PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT. From the Boston Daily Advertiser. THE "NO NAME SERIES." " LEIGH -HUNT, in his ' Indicator,' has a pleasant chapter on the difficulty he encountered in seeking a suitable and fresh title for a collection of his miscellaneous writings. Messrs. Roberts Brothers have just overcome a similar difficulty in the simplest manner. In selecting ' No NAME ' they have selected the very best title possible for a series of Original Novels and Tales, to be published Anonymously. These novels are to be written by eminent authors, and in each case the authorship of the work is to remain an inviolable secret. ' No Name ' describes the Series perfectly. No name will help the novel, or the story, to success. Its success will depend solely on the writer's ability to catch and retain the reader's interest. Several of the most distinguished writers of fiction have agreed to contribute to the Series, the initial volume of which is now in press. Its appearance will cer- tainly be awaited with curiosity." The plan thus happily foreshadowed will be immediately inaugurated by the publication of "MERCY PHILBRICK'S CHOICE," from the pen of a well-known and successful writer of fiction. It is intended to include in the Series a volume of anonymous poems from famous hands, to be written especially for it. The " No Name Series " will be issued at convenient inter- vals, in handsome library form, i6mo, cloth, price $1.00 each. ROBERTS BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS. BOSTON, Midsummer, 1876. Publishers' r* Advertisement. THE NO NAME NOVELS. " No one of the numerous series of novels with which the country has been deluged of late contains as many good 'volumes of fiction as the ' No Name,'" says SCRIBNER'S MONTHLY. FIRST SERIES. Mercy Philbrick's Choice ; Afterglow; Delrdre; Hetty's Strange History; Is That All? Will Denbigh, Noble- man; Kismet; The Wolf at the Door; The Great Match; Marmorne; Mirage; A Modern Mephlstopheles; Gemini; A Masque of Poets. 14 vols., black and gold. SECOND SERIES. Signor Monaldini's Niece; The Colonel's Opera Cloak; His Majesty, Myself; Mrs. Beauchamp Brown; Salvage; Don John; The Tsar's Window; Manuela Paredes ; Baby Rue; My Wife and My Wife's Sister; Her Picture; Aschenbroedel. 12 vols., green and gold. THIRD SERIES. The publishers, flattered by the reception given to the First and Second Series of " No Name Novels," among which may be named several already famous in the annals of fiction, will continue the issue with a Third Series, which will retain the original features of the First and Second Series, but in a new style of binding. ALREADY PUBLISHED: HER CRIME. LITTLE SISTER. BARRINCTON'S FATE. A DAUGHTER OF THE PHILISTINES. PRINCESS AMELIE. DIANE CORYVAL. ALMOST A DUCHESS. A SUPERIOR WOMAN. JUSTINA. A QUESTION OF IDENTITY. The Price of each Series is $1.00 per volume. ROBERTS BROTHERS, Publishers. to A/I NO NAME SERIES. IS THAT ALL? NO NAME SERIES. " Is THE GENTLEMAN ANONYMOUS? Is HE A GREAT UNKNOWN ? " DANIEL DERONDA. Is THAT ALL? BOSTON: ROBERTS BROTHERS. 1887. Copyright, 1876, BY ROBERTS BROTHERS. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE. CALL IT NOT PROVINCIAL ! . . 7 CHAPTER II. CAMARILLA 23 CHAPTER III. AN ANGEL UNA-WAKES 45 CHAPTER IV. ANOTHER 64 CHAPTER V. CHIEF LT CHORAL 81 CHAPTER VI. AT THE PRYORS' . 93 CHAPTER VII. AT THE ANDERSONS' 17Q22CO vi CONTENTS. CHAPTER VIII. PAGE. THE EARTHLY PAKADISE . . 135 CHAPTER IX. ON TIIE ICE 151 CHAPTER X. BBEAKING THE ICE 176 CHAPTER XI. CONFUSION 203 CHAPTER XII. RESOLUTION 223 IS THAT ALL? CHAPTER I. CALL IT NOT PEOVINCIAL ! the first of November, just ten years ago, the great world of Guildford had all come back to town. Veritable metropolitans, of recent wealth and eminence, may smile at the notion that so unimportant a place can have a great world at all ; but all who are well versed in the social traditions of this country under- stand perfectly the import of the phrase " one of the best families of Guildford." I am in a position to introduce my reader to the best families, but it must of course depend some- what upon himself whether he makes his way among them. (7) 8 IS THAT ALL? A fine, mature old inland city is Guildford, as the summer tourists who sometimes rest there for a night, on their swift transit along the great railway-routes that graze it, only begin to know. If haply these, after partak- ing of a multifarious late dinner at the biggest and costliest of Guildford's hotels, wander up- ward and westward in the late sunset, they find broad, quiet streets, elm-shaded, and re- lieved by tidy, bowery little parks, with hand- some houses, and elderly churches, not too many or too fine. Highest of all for the cross-streets are very tolerably steep they come upon a truly noble avenue. Here the houses are set far apart, and separated by old-fashioned lawns and gardens. Hardly one of these mansions will own to less than sixty or seventy years which is almost as good for practical purposes as battlements and a moat and their deep-seated rear windows look down upon an uudefiled stretch of the IS THAT ALL? river, which almost enfolds Guildford in its sharp curve, and, beyond this, over a pecu- liarly sweet expanse of farming, fruit-growing country. The inquisitive tourist, whom for a moment we follow, breathed a little by the steep ascent, is wont to rest awhile against the foliage- crowned, strict garden-walls that intervene between the houses on River Avenue, and, blinking in the last rays of the vanishing sun, to wonder why the houses are all closed, and the gardens into which he peeps a trifle neg- lected and overgrown, and why in the world people who own such places need abandon them in the summer. Like many other need- less things, it is a fashion. The people who originally built the River Avenue houses hap- pened, almost all of them, to possess farms and orchards somewhere in that stretch of green country to the west, and to care enough for these, and for a genuine old-fashioned coun- 10 IS THAT ALL t try life, to retain them and return thither for some part, at least, of every summer ; and the taste has been cherished. Of course, then, the custom would bo imi- tated as closely as possible by the people who came to live in those other pleasant streets which were created a little lower than River Avenue, and I have occasionally heard the denizens of these last allege in explanation of their perfunctory exile, that they like to avoid the espionage of our poor, harmless, idle summer tourists. There is a little affectation in this. I cannot but think that the people of Second and Third Streets often find the custom irksome which obliges them to forsake their spacious and comfortable domiciles for hot cars and stifling attics during a part of July and August.. But for their noble exemplars one row above them, who have both the polish of the city and the dignified free-haudedness of the coun- 15 THAT ALL? II try, who give you cream and fruit from " the farm" delightful boast all the year round, whoso well-mannered sons love field sports, and the beauty of whose till daughters is of a round and rosy order, for them I have a kind of religious admiration and a very honest envy. I think them the most fortunate people in the world in their external circumstances, except the English gentry. The temptation is great to go on moralizing