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3—The Love of Violet Lee By Julia Edwards
4—For a Woman's Honor By Bertha M. Clay
5—The Senator's Favorite By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
6—The Midnight Marriage By A. M. Douglas
8—Beautiful But Poor By Julia Edwards
9—The Virginia Heiress By May Agnes Fleming
10—Little Sunshine By Francis S. Smith
11—The Gipsy's Daughter By Bertha M. Clay
13—The Little Widow By Julia Edwards
14—Violet Lisle By Bertha M. Clay
15—Dr. Jack By St. George Rathborne
16—The Fatal Card By Haddon Chambers and B. C. Stephenson
17—Leslie's Loyalty (His Love So True) By Charles Garvice
18—Dr. Jack's Wife By St. George Rathborne
19—Mr. Lake of Chicago By Harry DuBois Milman
21—A Heart's Idol By Bertha M. Clay
22—Elaine By Charles Garvice
23—Miss Pauline of New York By St. George Rathborne
24—A Wasted Love (On Love's Altar) By Charles Garvice
25—Little Southern Beauty By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
26—Captain Tom By St. George Rathborne
27—Estelle's Millionaire Lover By Julia Edwards
28—Miss Caprice By St. George Rathborne
29—Theodora By Victorien Sardou
30—Baron Sam By St. George Rathborne
31—A Siren's Love By Robert Lee Tyler
32—The Blockade Runner By J. Perkins Tracy
33—Mrs. Bob By St. George Rathborne
34—Pretty Geraldine By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
35—The Great Mogul By St. George Rathborne
36—Fedora By Victorien Sardou
37—The Heart of Virginia By J. Perkins Tracy
38—The Nabob of Singapore By St. George Rathborne
39—The Colonel's Wife By Warren Edwards
40—Monsieur Bob By St. George Rathborne
41—Her Heart's Desire (An Innocent Girl) By Charles Garvice
42—Another Woman's Husband By Bertha M. Clay
43—Little Coquette Bonnie By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
45—A Yale Man By Robert Lee Tyler
46—Off with the Old Love By Mrs. M. V. Victor
47—The Colonel by Brevet By St. George Rathborne
48—Another Man's Wife By Bertha M. Clay
49—None But the Brave By Robert Lee Tyler
50—Her Ransom (Paid For) By Charles Garvice
51—The Price He Paid By E. Werner
52—Woman Against Woman By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
54—Cleopatra By Victorien Sardou
56—The Dispatch Bearer By Warren Edwards
58—Major Matterson of Kentucky By St. George Rathborne
59—Gladys Greye By Bertha M. Clay
61—La Tosca By Victorien Sardou
62—Stella Stirling By Julia Edwards
63—Lawyer Bell from Boston By Robert Lee Tyler
64—Dora Tenney By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
65—Won by the Sword By J. Perkins Tracy
67—Gismonda By Victorien Sardou
68—The Little Cuban Rebel By Edna Winfield
69—His Perfect Trust By Bertha M. Clay
70—Sydney (A Wilful Young Woman) By Charles Garvice
71—The Spider's Web By St. George Rathborne
72—Wilful Winnie By Harriet Sherburne
73—The Marquis By Charles Garvice
74—The Cotton King By Sutton Vane
75—Under Fire By T. P. James
76—Mavourneen From the celebrated play
78—The Yankee Champion By Sylvanus Cobb, Jr.
79—Out of the Past (Marjorie) By Charles Garvice
80—The Fair Maid of Fez By St. George Rathborne
81—Wedded for an Hour By Emma Garrison Jones
82—Captain Impudence By Edwin Milton Royle
83—The Locksmith of Lyons By Prof. Wm. Henry Peck
84—Imogene (Dumaresq's Temptation) By Charles Garvice
85—Lorrie; or, Hollow Gold By Charles Garvice
86—A Widowed Bride By Lucy Randall Comfort
87—Shenandoah By J. Perkins Tracy
89—A Gentleman from Gascony By Bicknell Dudley
90—For Fair Virginia By Russ Whytal
91—Sweet Violet By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
92—Humanity By Sutton Vane
94—Darkest Russia By H. Grattan Donnelly
95—A Wilful Maid (Philippa) By Charles Garvice
96—The Little Minister By J. M. Barrie
97—The War Reporter By Warren Edwards
98—Claire (The Mistress of Court Regna) By Charles Garvice
100—Alice Blake By Francis S. Smith
101—A Goddess of Africa By St. George Rathborne
102—Sweet Cymbeline (Bellmaire) By Charles Garvice
103—The Span of Life By Sutton Vane
104—A Proud Dishonor By Genie Holzmeyer
105—When London Sleeps By Chas. Darrell
106—Lillian, My Lillian By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
107—Carla; or, Married at Sight By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
108—A Son of Mars By St. George Rathborne
109—Signa's Sweetheart (Lord Delamere's Bride) By Charles Garvice
110—Whose Wife is She? By Annie Lisle
112—The Cattle King By A. D. Hall
