BY
ELLEN THORNEYCROFT FOWLER
AUTHOR OF "HER LADYSHIP'S CONSCIENCE,"
"CONCERNING ISABEL CARNABY," ETC., ETC.
NEW YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
Copyright, 1915,
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
CONTENTS
I. I, Reginald Kingsnorth
II. Restham Manor
III. Frank
IV. Fay
V. The First Miracle
VI. St. Luke's Summer
VII. The Gift
VIII. Love Among the Ruins
IX. Things Great and Small
X. A Birthday Present
XI. In June
XII. Shakspere and the Musical Glasses
XIII. The Garden of Dreams
XIV. Annabel's Warning
XV. Darkening Skies
XVI. A Sorrowful Springtime
XVII. Desolation
XVIII. The New Dean
XIX. A Surprise
XX. Isabel, Née Carnaby
XXI. The Great War
XXII. The Last of the Wildacres
XXIII. The Peace of God
XXIV. Conclusion
"Reggie, do you remember Wildacre?"
It was with this apparently simple question thatArthur Blathwayte rang up the curtain on the dramaof my life.
That the performance was late in beginning I cannotbut admit. I was fully forty-two; an age at whichthe drama of most men's lives are over—or, at anyrate, well on in the third act. But in my uneventfulexistence there had been no drama at all; not even anineffective love-affair that could be dignified by thename of a "curtain-raiser."
Of course I had perceived that some women werebetter looking than others, and more attractive andeasier to get on with. But I had only perceived thisin a scientific, impersonal kind of way: the perceptionhad in nowise penetrated my inner consciousness orinfluenced my existence. I was the type of person whois described by the populace as "not a marryingsort," and consequently I had reached the age offorty-two without either marrying or wishing tomarry.
I admit that I had not been thrown into circumstancesconducive to the cultivation of the tender passion;my sister Annabel had seen to that; but no sister—beshe even as powerful as Annabel herself—canprevent a man from falling in love if he be so minded,nor from seeking out for himself a woman to fall inlove with if none are thrown in his way. But I had notbeen so minded; therefore Annabel's precautions hadtriumphed.
Annabel was one of that by no means inconsiderablenumber of women who constantly say they desire andthink they desire one thing, wh