about Guildford, which I know so well and always find an interesting subject for theory and reflection ; but I must restrain myself, and make my preliminaries as few and brief as possible. In fine, therefore, the society of Guildford is rather largely professional, owing to the fact that the courts are held there, and also because there is a richly-endowed Episcopal College in the pleasantest suburb, and it is just suffi- ciently literary. You meet with, perhaps, an 12 IS THAT ALLt unusual number of people who have written a book, and some of them (the books, I mean,) are not so bad. Nevertheless, the amusements of the place are by no means as exclusively serious, aes- thetic, and instructive as they are in , for instance. The art actually survives in Guildford of giving a party where the guests include both old and young, where no " paper " is read, and where there is a supper both moderate in quantity and original in menu. The result is that, although confessed conver- sation is almost unknown, in Guildford every- body talks freely, briefly, and, for the most part, brightly. It is, perhaps, not so civil- ized as for the many to listen while the few harangue, but it is less monotonous. There is a charming little theatre where every great artist who visits this country is usually heard at least once ; and joyous are the nights when everybody goes, joyous and 15 THAT ALL? 13 agreeable to behold ; for the ladies of Guild- ford cling obstinately to the tradition of bare heads and opera-cloaks. In the intervals of these great occasions, or what may be called the interstellar spaces, I must confess that the pretty stage and conven- ient ante-rooms of the tasteful little play- house are apt to be given over to amateur peformances, in which the children of the stockholders prink and pose, and ingeniously avoid embracing in the interest of this or that charity, and there is as much native dramatic ability in Guildford as elsewhere, and more intelligence and practice. During the four years of the civil war in- deed hardly eighteen months ended when my story begins there had been a long suspense of innocent fun. Great would have been the scorn of Guildford and her daughters if her favorite sons could have trodden any mimic stage during that solemn tune. The building 14 IS THAT ALLf had been often used, but strangely. Real, faltering prayers had been breathed behind the dim footlights, and the delicately-colored and gilded auditorium had resounded to sobs as often as to applause. But the long agony was over now. Some of the young heroes had come back braced and bronzed into a new semblance, and others were growing up to fill the places of those who would never come, and the tide of life began once more to run and ripple brightly. The war had made other changes and broken down some ancient barriers. Six years before, to some one expatiating on the charms of society in Guildford, a knowing stranger had observed, " But you have not yet named the first requisite of a splendid and successful society. Have you a queen ? " " Oh, better than that ! " was the prompt reply. " "We have rival queens ! " I think, however, that in the old times the 15 THAT ALLt 15 rivalry had been too distant for the best gen- eral effect, and the lines of division too deeply drawn. Mrs. Pry or honestly despised Mrs. Anderson, and Mrs. Anderson had a genuine horror of Mrs. Pryor. Mrs. Pryor went sel- dom to a Unitarian chapel of the extreme left. Mrs. Anderson was a devout Churchwoman. Mrs. Pryor was just as advanced and adven- turous in all her views as the ever-graceful traditions of my favorite town would allow. Mrs. Anderson was obstinately and sweetly conservative. In reality the professed unbeliever was sub- ject to frequent and serious convictions of many kinds, and the profesged believer was troubled by very few which were independent. Both had a good deal of the pride of life about them ; but the one strove with it theo- retically on democratic principles ; the other quite as theoretically on religious. Both were actively benevolent; but the time had 16 18 THAT ALLt been when either would sooner have seen a pet eleemosynary suffer just a little than be re- lieved by the other. Then came the swift overflow of a universal cause, sweeping them into one mind and one work; and, for a while, they almost thought they loved, and could never again wholly misunderstand one another. Further particulars about the joint sovereigns you will discover for yourselves ; but I pray you mind them well, for I foresee that one of them, at least, may prove a prin- cipal heroine of my story. And so it was the first of November, 1866, and half-a-dozen of the young men and maid- ens of Guildford jiad met among the superb and silent casts in the entrance hall of the new Art Museum. The Museum was the bequest of Benjamin Burrage, who, in dying, sacrificed to the graces, which he had ever defied in life. The sum devised had been allowed to accumu- late from 1835 to 1860. Then a building had 15 THAT ALL? 17 been modestly founded, fitly left unfinished for four years, but now modestly completed and inaugurated, and naturally, in its freshness, it was a favorite place of resort. To-day, there slowly trod its tasteful tiles Isabel Rae, who had been three years abroad, and spoke concerning the objects about her as one having authority ; fair Annie Faxon and her school-girl sister, still in mourning ; Emily Richards ; Capt. Henry McArthur, who had left his dalliance after Isabel to join the volun- teers, and who had now a stiff elbow-joint and a white seam, half-hidden by the curls above his left temple ; and George Aspinwall, a clever lawyer of twenty-nine, who had never abandoned his position on the home-guard, and had been half prized and half despised by the girls of '62 and 63 as a myopic exempt. Miss Rae was remarking that the Pryors were come, and "Oh, have you seen them? How is the Colonel ? " cried a trio of youthful 2 18 IS THAT ALLf voices in varying tones of sweet, high-pitched solicitude. "I saw Mrs. Pryor just one moment. Her husband is very little better, and still smTcrs fearfully from nervous restlessness. The doc- tors say hb won't leave his room this winter." "It is horrible ! " sighed Annie Faxon. "Perfectly beastly ! " cried her sister Grace. " It destroys exactly two-thirds of the pleas- ure of life," pronounced the lively Miss Rich- ards. "I shall take to daily service and eccle- siastical embroider} 7 ." But Capt. McArthur shrugged his broad shoulders, and Mr. Aspiuwall remarked, with the touch of sarcasm which he affected, that he was resigned, and thought it uncommonly kind of Heaven to afford " us young fellows " one more chance. "You will do your best, I am sure," said Miss Richards, with gracious impertinence ; "but what will that be without the great, crea- IS THAT ALL? 19 tive organizing mind? You know yourself, Mr. Aspiuwall, how we languished ill its absence. "Oh, come," said McArthur, "the Colonel is a brave soldier as well as a great swell. It is quite possible to be both, you know. A great many fellows are ; and I am proud to have obeyed him. But when it comes to original genius in entertainment, and that sort of thing, their house was, of course, the pleasautest in Guildford, but I think it was always Mrs. Pryor who did it. The Colonel's function in the old days used to strike me as chiefly