113—A Crushed Lily By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
114—Half a Truth By Dora Delmar
115—A Fair Revolutionist By St. George Rathborne
116—The Daughter of the Regiment By Mary A. Denison
117—She Loved Him By Charles Garvice
118—Saved from the Sea By Richard Duffy
119—'Twixt Smile and Tear (Dulcie) By Charles Garvice
120—The White Squadron By T. C. Harbaugh
121—Cecile's Marriage By Lucy Randall Comfort
123—Northern Lights By A. D. Hall
124—Prettiest of All By Julia Edwards
125—Devil's Island By A. D. Hall
126—The Girl from Hong Kong By St. George Rathborne
127—Nobody's Daughter By Clara Augusta
128—The Scent of the Roses By Dora Delmar
129—In Sight of St. Paul's By Sutton Vane
130—A Passion Flower (Madge) By Charles Garvice
131—Nerine's Second Choice By Adelaide Stirling
132—Whose Was the Crime? By Gertrude Warden
134—Squire John By St. George Rathborne
135—Cast Up by the Tide By Dora Delmar
136—The Unseen Bridegroom By May Agnes Fleming
138—A Fatal Wooing By Laura Jean Libbey
139—Little Lady Charles By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
140—That Girl of Johnson's By Jean Kate Ludlum
141—Lady Evelyn By May Agnes Fleming
142—Her Rescue from the Turks By St. George Rathborne
143—A Charity Girl By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
145—Country Lanes and City Pavements By Maurice M. Minton
146—Magdalen's Vow By May Agnes Fleming
147—Under Egyptian Skies By St. George Rathborne
148—Will She Win? By Emma Garrison Jones
149—The Man She Loved By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
150—Sunset Pass By General Charles King
151—The Heiress of Glen Gower By May Agnes Fleming
152—A Mute Confessor By Will M. Harben
153—Her Son's Wife By Hazel Wood
154—Husband and Foe By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
156—A Soldier Lover By Edward S. Brooks
157—Who Wins? By May Agnes Fleming
158—Stella, the Star By Wenona Gilman
159—Out of Eden By Dora Russell
160—His Way and Her Will By Frances Aymar Mathews
161—Miss Fairfax of Virginia By St. George Rathborne
162—A Man of the Name of John By Florence King
163—A Splendid Egotist By Mrs. J. H. Walworth
164—Couldn't Say No By John Habberton
165—The Road of the Rough By Maurice M. Minton
167—The Manhattaners By Edward S. Van Zile
168—Thrice Lost, Thrice Won By May Agnes Fleming
169—The Trials of an Actress By Wenona Gilman
170—A Little Radical By Mrs. J. H. Walworth
171—That Dakota Girl By Stella Gilman
172—A King and a Coward By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
173—A Bar Sinister By St. George Rathborne
174—His Guardian Angel By Charles Garvice
175—For Honor's Sake By Laura C. Ford
176—Jack Gordon, Knight Errant By Barclay North
178—A Slave of Circumstances By Ernest De Lancey Pierson
179—One Man's Evil By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
180—A Lazy Man's Work By Frances Campbell Sparhawk
181—The Baronet's Bride By May Agnes Fleming
182—A Legal Wreck By William Gillette
183—Quo Vadis By Henryk Sienkiewicz
184—Sunlight and Gloom By Geraldine Fleming
185—The Adventures of Miss Volney By Ella Wheeler Wilcox
186—Beneath a Spell By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
187—The Black Ball By Ernest De Lancey Pierson
189—Berris By Katharine S. MacQuoid
190—A Captain of the Kaiser By St. George Rathborne
191—A Harvest of Thorns By Mrs. H. C. Hoffman
193—A Vagabond's Honor By Ernest De Lancey Pierson
194—A Sinless Crime By Geraldine Fleming
195—Her Faithful Knight By Gertrude Warden
196—A Sailor's Sweetheart By St. George Rathborne
197—A Woman Scorned By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
200—In God's Country By D. Higbee
201—Blind Elsie's Crime By Mary Grace Halpine
202—Marjorie By Katharine S. MacQuoid
203—Only One Love By Charles Garvice
204—With Heart So True By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
205—If Love Be Love By D. Cecil Gibbs
206—A Daughter of Maryland By G. Waldo Browne
208—A Chase for a Bride By St. George Rathborne
209—She Loved But Left Him By Julia Edwards
211—As We Forgive By Lurana W. Sheldon
212—Doubly Wronged By Adah M. Howard
213—The Heiress of Egremont By Mrs. Harriet Lewis
214—Olga's Crime By Frank Barrett
215—Only a Girl's Love By Charles Garvice
216—The Lost Bride By Clara Augusta
217—His Noble Wife By George Manville Fenn
218—A Life for a Love By Mrs. L. T. Meade
220—A Fatal Past By Dora Russell
221—The Honorable Jane By Annie Thomas
