The Love-Story of
Aliette Brunton
By Gilbert Frankau
F. D. GOODCHILD
TORONTO
1922
Copyright, 1922, by
The Century Co.
Printed in U. S. A.
TO MY WIFE AND LOYAL ASSOCIATE
AIMÉE DE BURGH FRANKAU
IN ALL LOVE AND A GREAT REVERENCE
THIS STORY OF A WOMAN'S COURAGE
But woman's gamble (there's only one;
And it takes some pluck to play,
When the rules are broke ere the game's begun;
When, lose or win, you must pay!)
Is a double wager on human kind,
A limitless risk--and she goes it blind.
For she stakes, at love, on a single throw,
Pride, Honor, Scruples, and Fears,
And dreams no lover can hope to know,
And the gold of the after-years.
(And all for a man; and there's no man lives
Who is worth the odds that a woman gives.)
--From "The Judgment of Valhalla."
THE LOVE-STORY OF
ALIETTE BRUNTON
The Love-Story of Aliette Brunton
PREAMBLE
1
In our heart of hearts--which we in England take almostas much pains to hide from ourselves as from our fellow-creatures--mostof us realize that life without love is aweariness, a conflict bereft of hope, a struggle for no victory.Yet Love, the Real Thing--whether it be love of a god or loveof our fellow-creatures, the love of a man for his mate, of amother for her son, of a friend for his friend or a girl forher chosen--is not the law of the majority. Because Love,the Real Thing--as all real things--demands infinite self-sacrifice:and infinite self-sacrifice is too divine a code forthe average imperfect human being, who must needs makehimself other codes or perish.
This, therefore, Aliette's love-story, deals of necessity withthe self-sacrifices endured not only by Aliette but by many ofthose who came within the orbit of her personality.
Rightly to understand the people of this tale and themotives which swayed them, it is vital that you should comprehend,at the very outset, how essentially English they allwere; how essentially old-fashioned, in the best sense of thatmuch misused word; and how difficult it was, even for Aliette,to lear