ornamental. We can spare him much the better of the two, I should say, and if Madam will only " "But of course," interrupted Miss Faxon, with the ready indignation of a rousse, w she will not leave him ! I know I would never ! And she has been perfectly devoted !" "Yes, indeed," added George Aspinwall, with hardly perceptible mockery, " but, do you 2O IS THAT ALLf know, I don't think Mrs. Pryor can be a fanat- -ical wife. She's a lady of the very broadest views, and if once convinced that the general interests of society require her to forsake the luxurious retirement of her lord's sick-room, we shall have her at the helm again, take my word for it ! No such good news for Mrs. Anderson as her retirement ! I shouldn't won- der if even the Sunday receptions were revived in a modified form. How would that agree with daily service, Miss Richards?" "Not at all, of course! I mentioned daily service as an alternative." But stately Miss Rae, never a devoted list- ener, observed dreamily : " The worst of it all to me is, that such a man must continue to suffer. His sensibilities are so exquisite ! He so religiously adores personal beauty, and health, and perfection." Then she paused and colored slightly, feeling herself in the focus of Aspiu wall's eye-glasses, 18 THAT ALLt 21 and presently added, with a wave of her lace parasol, "I think that Silenus, with the infant Bacchus, the finest thing in the whole collec- tion. It is a glorious cast ! " Before any one was sufficiently collected to respond appropriately to this aesthetic outburst, an interruption occurred. "Excuse me, Miss Rae, but" to the group in general w were you not speaking of Col. Pryor? How is he?" The lady who had swept in among them, with her long silk train and close-fitting jacket of black velvet, had a voice of honey and a smile like September sunshine. The rest de- ferred to Isabel, who repeated her unfavorable report coldly. w Oh, I am so grieved ! " mourned the melli- fluous tones. w And is Mrs. Pryor extremely worn ? " W I scarcely saw her. She looked much as usual." 22 IS THAT ALL? " She has such endurance ! Pray tell me, has the Colonel an appetite? Docs he like little delicacies and remembrances ? Flowers? fruit? Of course they have everything; but one likes to be attentive if one knows the right way. I always thought the Colonel such a fastidious creature, and now he is a hero be- sides ! Good-morning ! " and with a graceful, general inclination, she turned away. Miss Richards could have smitten herself for glancing at Mr. Aspinwall , but the tempta- tion was too swift and slight. "There goes a sincere mourner," said that gentleman, softly. "There goes a beautiful woman," said Capt. McArthur, playfully saluting the departing figure. The lady was Mrs. Anderson. CHAP. II. CAMAEILLA. ON a bright but chilly afternoon, a few days later, in a long western chamber of the best house on River Avenue, a handsome, man of forty-five lay flat upon a low, luxurious couch, with the dawn of a whimsical smile upon his delicate features ; and a handsome woman of about the same age sat in an arm- chair, facing him, the image, for the time, of perplexity and disheartenment. The room was pleasant. A lacquered screen a marvel of Japanese art shut off the flicker of the open fire-light from the eyes of the invalid, and the blue .shades were drawn, and the fine lace curtains lowered at the two nearest windows. But in at the third, behind 24 IS THAT ALLf his head, the afternoon sun streamed brightly, the half-opened door of a spacious dressing- room gave a yet longer vista, the bed was cur- tained away in an alcove, the pictures were appropriate, though few, easy-chairs abounded, and the low tables were heaped with books and gay with flowers. I fancy that, ever since you listened to the talk of those idle young people in the Art Museum, you have half despised Alfred Pryor in your heart as a ladies' pet, but, sure as fate, your prejudice will falter in his presence. You see now, that his features, for all their extreme fineness, escape effeminacy ; and though long confinement has haplessly re- moved the bronze color that, for a time, adorned that face so well, a new dignity is coming with the fast whitening hair, and, in the quick hazel eye, and set of the expressive lips, you may see lurking the spirit which made their previously dilettante possessor, IS THAT ALL t 2$ when the hour came, reckless of clanger, and regnant over men. The comeliness of Augusta Pryor, on the other hand, was of anything but a disarming order. Her steady, purple-blue eyes appeared to issue a careless command for admiration, which you might obey or disregard. She was, in fact, far too stout to be appealing, although I feel almost a traitor when I say so ; for Heaven only knows how bitter the fact was to her. Once she had been tall and lithe, now she was tall, and, as it is tenderly termed, magnificent; but, although at war with her own proportions, she scorned the worse than useless expedients of small gloves and tight dressing, piled her gray hair high above her unwrinkled brow, and lifted ever so little the undeniably dupli- cate chin, which once had been only bewitch- ingly round. In her rare moments of entire repose, this towering creature had often an absurd consciousness of what she conceived to 26 IS THAT ALL f be the deterioration of her appearance ; but the moment she began to speak, she forgot her looks, while those who heard, seldom forgot her. Hers was, in fact, a somewhat distin- guished gift of speech, deep-voiced, earnest, eloquent ; always animated, and, at long inter- vals, impassioned. Now she sat silent and was not thinking of herself, but her depression of spirits would hardly have been recognized as such by an ordinary observer, for it was chiefly betrayed by an anxious frown and a sort of pout, sterner than it had been twenty- five years agone, and not so engaging on the lips which did not close quite easily over Au- gusta's regular and beautifully preserved teeth. When the husband and wife had regarded one another almost as long as silence once prevailed in heaven, the former spoke lightly, "Well, my love, here we arc, and you appear not to like the prospect ! " " Don't jest, Alfred ! Of course it is you I IS THAT ALLt 2J am thinking of. I am so bitterty disappointed in tho result of the summer. I cannot see that you have made the faintest gain, after all we have been through." "Nor I either, Gus, dear, and it's insupport- able of me ! And 1 can't even go on my knees to show my self-contempt ! " " Oh, do not mock me ! Poor dear ! But one would fancy you thought me sorry for myself. And so I am, in part, I dare say, for I am an extremely selfish woman, Alfred. But the question is, How can we face another wear- ing winter like the last ? How can you bear it, and how can I bear seeing you bear it?" "That's the very point," said Alfred, with sudden seriousness, "of which I have been thinking, whenever I could think for a week, and I have made up what was formerly my mind. Augusta, you shall not see it ! It would be sheer nonsense for you to watch me as, you did last year. Your wisest course and 28 IS THAT ALLt truest kindness will be to leave me alone, that is to say, with some stolid attendant whom I can abuse when I like. No " with a lan- guid wave of the hand " don't take fire, please. I can endure after a fashion, in silence, just as