223—Leola Dale's Fortune By Charles Garvice
224—A Sister's Sacrifice By Geraldine Fleming
225—A Miserable Woman By Mrs. H. C. Hoffman
226—The Roll of Honor By Annie Thomas
227—The Joy of Loving By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
228—His Brother's Widow By Mary Grace Halpine
229—For the Sake of the Family By May Crommelin
230—A Woman's Atonement, and A Mother's Mistake By Adah M. Howard
231—The Earl's Heir (Lady Norah) By Charles Garvice
232—A Debt of Honor By Mabel Collins
234—His Mother's Sin By Adeline Sergeant
235—Love at Saratoga By Lucy Randall Comfort
236—Her Humble Lover (The Usurper; or, The Gipsy Peer) By Charles Garvice
237—Woman or Witch? By Dora Delmar
238—That Other Woman By Annie Thomas
239—Don Cæsar De Bazan By Victor Hugo
240—Saved by the Sword By St. George Rathborne
241—Her Love and Trust By Adeline Sergeant
242—A Wounded Heart (Sweet as a Rose) By Charles Garvice
243—His Double Self By Scott Campbell
245—A Modern Marriage By Clara Lanza
246—True to Herself By Mrs. J. H. Walworth
247—Within Love's Portals By Frank Barrett
248—Jeanne, Countess Du Barry By H. L. Williams
249—What Love Will Do By Geraldine Fleming
250—A Woman's Soul (Doris; or, Behind the Footlights) By Charles Garvice
251—When Love is True By Mabel Collins
252—A Handsome Sinner By Dora Delmar
253—A Fashionable Marriage By Mrs. Alex Frazer
254—Little Miss Millions By St. George Rathborne
256—Thy Name is Woman By F. H. Howe
257—A Martyred Love (Iris; or, Under the Shadow) By Charles Garvice
258—An Amazing Marriage By Mrs. Sumner Hayden
259—By a Golden Cord By Dora Delmar
260—At a Girl's Mercy By Jean Kate Ludlum
261—A Siren's Heart By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
262—A Woman's Faith By Henry Wallace
263—An American Nabob By St. George Rathborne
264—For Gold or Soul By Lurana W. Sheldon
265—First Love is Best By S. K. Hocking
267—Jeanne (Barriers Between) By Charles Garvice
268—Olivia; or, It Was for Her Sake By Charles Garvice
270—Had She Foreseen By Dora Delmar
271—With Love's Laurel Crowned By W. C. Stiles
272—So Fair, So False (The Beauty of the Season) By Charles Garvice
273—At Swords' Points By St. George Rathborne
274—A Romantic Girl By Evelyn E. Green
275—Love's Cruel Whim By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
276—So Nearly Lost (The Springtime of Love) By Charles Garvice
278—Laura Brayton By Julia Edwards
279—Nina's Peril By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
280—Love's Dilemma (For an Earldom) By Charles Garvice
281—For Love Alone By Wenona Gilman
283—My Lady Pride (Floris) By Charles Garvice
284—Dr. Jack's Widow By St. George Rathborne
285—Born to Betray By Mrs. M. V. Victor
287—The Lady of Darracourt By Charles Garvice
289—Married in Mask By Mansfield T. Walworth
290—A Change of Heart By Effie Adelaide Rowland
292—For Her Only (Diana) By Charles Garvice
294—A Warrior Bold By St. George Rathborne
295—A Terrible Secret and Countess Isabel By Geraldine Fleming
296—The Heir of Vering By Charles Garvice
297—That Girl from Texas By Mrs. J. H. Walworth
298—Should She Have Left Him? By Barclay North
300—The Spider and the Fly (Violet) By Charles Garvice
301—The False and the True By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
302—When Man's Love Fades By Hazel Wood
303—The Queen of the Isle By May Agnes Fleming
304—Stanch as a Woman (A Maiden's Sacrifice) By Charles Garvice
305—Led by Love (Sequel to "Stanch as a Woman") By Charles Garvice
306—Love's Golden Rule By Geraldine Fleming
307—The Winning of Isolde By St. George Rathborne
308—Lady Ryhope's Lover By Emma Garrison Jones
309—The Heiress of Castle Cliffe By May Agnes Fleming
310—A Late Repentance By Mary A. Denison
312—Woven on Fate's Loom and The Snowdrift By Charles Garvice
313—A Kinsman's Sin By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
314—A Maid's Fatal Love By Helen Corwin Pierce
315—The Dark Secret By May Agnes Fleming
316—Edith Lyle's Secret By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes
317—Ione By Laura Jean Libbey
318—Stanch of Heart (Adrien Le Roy) By Charles Garvice
319—Millbank By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes
320—Mynheer Joe By St. George Rathborne
321—Neva's Three Lovers By Mrs. Harriet Lewis
322—Mildred By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes
323—The Little Countess By S. E. Boggs
324—A Love Match By Sylvanus Cobb, Jr.
