetic opportunities are never missed, it is vivid and striking in its scenes, and pathos is a powerful element in the work."—Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
THE TWO CAPTAINSA STORY OF BONAPARTE AND NELSON
By CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY
Author of "A Little Traitor to the South," etc.
Illustrated
The action takes place in the years 1793 and 1798. The historic incidents centre around the siege of Toulon in Southern France in 1793, in which General Bonaparte first attracts the attention of the world to his genius; and the epoch-marking Battle of the Nile in the Bay of Aboukir, in Egypt, in 1798, in which Admiral Nelson forever shatters the Frenchman's dream of empire in the East. The story revolves around the love of Captain Robert Macartney, an Irishman who is an officer in the English Navy under Nelson, and Louise de Vaudémont, granddaughter of Vice-Admiral de Vaudémont, a great Royalist noble and officer of the old Navy of France before the Revolution. One of the leading characters is Brœboeuf, a silent Breton sailor—he does not speak a dozen words in the whole story—who interferes at critical points to promote the welfare of the young lovers in most striking and unconventional ways. The coast of Provence, the land of the minstrel and the troubadour, the city of Toulon, grim-walled, cannon-circled, the blue waters of the Mediterranean, the great ships-of-the-line, the sandy shores of Egypt, the ancient city of Alexandria, the palace of the Khedive, the Bay of Aboukir, are the successive settings of the dramatic story. General Bonaparte and Admiral Nelson both take prominent parts in the romance, and the characters of these fascinating men are described with fidelity, accuracy, and brilliancy.
THE SECRET WOMAN
By EDEN PHILLPOTTS
Author of "The American Prisoner," "My Devon Year," etc.
Rude and romantic characters, descriptions of lonely and picturesque Devonshire scenery, and a simple plot in which love and passion play strong parts, are part of the secret of Mr. Eden Phillpotts' very strong hold on the public. Slow-acting and slow-speaking but deep-feeling peasants play their parts in each drama amid a characteristically wild but sympathetic environment. The present powerful story shows the author at his best. The real tragedy is not in the actual murder and in the shadow of the gallows, but in the moral situation and the intense, engrossing moral struggle. Despite certain faults, each character in the story is of high mind and purpose, unselfish and deserving of respect. What might else be a gloomy theme is relieved by the minor characters. The talk of the Devonshire rustics is amusing, and every minor figure in the book is a distinct, true-to-nature character. The descriptions of external nature are done with feeling and knowledge; in this field no other living romancer equals Mr. Phillpotts. This work has some of the great qualities of serious literature—single in purpose, deep in study of motive and passion.
THE WOMAN ERRANTBeing Some Chapters from the Wonder Book of Barbara
By the author of "The Garden of a Commuter's Wife," etc.
With Illustrations by Will Grefé
"This clear-visioned writer, calmly surveying life from the wholesome vantage ground of a modest, contented suburban home, is not merely entertaining each year a growing number of appreciative readers, but she is inculcating in her own incisive way much of that same wise and simple philosophy of life that forms the enduring charm of the essays of Charles Wagner."—New York Globe.
RECENT FICTION
BARNES—The Unpardonable War.ByJames Barnes, author of "Yankee Ships and Yankee Sailors," "Drake and his Yeomen," etc.
A queer turn in the political game; a clever scheme in Newspaper Row; a perfectly plausible invention; these are a few of the elements of interest in this absorbing story.
DAVIS—Falaise of the Blessed Voice: A Tale of the Youth of St. Louis, King of France. ByWilliam Stearns Davis, author of "A Friend of Cæsar," "God Wills It," etc.
A quick-moving, interesting tale of the development of the young King Louis IX of France under the stress of a great crisis.
DEEPING—Love among the Ruins. ByWarwick Deeping, author of "Uther and Igraine." With illustrations by W. Benda.
"A vigorous story ... told in the spirit of pure romance."
—New York Evening Post.
HOUSMAN—Sabrina Warham: The Story of Her Youth. ByLaurence Housman, author of "Gods and Their Makers," etc.
A fascinating study of a woman's youth in one of the coast counties of England, a carefully drawn picture of ever interesting human types.
LOVETT—Richard Gresham.ByRobert Morss Lovett.
"Goes forward determinedly from a singular opening to an unsuspected close, without faltering or wavering ... a very honest piece of workmanship."
—New York Evening Post.
LUTHER—The Mastery. ByMark Lee Luther, author of "The Henchman," "The Favor of Princes," etc.
A vigorous and convincing story of modern practical politics, so notably strong in its sense of reality as to give the reader the thrill of a privileged glimpse into the mysteries of the one great game.
OVERTON—Captains of the World. ByGwendolen Overton, author of "Anne Carmel," "The Heritage of Unrest," etc.
An unusually fascinating book ... has the double attractive power of earnestness and a subject which compels sympathetic attention.
POTTER—The Flame Gatherers. ByMargaret Horton Potter, author of "Istar of Babylon," etc.
"A wonderful romance of intensity and color."—Book News.
SINCLAIR—Manassas.ByUpton Sinclair, author of "Springtime and Harvest," etc.
"In no single volume which we can call to mind have the undercurrents of feeling, so intense and so varied, that swayed men's minds in those troublous times, been so fully and well portrayed."—The Times Dispatch(Richmond).
WEBSTER—Traitor and Loyalist: Or, The Man who Found his Country. ByHenry Kitchell Webster, author of "Roger Drake: Captain of Industry," "The Banker and the Bear," etc. With illustrations by Joseph Cummings Chase.
Mr. Webster's new romance is one in which love and war contribute a full quota of interest, intrigue, thrilling suspense, and hairbreadth escapes.
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
64-66 Fifth Avenue, New York
Transcriber's Notes:
The original text contains some arcane and inconsistent spelling and dialect. These have been preserved as far as possible.
Only obvious typographical errors such as letters being transposed havebeen corrected and hyphenation has been made consistent.