your own sex do whom you occasionally taunt me with resembling. But I can't have a spectacle made of my endurance. You know the sort of Pagan I am " "You are more a saint than any Chris- tian " " Thanks, but you know what I have wor- shipped, symmetr}', perfection of aspect, and function ; in a word, beauty ! Your beauty, my dear, all beauty, even what they fool- ishly told me was my own. "When I went to the war, the thing I dreaded was by no means death, but mutilation, disfigurement. It was morbid, of course, but whatever personal virtue I had in going into action, consisted in defying that keenly-realized dread. When I lay in IS THAT ALLt 29 that nauseous hospital in the Wilderness, shot through the thighs, and heard the doctor say my legs were safe, I could only exult in my escape. And then, a year later, when we thought it all right, and the hideous war-dream over, comes Nemesis, or Providence, or what- ever you choose to call it " "Say Nemesis !" interrupted the lady quickly. K If you should drop into cant in your weak- ness, Alfred, it would be, I think, the last drop that would make my cup run over. When these pious people talk about Provi- dence, they appear to mean simply the power that lets them have their own way. ' So provi- dential!' Rose Anderson says, when things go to suit her. Whereas, if there's any Provi- dence about it, the things that afflict and annoy us must be equally providential." " You are perfectly right, mon amie" inter- rupted the sick man, clinching the fist con- cealed by the India shawl spread over him, 30 IS THAT ALL t " but somehow abstract questions fatigue me most of all." "Pardon me, dear ! " " No, pardon me. Here I am, at all events, laid flat by something mighty ; half of me lifeless, and the other half, "upon my honor, Augusta, so horribly racked and tormented at times " "Don't I know it, my love?" cried Mrs. Augusta, with a hearty sob, pressing her white handkerchief violently to her eyes for one instant, then springing up and falling upon him with a score of earnest kisses, " and your patience is wonderful ! " "My patience is not to be mentioned," re- plied the victim, almost sternly. "I suppose good manners help, and you know what place they occupy in my thirty-nine articles ; but I am so profoundly convinced that I have just what I deserve, only not enough, that even the fact that the original hurt was got in the ser- JS THAT ALL? 31 vice of my country seems of small signif- icance. I can and will bear whatever is com- ing, but not with even your eyes always upon me." " Better mine than any stranger's, Alf." "No, no," wearily. "You do not think me a good nurse." , "I think, my admirable darling, that there are 'diversities of gifts,' as Shakespeare says." " Shakespeare, you heathen ! It was St. Paul ! " " C'est dgal! You are glorious in a drawing- room ! You are a planetary power in char- itable societies 1 And I don't want either the rich or the poor to suffer and go astray because I am tossing, feverish, in the lap of luxury I I don't want the social traditions and the hos- pitable fame of this house to perish ! I don't want our vigilant rival miles ahead of us. And when it comes to ministering angels, Gus, dear, you know yourself that yours are not 32 IS THAT ALL? exactly the noiseless footfall and soft gray gowns of fiction." " I can wear wiusey, I suppose," answered Augusta, re-seating herself with a sigh, which was not for the rich black silks, which she knew became her best, " but " with a gleam of drollery in her despair " no woman ever tried harder to pine away than I have done for a year, and 'tis of no use ! Winter and sum- mer accumulate me alike." "Thank Heaven ! " said the Colonel gallantly, " I glory in your splendid vitality all the more, that 'tis all I have left to glory in ! " "Do you mean, Alfred, that you never ex- pect to be well?" " The Lord only knows what I shall be," came the answer at last, with sharp impatience. "I know, as I say, that I have less than my share, if I never recover. To think of what I have seen happen to men I " w You are very tired, now." IS TEAT ALL t 33 K I am in an agony, an' it please you ! And in Heaven's name, why won't you open that door where somebody has been pounding so long?" The timid tap had been inaudible to Mrs. Augusta, who rose with a slight flush, and re- ceived a half-dozen letters from the hands of a new maid, who as yet stood in great awe both of her master and mistress. But when the lady turned her to the couch again, its occupant said sweetly, "I am a brute, Gus, dear, and you must feel the justice of all I have said." And he stretched out his hand to her with a smile, which brought the tears to her eyes again, and made her feel that the wayward love of the wreck of him was the most precious treasure a woman ever owned. "Can you sleep," she said, "while I read my letters?" w Of course I can, if you bid me;" and Augusta was already too deep in her first 34 IS THAT ALL t missive to feel all the mild irony of his reply. Number one proved unimportant. Number two was a summons to the annual meeting of one of the many societies of which Mrs. Pryor was an active member. Number three was an application for admission to the Old Ladies' Home, of which she was president. Number four, an amazing bill for the books which she had from time to time ordered sent to the Mineral Springs, where they had passed their weariful summer. Number five detained, and finally absorbed her. It was from an intimate friend of hers in former days, now an active and distinguished citizeness of a larger city than Guildford, and this was the pregnant passage : "And now, my child, I wish to bespeak your attention to my last protdgfe, the most interesting creature under heaven. Don't tell IS THAT ALLt 35 me that you cannot spare a thought from your husband ! If our elegant Colonel is to remain a cripple, which Heaven forbid! I declare the thought is maddening ! the very worst thing you can do is to sit on the end of his sofa and mope. I don't know which it would harm more, you or him. Least of all ought you to abstain from deeds of charity ; so hear about my little girl, and consider what you can do for her. "I found her up at Franconia, where we spent July and August. Mrs. Bellamy Griffin had her as a sort of nursery-governess to those scrawny twins of hers. She came in answer to an advertisement, and was too inexperienced to know that she needed recommendations, so Mrs. B. G., with her usual luck, got a treasure very cheap. Her French is delicious, and her music, but of that by and by. She isn't pretty, but has an unusual sort of face, and her manners are captivating. Mrs. Griffin was 36 IS THAT ALL? already so jealous, and afraid somebody would steal her prize, that I had the greatest difficulty in approaching her; but I was resolute, and at last got my way, and extracted from the poor little thing a confession of her suffer- ings- "Mrs. G. was working her to death, and even those hideous wenches were authorized to snub her. She had taken the place as the first thing that offered, because she was in extremity. She is a widow, though only twenty-three, and her name is Hortense Drown. Her husband left no money, and all her other relatives (if a husband is a relative ; I know some are abso- lute, or assume to be so !) are away in Aus- tralia, or somewhere at the world's end. "What she wants is