325—The Leighton Homestead By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes
326—Parted by Fate By Laura Jean Libbey
327—Was She Wife or Widow? By Malcolm Bell
328—He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not (Valeria) By Charles Garvice
329—My Hildegarde By St. George Rathborne
330—Aikenside By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes
331—Christine By Adeline Sergeant
332—Darkness and Daylight By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes
333—Stella's Fortune (The Sculptor's Wooing) By Charles Garvice
334—Miss McDonald By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes
335—We Parted at the Altar By Laura Jean Libbey
336—Rose Mather By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes
337—Dear Elsie By Mary J. Safford
338—A Daughter of Russia By St. George Rathborne
340—Bad Hugh. Vol. I. By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes
341—Bad Hugh. Vol. II. By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes
342—Her Little Highness By Nataly Von Eschstruth
343—Little Sunshine By Adah M. Howard
344—Leah's Mistake By Mrs. H. C. Hoffman
345—Tresillian Court By Mrs. Harriet Lewis
346—Guy Tresillian's Fate (Sequel to "Tresillian Court") By Mrs. Harriet Lewis
347—The Eyes of Love By Charles Garvice
348—My Florida Sweetheart By St. George Rathborne
349—Marion Grey By Mary J. Holmes
350—A Wronged Wife By Mary Grace Halpine
352—Family Pride. Vol. I. By Mary J. Holmes
353—Family Pride. Vol. II. By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes
354—A Love Comedy By Charles Garvice
355—Wife and Woman By Mary J. Safford
356—Little Kit By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
357—Montezuma's Mines By St. George Rathborne
358—Beryl's Husband By Mrs. Harriet Lewis
359—The Spectre's Secret By Sylvanus Cobb, Jr.
360—An Only Daughter By Hazel Wood
361—The Ashes of Love By Charles Garvice
363—The Opposite House By Nataly Von Eschstruth
364—A Fool's Paradise By Mary Grace Halpine
365—Under a Cloud By Jean Kate Ludlum
366—Comrades in Exile By St. George Rathborne
367—Hearts and Coronets By Jane G. Fuller
368—The Pride of Her Life By Charles Garvice
369—At a Great Cost By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
370—Edith Trevor's Secret By Mrs. Harriet Lewis
371—Cecil Rosse (Sequel to "Edith Trevor's Secret") By Mrs. Harriet Lewis
374—True Daughter of Hartenstein By Mary J. Safford
375—Transgressing the Law By Capt. Fred'k Whittaker
376—The Red Slipper By St. George Rathborne
377—Forever True By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
378—John Winthrop's Defeat By Jean Kate Ludlum
379—Blinded by Love By Nataly Von Eschstruth
380—Her Double Life By Mrs. Harriet Lewis
381—The Sunshine of Love (Sequel to "Her Double Life") By Mrs. Harriet Lewis
383—A Lover from Across the Sea By Mary J. Safford
384—Yet She Loved Him By Mrs. Kate Vaughn
385—A Woman Against Her By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
386—Teddy's Enchantress By St. George Rathborne
387—A Heroine's Plot By Katherine S. MacQuoid
388—Two Wives By Hazel Wood
389—Sundered Hearts By Mrs. Harriet Lewis
390—A Mutual Vow By Harold Payne
392—A Resurrected Love By Seward W. Hopkins
393—On the Wings of Fate By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
394—A Drama of a Life By Jean Kate Ludlum
395—Wooing a Widow By E. A. King
396—Back to Old Kentucky By St. George Rathborne
397—A Gilded Promise By Walter Bloomfield
398—Cupid's Disguise By Fanny Lewald
400—For Another's Wrong By W. Heimburg
401—The Woman Who Came Between By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
402—A Silent Heroine By Mrs. D. M. Lowrey
403—The Rival Suitors By J. H. Connelly
404—On the Wings of Fate By Capt. Fred'k Whittaker
405—The Haunted Husband By Mrs. Harriet Lewis
406—Felipe's Pretty Sister By St. George Rathborne
408—On a False Charge By Seward W. Hopkins
409—A Girl's Kingdom By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
410—Miss Mischief By W. Heimburg
411—Fettered and Freed By Eugene Charvette
412—The Love that Lives By Capt Frederick Whittaker
413—Were They Married? By Hazel Wood
414—A Girl's First Love By Elizabeth C. Winter
416—Down in Dixie By St. George Rathborne
417—Brave Barbara By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
418—An Insignificant Woman By W. Heimburg
420—A Sweet Little Lady By Gertrude Warden
421—Her Sweet Reward By Barbara Kent
422—Lady Kildare By Mrs. Harriet Lewis
423—A Woman's Way By Capt. Frederick Whittaker
424—A Splendid Man By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
425—A College Widow By Frank H. Howe
427—A Wizard of the Moors By St. George Rathborne
428—A Tramp's Daughter By Hazel Wood
429—A Fair Fraud By Emily Lovett Cameron
430—The Honor of a Heart By Mary J. Safford
431—Her Husband and Her Love By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
432—Breta's Double By Helen V. Greyson
435—Under Oath By Jean Kate Ludlum
436—The Rival Toreadors By St. George Rathborne
437—The Breach of Custom By Mrs. D. M. Lowrey
438—So Like a Man By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
439—Little Nan By Mary A. Denison
441—A Princess of the Stage By Nataly Von Eschstruth
442—Love Before Duty By Mrs. L. T. Meade
443—In Spite of Proof By Gertrude Warden
444—Love's Trials By Alfred R. Calhoun
445—An Angel of Evil By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
446—Bound with Love's Fetters By Mary Grace Halpine
447—A Favorite of Fortune By St. George Rathborne
448—When Love Dawns By Adelaide Stirling
449—The Bailiff's Scheme By Mrs. Harriet Lewis
450—Rosamond's Love (Sequel to "The Bailiff's Scheme") By Mrs. Harriet Lewis
452—The Last of the Van Slacks By Edward S. Van Zile
453—A Poor Girl's Passion By Gertrude Warden
454—Love's Probation By Elizabeth Olmis
455—Love's Greatest Gift By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
456—A Vixen's Treachery By Mrs. Harriet Lewis
457—Adrift in the World (Sequel to "A Vixen's Treachery") By Mrs. Harriet Lewis
459—A Golden Mask By Charlotte M. Stanley
460—Dr. Jack's Talisman By St. George Rathborne
461—Above All Things By Adelaide Stirling
462—A Stormy Wedding By Mary E. Bryan
463—A Wife's Triumph By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
464—The Old Life's Shadows By Mrs. Harriet Lewis
465—Outside Her Eden (Sequel to "The Old Life's Shadows") By Mrs. Harriet Lewis
466—Love, the Victor By a Popular Southern Author
467—Zina's Awaking By Mrs. J. K. Spender
468—The Wooing of a Fairy By Gertrude Warden
469—A Soldier and a Gentleman By J. M. Cobban
470—A Strange Wedding By Mary Hartwell Catherwood
471—A Shadowed Happiness By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
472—Dr. Jack and Company By St. George Rathborne
473—A Sacrifice to Love By Adelaide Stirling
474—The Belle of the Season By Mrs. Harriet Lewis
475—Love Before Pride (Sequel to "The Belle of the Season") By Mrs. Harriet Lewis
477—The Siberian Exiles By Col. Thomas Knox
478—For Love of Sigrid By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
479—Mysterious Mr. Sabin By E. Phillips Oppenheim
480—A Perfect Fool By Florence Warden
481—Wedded, Yet No Wife By May Agnes Fleming
482—A Little Worldling By L. C. Ellsworth
483—Miss Marston's Heart By L. H. Bickford
484—The Whistle of Fate By Richard Marsh
485—The End Crowns All By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
486—Divided Lives By Edgar Fawcett
487—A Wonderful Woman By May Agnes Fleming
488—The French Witch By Gertrude Warden
489—Lucy Harding By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes
490—The Price of Jealousy By Maud Howe
491—My Lady of Dreadwood By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
492—A Speedy Wooing By the Author of "As Common Mortals"
493—The Girl He Loved By Adelaide Stirling
494—Voyagers of Fortune By St. George Rathborne
495—Norine's Revenge By May Agnes Fleming
496—The Missing Heiress By C. H. Montague
497—A Chase for Love By Seward W. Hopkins
498—Andrew Leicester's Love By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
499—My Lady Cinderella By Mrs. C. N. Williamson
500—Love and Spite By Adelaide Stirling
501—Her Husband's Secret By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
502—Fair Maid Marian By Mrs. Emma Garrison Jones
503—A Lady in Black By Florence Warden
504—Evelyn, the Actress By Wenona Gilman
505—Selina's Love-story By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
506—A Secret Foe By Gertrude Warden
507—A Mad Betrothal By Laura Jean Libbey
508—Lottie and Victorine By Lucy Randall Comfort
509—A Penniless Princess By Emma Garrison Jones
510—Doctor Jack's Paradise Mine By St. George Rathborne
513—A Sensational Case By Florence Warden
514—The Temptation of Mary Barr By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
515—Tiny Luttrell (Author of "Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman") By E. W. Hornung
516—Florabel's Lover By Laura Jean Libbey
517—They Looked and Loved By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
518—The Secret of a Letter By Gertrude Warden
521—The Witch from India By St. George Rathborne
522—A Spurned Proposal By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
523—A Banker of Bankersville By Maurice Thompson
524—A Sacrifice of Pride By Mrs. Louisa Parr
525—Sweet Kitty Clover By Laura Jean Libbey
526—Love and Hate By Morley Roberts
527—For Love and Glory By St. George Rathborne
528—Adela's Ordeal By Florence Warden
529—Hearts Aflame By Louise Winter
530—The Wiles of a Siren By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
532—True to His Bride By Emma Garrison Jones
533—A Forgotten Love By Adelaide Stirling
534—Lotta, the Cloak Model By Laura Jean Libbey
535—The Trifler By Archibald Eyre
536—Companions in Arms By St. George Rathborne
538—The Fighting Chance By Gertrude Lynch
539—A Heart's Triumph By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
540—A Daughter of Darkness By Ida Reade Allen
541—Her Evil Genius By Adelaide Stirling
543—The Veiled Bride By Laura Jean Libbey
544—In Love's Name By Emma Garrison Jones
545—Well Worth Winning By St. George Rathborne
546—The Career of Mrs. Osborne By Helen Milecete
549—Tempted by Love By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
550—Saved from Herself By Adelaide Stirling
551—Pity—Not Love By Laura Jean Libbey
552—At the Court of the Maharaja By Louis Tracy
LESLIE'S LOYALTY
CHAPTER I.