to support herself by teaching music, or by public readings. Your heart will die within you at that word, think- ing of all the torments we have undergone, both in public and in private, from professed IS TEAT ALL? 37 readers, but this, I assure you, is a very dif- ferent thing. I fairly coerced the Griffin, who was as mad as any mediaeval one about it, to let Mrs. Drown read one evening in the parlors of the hotel, and everybody was electrified. No rant ; just dramatic enough, exquisite intel- ligence, intense feeling perfectly commanded, and such a voice ! I'm not entirely sure about its being powerful enough for a hall, but for a drawing-room, nothing could be more ravish- ing. w She would be priceless at your receptions, if you resume them, which I hope and pray you may have the courage and good sense to do ! She herself had conceived the very sen- sible idea that the best place for her, as a music-teacher, would be some moderate-sized provincial city (excuse me !), where there are wealthy people, but not a great many teachers of accomplishments. I think her piano-playing pretty good, but not first-rate ; she might have 38 IS THAT ALL? young pupils, but her reading is the main point. "What I want is, that you should ask her to Guildford, and just hear her once, and I feel as if her fortune would be made. The Colonel would not object, I am sure, he is so infinitely kind-hearted. And perhaps she might even afford him some distraction. Pray write me just how he is since your return. I am sum- moned. Yours in haste, "LAURA THAYER WYLLYS. "P.S. I ought perhaps to say that Peter, my husband, with his wonted magnanimity, keeps insinuating that I know very little about Mrs. Drown. In reality, she is open as the day, and her face and speech ought to be suffi- cient passports anywhere. Peter has just lost $15,000 in a Western railway why did he put it there ? I always charged him not ! and the consequence is that he apprehends the IS THAT ALL? 39 almshouse, and hasn't a good yrord for any creature." Mrs. Pry or was interested. For two mo- ments, while she read, she forgot even her Alfred, a thing which she would indignantly have declared impossible an hour before. Mrs. Wyllys had in fact appealed to her two prin- cipal foibles, patronage, and the desire to create a social sensation. She had fancied these and all other vanities dead within her, since the husband, to whose versatile gifts and personal fascination she had always felt her fame so largely due, had been stricken and confined. Perhaps the very purest part of the pride she had taken in her position, had been the feeling that it was the joint conquest and dual realm of Alfred and herself; and much of what is best and worst in conventional womanhood, mingled in her feeling of trium- phant advantage over Mrs. Anderson, because 40 IS THAT ALL f her rival was notoriously unhappy and incom* prise in her domestic relations. To be sure, Mrs. Anderson had an exquis- itely pretty daughter, the sight of whom did sometimes give Augusta a pang, for she and Alfred were childless ; but on the whole Mrs. Pryor felt in her perfect harmony with her husband, and their frank toleration of one another's vagaries, a tower of strength. And now the Greek-godlike physique, in whose aspect she had exulted, seemed threatened with irretrievable ruin, although life might linger in it for many an agonizing year; and never, until this hour, had the wife suffered herself to doubt that the world was over for her, and her true place at the sufferer's side, until it might perhaps please Heaven (for her scepticism was, after all, almost pathetically shallow) to amend his case. But the world, it seemed, and one's respon- sibilities in it, were not to be .set aside so IS THAT ALL? 41 easily. Her husband himself was tiring of her too anxious and sympathetic supervision, and, at the same time, the sort of appeal was coming to her from without, to which she had ever in the past been so ready to respond. She looked up, longing to lay the concrete case before her lord, but his eyes were closed, and his pallor smote her. Then she sighed and re-read the letter, and was so fired by a sudden vision she had of a sort of pre-Rapha- elite woman in an ivory-white silk, sitting in one of the tall carved chairs below, and read- ing Rossetti to a discriminating audience, that she spoke before she thought: ' "Alfred, just hear this ! " He opened his eyes wide, with a very natu- ral gleam of fun in them. "Read on, love," he said, with soft reproach. "Why did you keep it from me so long?" And Mrs. "Wyl- lys' letter followed, postscript and all, with the omission of one passage. 42 IS THAT ALL? "Now, what," said Mrs. Augusta, "ought I to do?" "Oh, have her here, by all means !" "But if I do, I must arrange an evening for her, and I cannot have a party in this house with you here ! It would be cruel and scanda- lous and impossible ! " "Never you mind the scandal, and I won't mind the cruelty. Don't you see, mon amie, it is exactly what I have been urging ? I call it one of Rose Anderson's own 'providences.' " "But you observe," said Augusta, with reso- lute fairness, "that Peter Wyllys appears to distrust her. Not that I think much of that. He is always so cantankerous." " Exactly ! and won't listen to reason about his investments ! But it's my belief you had better warm a viper or two than be forever embracing rny remains." " Oh, Alfred ! you pretend to be heartless, and I believe you really think me so I " IS THAT ALL? 43 "Never ! " he answered, with the sudden and sincere gravity which was always so impressive in him ; " but I think, my darling, that your only fair chance of happiness, this winter, is to fill your great heart, as you have always done hitherto, with a hundred active interests and cares. Yes, and your great house too, if you will ! Put this girlish widow, whom I'm rather impatient to see, in the south chamber, and a French marquis or a converted Brahmin in the north wing, and fill in with the superflu- ous old ladies for whom there is no room at the Home, and come to me now and then, in my lucid intervals, and tell me how they hit it off. But don't make me insist, or I shall turn savage in a minute ! " She rose, half yielding, and wholly in love with her husband, and made as if she would kiss him again. Could it be that he forestalled her? 44 IS THAT ALL? "Hark!" he said, "is not that Belle Rae's voice iu the hall?" "How strangely acute your hearing is, Alf dear. I will see." "Let her come up, if you like," he said. " Her poses tranquillize me." " With all my heart ! The longer she will pose for you the better I shall like it. To tell you the truth, I have thought her rather unin- teresting lately." CHAP. III. AN ANGEL UNAWARES. IV yTRS. ANDERSON had been Rose Merri- -*-*-* vale, famous as a metropolitan belle a certain number of years before. She never told her age, but concealment did not appear to prey upon her. Her beautiful daughter was, at least, eighteen ; but Mrs. Anderson looked so much like her, and so little her senior, that they were really sometimes mis- taken for one another, and malicious people said that no one was more prone to the mis- take than Mrs. Anderson herself. "And how is your mother, dear ? " said an old and stately friend of the family, on whom Mrs. Anderson had called, at a watering-place, the previous summer. "Thanks!" was the