LESLIE LISLE.
Nobody ever goes to Portmaris; that is to say, nobody who is anybody. It lies—but no matter, ours shall not be the hand to ruin its simplicity by advertising its beauties and advantages, and directing the madding crowd to its sylvan retreat. At present the golden sands which line the bay are innocent of the negro troupe, the peripatetic conjurer, and the monster in human form who pesters you to purchase hideous objects manufactured from shells and cardboard.
A time may come when Portmaris will develop into an Eastbourne or a Brighton, a Scarborough or a Hastings; but, Heaven be praised, that time is not yet, and Portmaris, like an unconscious village beauty, goes on its way as yet ignorant of its loveliness.
At present there are about a dozen houses, most of them fishermen's cottages; a church, hidden in a hollow a mile away from the restless sea; and an inn which is satisfied with being an inn, and has not yet learned to call itself a hotel.
Two or three of the fisherfolk let lodgings, to which come those fortunate individuals who have quite by chance stumbled upon this out-of-the-way spot; and in the sitting-room of the prettiest of these unpretentious cottages was a young girl.
Her name was Leslie Lisle. She was nineteen, slim, graceful, and more than pretty. There is a type of beauty which, with more or less truth, is generally described as Irish. It has dark hair, blue eyes with long black lashes, a clear and colorless complexion of creamy ivory, and a chin that would seem pointed but for the exquisite fullness of the lips. It is a type which is more fascinating than the severe Greek, more "holding" than the voluptuous Spanish, more spirituel than the vivacious French; in short, it is a kind of beauty before which most men go down completely and forever vanquished, and this because the wonderful gray-blue eyes are capable of an infinity of expressions, can be grave one moment and brimming over with fun the next; because there lurks, even when they are most quiescent, a world of possibilities in the way of wit in the corners of the red lips; because the face, as you watch it, can in the course of a few minutes flash with spirit, melt with tenderness, and all the while remain the face of a pure, innocent, healthy, light-hearted girl.
The young men who crossed Leslie Lisle's path underwent a sad experience.
At first they were attracted by her beauty; in a few hours or days, as the case might be, they began to find the attraction lying somewhat deeper than the face; then they grew restless, unhappy, lost their appetites, got to lying awake of nights, and lastly went to pieces completely, and if they possessed sufficient courage, flung themselves perfectly wretched and overcome at the small feet of the slim, girlish figure which had become to them even that of the one woman in the world. And to do Leslie justice, she was not only always surprised, but distressed. She had said nothing, and what is more, looked nothing, to encourage them. She had been just herself, a frank yet modest English girl, with an Irish face, and that indescribable sweetness which draws men's hearts from their bosoms before they know what has happened to them.
She was seated at the piano in the sitting-room of the cottage which the fisherman who owned it had christened Sea View, and she was amusing herself and a particularly silent and morose parrot by singing some of the old songs and ballads which she had found in a rickety music-stand in the corner; and for all the parrot glanced at her disapprovingly with his glassy eye, she had a sufficiently sweet voice, and sang with more than the usual amount of feeling.
While she was in the middle of that famous but slightly monotonous composition, "Robin Grey," the door opened, and a tall, thin man entered.
This was Francis Lisle, her father. He was a man this side of fifty, but looked older in consequence, perhaps, of his hair, which was gray and scanty, a faded face, with a dreamy far away look in the faint blue eyes, and a somewhat bent form and dragging gait. He carried a portable easel in one hand, and held a canvas under his arm.
As he entered he looked round the room as if he had never seen it before, then set the easel up in a corner, placed the canvas on it upside down, and crossing his hands behind his back, stood with bent head gazing at it for some moments in silence. Then he said, in a voice which matched the dreamy face:
"Leslie, come here."
Leslie stopped short in the middle of the most heart-rending line of the cheerful ballad, and walked—no; glided? scarcely; it is difficult to describe how the girl got across the small room, so full of grace, so characteristic was her mode of progression, and putting both hands on his shoulders, leaned her cheek against his head.
"Back already, dear?" she said, and the tone fully indicated the position in which she stood toward her parent. "I thought you were going to make a long day of it."
"Yes, yes," he said, without taking his eyes from the sketch. "I did intend doing so. I started full of my subject and—er—inspired with hope, and I don't think I have altogether failed. It is difficult—very. The tone of that sky would fill a careless amateur with despair, but—but I am not careless. Whatever I may be I am not that. The secrets of art which she hides from the unthinking and—er—irreverent she confides to her true worshipers. Now, Leslie, look at that sky. Look at it carefully, critically, and tell me—do you not think I have caught that half tone, that delicious mingling of the chrome and the ultramarine? There is a wealth of form and color in that right hand corner, and I—yes, I think it is the best, by far the best and truest thing I have as yet done."
Leslie leaned forward, and softly, swiftly, placed the picture right side up.
It had not very much improved by the transposition. It was—well, to put it bluntly, a daub of the most awful description. Never since the world began had there ever, in nature, been anything like it. The average schoolboy libeling nature with a shilling box of colors could not have sinned more deeply. The sea was a brilliant washerwoman's blue, the hills were heaps of muddy ochre, the fishing vessels looked like blackbeetles struggling on their backs, there was a cow in the meadow in the foreground which would have wrung tears from any one who had ever set eyes on that harmless but necessary animal, and the bit of sky in the corner was utterly and completely indescribable.
Leslie looked at it with a sad little expression in her eyes, the pitying look one sees in the face of a woman whose life is spent in humoring the weakness of a beloved one; then she said, gently:
"It is very striking, papa."
"Striking!" repeated Francis Lisle. "Striking! I like that word. You, too, are an artist, my dear Leslie, though you never touch a brush. How well you know how to use the exact expression. I flatter myself that it is striking. I think I may say, without egotism, that no one, no real critic could look at that sketch—for it is a mere sketch—without being struck!"
"Yes, papa," she murmured, soothingly.
He shaded his eyes with his thin white hands in the orthodox fashion, and peered at the monstrosity.
"There is, if I may say so, an—er—originality in the treatment which would alone make the sketch interesting and valuable. Tell me, now, Leslie, what it is in it that catches your fancy most."
Leslie looked at it carefully.
"I—I think that heap of sea-weed nicely painted, papa," she said, putting her arm round his neck.
"Heap of sea-weed?" his brows knitted. "Heap of sea-weed? I don't see anything of the kind."
"There, papa," she said, pointing.
"My dear Leslie, I have always suspected that your sight was not perfect, that there was some defect in its range power; that is not a heap of sea-weed, but a fisherwoman mending her nets!"
"Of course! How stupid of me!" she said, quickly. "I'm afraid I am near-sighted, dear. But don't you think you have done enough for to-day? Why not put it away until to-morrow?"
"There is no to-morrow, Leslie," he said, gravely, as he got out his palette. "'Art is long and life is fleeting.' Never forget that, my dear. No, I can stipple on a little. I intend finishing this sketch, and making a miniature—a cabinet picture. It shall be worthy of a place among those exquisite studies of Foster's. And yet——," he sighed and pushed the hair from his forehead, "and yet I'll be bound that if I tried to sell it, I should not find a dealer to give me a few paltry pounds for it. So blind and prejudiced! No, they would not buy it, and possibly the Academy would refuse to exhibit it. Prejudice, prejudice! But art has its own rewards, thank Heaven! I paint because I must. Fame has no attraction. I am content to wait. Yes, though the recognition which is my due may come too late! It is often thus!"
The girl bent her beautiful head—she stood taller than the drooping figure of her father—and kissed, ah! how tenderly, pityingly, the gray hair.
Francis Lisle, Esquire, the younger son of an old Irish family, had been a dreamer from his youth up. He had started with a good education and a handsome little fortune; he had dreamed away the education, dreamed away the small fortune, dreamed away nearly all his life, and his great dream was that he was an artist. He couldn't draw a haystack, and certainly could not have colored it correctly even if by chance he had drawn it; but he was persuaded that he was a great artist, and he fancied that his hand transferred to the canvas the scenes which he attempted to paint.
And he was not unhappy. His wife had died when Leslie was a mite of a thing, and how he had managed to get on until Leslie was old enough to take care of him can never even be surmised; but she began to play the mother, the guardian, and protector to this visionary father of hers, at an extremely early age. She managed everything, almost fed and clothed him, and kept from him all those petty ills and worries which make life such a burden for most people.