reply, "I am 45 46 IS THAT ALL? my mother." Mrs. Anderson was rather proud of this mot, and liked to have it repeated. She did not know that the old lady had abused her sharply after she left, both for saying " thanks," and for wearing a round hat and a masque-veil. "Vulgar, girlish affectations! " had been her withering sentence. Mrs. An- derson had relatives who felt authorized to use the former and more offensive adjective freely with regard to her arrangements. She had married a man imich older than her- self, who had not been able to establish her on River Avenue, but only to build a spacious museum of modern improvements, gorgeous with hard wood and fresco, on a corner lot in Second Street, nor did he ever come quite to understand why she should have accepted that residence with ostentatious resignation. Certainly Seth Anderson was not a person of delicate perceptions. He was practically IS THAT ALLt 47 rather indulgent to his pretty wife in matters of expenditure, but he had a habit of perpetiir ally twitching the purse-strings, as bad drivers do their reins, by way of keeping ever in her mind where the authority lay. She had had him made a churchwarden, and, though the mildest honors were dear to him, he grumbled much over the heavy charities which were required to maintain their leading position at St. Saviour's. The portly rector of that important parish had been with Mrs. Anderson all the morning of the day when Mr. and Mrs. Pry or held converse as you know. Mr. Anderson being absent for two days at the metropolis, Dr. Price had remained to lunch, to which Miss Lilian Anderson had descended late from her lofty little sitting-room, cold, and mute, and lovely, bestowing upon the good Doctor, as she entered, the haughtiest and most artificial of dancing-school bows, and watching her 'mamma 48 IS THAT ALL t while she dispensed sandwiches and urged the sherry with starry blue eyes of alert observa- tion. The contrast between her style of man- ners and her style of beauty, which was pre- cisely that of one of Fra Angelico's angels, moved the really genial soul who faced her to some inward amusement and a touch of com puuction ; but when he had taken his courtly leave, her mother began to remonstrate. " My darling, how could you treat the dear Doctor so rudely ? " " Stuff and nonsense, mamma ! " replied Miss Lily, in the blunt Saxon which leaped so lightly from her saintly lips. " I want to know what he was here for ? " w My child, a thousand things ! We have so much to consider at the beginning of what must be so hard a winter, and }^ou know how the Doctor depends upon my co-operation." ** I know how dearly poor papsy has to pay IS THAT ALL? 49 for your arrangements ; but who is to be Dr. Price's assistant, mamma?" Mrs. Anderson perceived that an engage- ment was inevitable, and began rapidly to mass her forces. "I don't know, Lily," she said with some dignity, "that you, as a young lady, have any special interest in that question." " Oh, but indeed I have 1 you have always urged me to interest myself in church matters, and now I am beginning to do so. And I know quite well, mamma, who has the best right to the place, and almost the promise of it." " Nobody has either right or promise, child. The Doctor will of course have the person whom he thinks most likely to promote the welfare of the parish ; and if Mr. Warburton is willing, for the sake of the good he may do, to occupy, for a time, a subordinate posi- tion- " "Mr. Warburton, mamma? That brawny 4 50 18 THAT ALL? Englishman?" and the young lady raised her violet eyes to the lofty ceiling, and looked like a Madonna in a trance. "I don't know what you mean by braivny, Lily. Mr. Warburton is a young gentleman of the very highest breeding, a specimen of a class whom we very seldom have domesti- cated among us. He is an ordained clergyman of the Church. His uncle is a bishop. He came here to study the condition of the poor in our great cities " "Then why don't he stay in our great cities, and study the poor? He seems to me to prefer living on the rich in our little cities. And so Charley is to be thrown over for him ! " "Lily, you amaze me I How dare you talk of Charley and throwing over?" How can I ever forgive myself for allowing Charles Mason to come here so familiarly ? " w I think it was by way of doing good you IS THAT ALLt 51 had him, mamma. You acted for the best, and could not foresee the consequences. Only you need not have deceived him about coming back. Uncle Bishop might easily have provided for Mr. Warburtou, but Charley " " I forbid you're calling him Charley ! " "Excuse me, mamma, but why? Are we not cousins ? " " Second cousins only. No relationship worth mentioning." "No, mamma first cousins, once removed. Mr. TVarburton himself told me that they name the relationship so in England. Do you know, mamma, he seems to me an odd sort of mis- sionary ? " " He is a young gentleman " " Young ! He's thirty, if he's a day I " w Whom it is a rare privilege for you to meet." W I hope it may be a very rare privilege 52 18 THAT ALLt indeed, this winter. Now I must go to my music-lesson. Good-by, mamma ! " But midway, in the adjustment of her mirac- ulous hat, this pert young person paused, darted to her Davenport, and scrawled the following succinct note, in the large, rapid hand aifected by the blonde angel of the period : "DEAR C. : Don't set your heart on the place at St. Saviour's. Mamma is plotting with Dr. Price to have that Englishman, whom you saw at the orchard-party in September. You thought he could not be a clergyman, but he is, very much so indeed ; and I'm afraid it's all over. You know I am sorry. "Yours always, L." As the young lady poised this missive in her slim, gloved hand, ready for a dexterous shot into the slit of the next public mail-box, she IS THAT ALL? 53 was aware of swift and mighty footsteps just around the corner, and the shadow of a lifted hat on the pavement at her feet, and looking up she received a bow which she had the taste to admire, and resolved that Charley should learn from a fair man of excellent though unusually large proportions, and an air of un- qualified distinction. Her acknowledgment of the salute was slight enough, and she re- ceded half a step as if to facilitate his passing, but his own intentions appeared doubtful. He halted, and murmured that the day was fine. **It is very cold, I think," said Miss Ander- son, with an air of politely smothered intent- ness upon her destination. "Ah, yes ! Of course ! Expected in the States at this season. Don't let me detain you. Would you mind telling me if I should find Mrs. Anderson at home just now?" " Mamma was there when I left," the young lady answered, sweeping onward with an ex- 54 IS THAT ALL? ceedingly oblique bow. Midway of the next block she met Emily Kichards. "Was not that," inquired this observant youug woman, "the noble Briton? And they say he is actually to remain here this winter, ill benighted Guildford, and hold mission ser- vices, and help Dr. Price generally. Why, it will be as good as a curate in a novel I Is it not wonderful, the way 'our pleasures are pro- vided for? Why, as our rector observes, do we ever despond ? A live English gentleman and philanthropist is furnished us, just as we hear that Col. Pry or will not go out this win- ter ! Is it not sad that the dear Colonel is no better? But I