They had no settled home, but wandered about, sometimes on the Continent, but mostly in England, and Francis Lisle had hundreds of sketches which were like nothing under heaven, but were supposed to be "ideas" for larger pictures, of places they had visited.
They had been at Portmaris a couple of months when we find them, and though Francis Lisle was just beginning to get tired of it, and restlessly anxious to be on the move again, Leslie was loth to leave. She had grown fond of the golden sands, the strip of pebbly beach, the narrow street broken by its wind-twisted trees, the green lanes leading to the country beyond, and still more fond of the simple-hearted fisher folk, who always welcomed her with a smile, and had already learned to call her Miss Leslie.
Indeed, Miss Lisle was a dangerous young woman, and the hearts of young and old, gentle and simple, went down before a glance of her gray-blue eyes, a smile from the mobile lips, a word from her voice which thrilled with a melody few could resist.
Francis Lisle went on daubing, his head on one side, a rapt, contented look on his pale, aristocratic face.
"Yes, this is going to be one of my best efforts," he said, with placid complacency. "Go and sing something, Leslie. I can always work better while you are singing. Music and painting are twin sisters. I adore them both."
Leslie went back to the piano with that peculiarly graceful motion of hers, and touched a note or two.
"Were there no letters this morning, dear?" she asked.
"Letters?" Lisle put his hand to his forehead as if rudely called back to earth from the empyrean. "Letters? No. Yes, I forgot. There was one. It was from Ralph Duncombe."
Leslie turned her head slightly, and the rather thick brows which helped the eyes in all their unconscious mischief straightened.
"From Ralph? What does he say?"
"I don't know," replied Lisle, placidly. "I can never read his letters; he writes so terribly plain a hand; its hardness jars upon me. I have it—somewhere?"
He searched his pockets reluctantly.
"No, I must have lost it. Does it matter very much?"
Leslie laughed softly.
"I don't know; but one generally likes to know what is in a letter."
"Well, then, I wish I could find it. I told the postman when he gave it to me that I should probably lose it, and that he had better bring it on to the house; but—well, I don't think he understood me. I often think that we speak an unknown language to these country people."
"Perhaps he did not hear you," said Leslie. "Sometimes, you know, dear, you think you have spoken when you have not uttered a word, but only thought."
"I dare say," he assented, dreamily. "Now I come to think of it, I fancy Duncombe said he was coming down here——."
The slender white hands which had been touching the keys caressingly stopped.
"Coming here, papa!"
"Yes. I think so. I'm not sure. Now, what could I have done with that letter?"
He made another search, failed to find it, shook his head as if dismissing the subject, and resumed his "work."
Leslie struck a chord, and opened her lips to sing, when the sound of the wheels belonging to the one fly in the place came down the uneven street. She paused to listen, then leaned sideways and looked through the window.
"The station fly!" she said. "And it has stopped at Marine Villa, papa. It must be another visitor. Fancy two visitors at the same time in Portmaris! It will go wild with excitement."
The cranky vehicle had pulled up at the opposite cottage, and Leslie, with mild, very mild, curiosity, got up from the piano and went to the window.
As she did so a man dressed in soft tweed got down from beside the driver, opened the fly-door, and gave his arm to a young man whose appearance filled Leslie's heart with pity; for he was a cripple. His back was bent, his face pale and gentle as a woman's, marked with lines which were eloquent of weary days, and still more weary nights; and in the dark eyes was that peculiar expression of sadness which a life of pain and suffering patiently borne sets as a seal.
The young fellow leaned on his stick and the man's arm, and looked round him, and his eye, dark and full of a soft penetration, fell upon the lovely face at the opposite window.
Leslie drew back, when it was too late, and breathed an exclamation of regret.
"Oh, papa!"
"What is the matter?" asked Lisle, vacantly.
"I am sorry!" she said. "He will think I was staring at him—and so I was. And that will seem so cruel to him, poor fellow."
"What is cruel? which poor fellow?" demanded Lisle with feeble impatience.
"Some one who has just got out of the fly, dear; a cripple, poor fellow; and he saw me watching him." And she sighed again.
"Eh?" said Lisle, as if he were trying to recollect something. "Ah, yes, I remember. Mrs. Whiting told me that he was expected some time to-day; they had a telegram saying he was coming."
"He? Who?" said Leslie, going back to the piano.
"Who?" repeated Lisle, as if he were heartily sorry he had continued the subject. "Why, this young man. Dear me, I forget his name and title——."
"Title? Poor fellow! Is he a nobleman, papa? That makes it seem so much worse, doesn't it?"
Lisle looked round at her helplessly.
"Upon my word, my dear," he said, "I do not wish to appear dense, but I haven't the least idea of what you are talking about, and——," he went on more quietly, as if he feared she were going to explain, "it doesn't matter. Pray sing something, and—and do not let us worry about things which do not concern us."
Leslie began to sing without another word.