forgot, Lily, that you hate him. Tell me, however, is this true about milord? You know, of course I " And Miss Richards took breath. "Who says it?" demanded Lily. "Who says everything? The Faxons, natu- rally, and George Aspinwall. The rest of us IS THAT ALLf 55 are but base imitators of them. Heavens, Lily ! What makes you look so wrathful ? " " Oh !" replied the young lady, resuming her seraphic expression. w I'm cross. Yes " with a sigh K I suppose it is true." Meanwhile the athlete strode onward, and Mrs. Anderson, who had retired in some dis- turbance of mind to her own little boudoir, saw him coming from its commanding bow- window, and was glad. She took his card with a smile, paused only to throw a fleecy white shawl over her blue-silk-clad shoulders for the November day had darkened, and was really chill, and fires had not yet all their winter fervor and was presently bidding him welcome in her drawing-room with all the soft and easy cordiality peculiar to her manner as a hostess. She was even good enough to reproach him with not coming to lunch. w Many thanks ! " replied the young English* 56 IS THAT ALL? man, dropping his fine eyes for an instant, "but I was engaged elsewhere." His modesty gave her an undefined notion that he had been "prospecting" in the unsavory districts which were to be the principal scene of his enlightened labors; and "how easily," she reflected, "does philanthropy sit on a man of his traditions ! " "I need not tell you," she said, with her justly celebrated smile, as she dropped into a low arm-chair and admired the careless ease with which her visitor appropriated a small sofa to his long person, and flung his white hand over the satin arm, " I need not tell you how deeply grateful I felt, this morning, when our good rector told me that you had almost consented to remain with us this winter. You will lighten the dear man's labors, and give him the benefit of your practical experience, in this immense and difficult parish of his. It IS THAT ALL? 57 seems an extraordinary sacrifice for a man in your position." " Do not mention that," said Mr. Warburton with a faint blush, which became his fair coun- tenance well. "But since you have given your life to this good work, and are here in America partly for the purpose " "Yes," said Mr. Warburton, with becoming gravity, "I have seen something of the English poor." "You held a London curacy, I think?" "I worked in a city parish for two years. I have seen sights there such as I shall not see in Guildford, I fancy." "You really think the condition of our poor less wretched than your own ? " "In a place like Guildford, undoubtedly. Perhaps they are as badly off in }^our largest cities and great manufacturing towns." "It is a noble work ! " sighed Mrs.' Ander- 58 IS THAT ALL? son, vaguely enthusiastic, and fixing her fine eyes on her guest with a look of complete and rather affecting appreciation, "but we shall try to make your sojourn among us as tolerable as possible, and not to let you feel yourself too much an exile." " Oh, I like America," said the young man, "and the Americans. They seem uncommonly civil and cordial to strangers." "Not to all, I fear," replied the lady, with an emphasis which was obviously flattering. " Or rather," she added, "I ought to say, that I hope we are beginning to discriminate a little among those whom we receive into our homes and our hearts. Our reckless hospitality in the past, has been a positive foible. We have welcomed every one, almost, without inquiry ; and you would never believe, my dear Mr. Warburtou, how fearfully we have been imposed upon ! " "Ah, how so?" " By foreigners, who have come to us under IS THAT ALLt 59 false pretences. You must know that every- thing connected with the Old World has really been so fascinating to us ; and especially every- thing which seemed to savor of that social state and dignity which our forefathers renounced for us " Mrs. Anderson became conscious that she was confounding our forefathers with our god- fathers, and paused, a little bewildered ; but her guest seemed to divine her meaning. " Ah, I see ; noblemen, and that sort of thing. You mean that persons have assumed titles which did not belong them. I should say they would be much more likely to drop those they have ; for you know, Mrs. Anderson, more or less of those fellows are really coming here DOW. They are curious to see the country which did not go to pieces when they ex- pected." "And desired, is it not so ? Ah, Mr. "War- 60 18 THAT ALL? burton, you \verc rather cruel to us during the war ! " "I admit that we were unfair to the North. A good deal of twaddle was talked about South- ern chivalry, and nobody took the trouble to question it, I mean among gentlemen . There were plenty of cads who were fierce in your behalf, as I can testify. But we see our blun- der now, and are ready to make you our most dogged apology." "It is quite unnecessary, I assure you," said Mrs. Anderson sweetly. "You and I, at least, my dear Mr. Warburton, have had no quarrel. And I ought perhaps to say," she added, out of the lady-like instinct which was really in her, and only overlaid by her innocent affectations, w that when I spoke of being deceived, I did not mean merely with regard to the rank of the strangers who visit us, but their actual character. It has sometimes seemed as if no foreigner ever came here, who did not ulti- IS THAT ALL? 6l mately prove to be under some sort of cloud. And this is "why," she pursued, with her utmost warmth of accent and radiance of ex- pression, " we are so particularly happy to welcome one whose credentials are unquestion- able, and the self-devotion of whose purposes puts us all to shame." Mr. Warbttrtod bowed. w You are very good," he said, with a glimmer of his white teeth, " and I'm very lucky not to be confounded with the rascals. As to rank," he added, smiling more broadly, "I'm sorry to say that my father is a baronet, and a deucedly poor one, par- don me ! and I'm only his third son." "Where is your family seat?" inquired Mrs. Anderson, blandly overlooking the unclerical adverb. "In Sussex. I have a small picture of the house here. Perhaps you would like to see it." And he produced from a pocket a lacquered case and a six-inch photograph, which, rising, 62 IS THAT ALLf he submitted to Mrs. Anderson. It repre- sented an ancient stone mansion, with a drive and a grass-plat, and a cedar of Lebanon, and a glimpse of some fine oaks, at a little distance, on the left. "How very English, and how very charm- ing!" cried the lady. "Ah, did you know that you gave me two cards ? But perhaps I ought not to have seen the other, Mr. Wai-bur- ton," and before she had finished the words Mrs. Anderson had received an impression of an exceedingly picturesque head, with a sort of Spanish veil thrown over it, and had con- trived to turn the carte enough to see that there was indeed a London name on the reverse. Mr. Warburton certainly looked embar- rassed, and stammered more, even, than is Anglican. w Oh ! Ah ! I did not know, I believe IS THAT ALLt 63 Allow me, madam. Yes, 'tis a cousin of mine, but 'tis of no consequence ! " Mrs. Anderson politely forebore to smile at the classic quotation, merely observing, as she gave up the card, " She, at least, does not look English. Spanish rather, or Provencal. Some- thing excessively Latin. How odd and pretty that drapery is 1 " "Private theatricals," the young man ex- plained. "It was taken in character;" but the photograph was already restored to its hiding-place. Mrs. Anderson made a passing resolution not to forget it; but she thought that ingen- uous shyness of her guest, combined with so much savoir faire, quite captivating, and she gave him the warmest and widest of invitations, when presently he took his leave. CHAP. IV. ANOTHER. A MONTH later, on the second week in "* ^ December, Augusta Pryor found herself pledged to the introduction of Mrs. Drown. The interesting stranger was, in fact, expected that very evening, and Mrs. Pryor had just been superintending, in person, the last touches of preparation in the cheery bed-room where the wanderer was to abide. Now it had oc- curred to her that it was high time to be writing the invitations for Mrs. Drown's read- ing; for though Guildford was not strenuous about a whole week's notice, it always liked some days to obviate other engagements, when an evening at the Pryors' was in question. So the lady of the house was now sitting in 64 IS THAT ALL? 65 a deep alcove of the library with a quire of cream-laid paper untouched before her, and a somewhat heavy heart. Always in past years, except when he was absent in the army and then she had received little formal com- pany her leisurely lord had done this service for her. Everything about her spoke of him ; for the room was his favorite. The curiously- convenient writing-table, at which she sat, he himself had designed. Those groups of little water-color sketches were his own reminis- cences of journeys and campaigns, for he was clever with his pencil. The binding of the books, the priceless bric-a-brac, the rich, deep shades of green and blue that were blended in the walls and draperies, were all the expression of his fancy. Above the generous and rather grandly-appointed fireplace hung that iron- ically handsome portrait of herself (so Mrs. Augusta thought), every stroke of which he had most anxiously superintended. 66 IS THAT ALL f And here she was, among the mementos of his taste, beginning to live the old life without him. The old life? Oh, no! How altered must all things be in the absence of that bright and versatile spirit which, to the wife's mind, had animated all. For a moment, her sense of loss and separation had the bitterness of death itself. "I am acting as if he were dead, and had long been dead ; " she said to herself, and the poignant sadness of the thought paralyzed even her energies. When presently Annette, the little maid, beginning now to know that her mistress was not always as awful as she appeared, announced Miss Rae and Miss Faxon, Mrs. Pry or, although she frowned a little at the latter name, arose, and met them almost eagerly. "You are come just in time to help me, girls," she said, in her sovereign way. "Belle, my dear, you know I am unused to this sort of thing, and you are bcth of you such idle crea- IS THAT ALLt 67 tures. Come here, and write my invitations for Mrs. Drown's reading ! " "Oh, not I, Mrs. Pryor ! " objected Annie Faxon, in her falsetto tones foolish, but ever voluble "I write the most shocking hand ! " "It will answer, I dare say," said Mrs. Au- gusta carelessly, proceeding to make another place at the writing-table, and provide a sec- ond pen. "Here is the list. The simplest formula possible, Belle." "Oh, really ! " pursued the fatuous Faxon, "you must excuse ine; I should so like to be of use, but I have an engagement." " Certainly, Miss Faxon. And you, Isabel ? " "No," replied dignified Belle, in her deliber- ate manner, "I have none. I can write." Then she drew off her gloves, and laid her fur aside, and lifted and fingered, with some hesitation, a loosely-twisted paper which she had laid upon the table. "Here are some rather choice rosebuds." 68 IS THAT ALLt "For the Colonel?" inquired Mrs. Pryor, absently. " Yes, I will take them. I hear his bell now. But he positively complains, some- times, that he is half suffocated with flower- scent." Miss Faxon laughed, when the door had closed behind the departing lady. "Is that what you call gracious and tender? " she asked. " Overbearing thing ! What a goose you are, Belle, to slave for her ! " "I don't see any slavery in writing a few notes for one to whom we are all so much in- debted. And if you fancy her unfeeling, it's because you don't know her. She was ready to cry when she asked us to write, at the thought that the Colonel used to do all this. That was why she was so abrupt." " Nonsense ! Some one told George As- p in wall that Dr. Witherspoon said that Col. Pryor's affection was almost purely nervous, and immensely aggravated by that overpower- 15 THAT ALL t 69 ing wife of his. If she could be taken away from him, they said, his chance would be much better." "I would not tell that in this house, if I were you," said Miss Rae, with rising color. K It was George Aspinwall who used to insist that the Colonel was a coward." Then Miss Faxon took her leave ; and Isabel wrote for an hour, carefully, patiently, ele- gantly. At the end of that time Mrs. Pryor reappeared, her face changed and bright, and her manner at its warmest. " You dear girl ! " she said ; w what a deal you have done ! How can I thank you ? And now I am so happy and encouraged ! When Alfred learned that you were here, he said he would like you to come and read to him. It is weeks since he has been able to hear read- ing. If he can listen to you, it will be a positive gain. And then you will stay and 70 IS THAT ALL f dine with mo, Isabel, and be the first to see the prodigy." So Miss Rue had her reward. Night had fallen, and snow was beginning to fall, stealthily, but thick and fast; so that when Mrs. Augusta, startled out of a five min- utes' re very at the library fireside, by what seemed the sound of an arrival in the hall, arose, and herself opened the door of the room, she was met by the impulsive rush of a tiny figure, with a fleecy powder all over its black garments, and large eyes of so singular a lustre that it looked, even to the uuromantic mind, like some captured spirit of the winter night. Augusta opened her lips for her well- prepared greeting, but was forestalled. "Ah, it is Mrs. Pryor !" exclaimed the sprite. "I know it ! Dear madam, will you not speak to the hack man?" (She made two words of it.) "I cannot tell what he means, and he is very angry ! " IS THAT ALLf 71 "Where is Grant?" Mrs. Pry or asked of Annette, whom the inside man had left in temporary charge of the hall-door ; and that functionary reappearing on the moment, she bade him appease the indignant orator in the vestibule, whatever his grievance, and turn- ing again to her guest, said, "And this is Mrs. Drown?" w Yes, it is I, and so cold ! May I not go to the fire?" She was full of gesture, and stretched out her morsels of hands towards the great blaze on the library hearth, as she spoke. K Ah, this is good! What a beautiful room! It is not like an American room, madam. I think I am far away ! " Mrs. Pryor began to be fascinated. w Will you not rest here before Annette shows your room?" sho said, in her friendlier tones of welcome, beginning to unfasten, with her own hands, the damp wrappings of the stranger, and feeling herself more colossal than ever, as 72 IS THAT ALLf the shape of a veritable fairy was revealed in a mourning-gown of heavy stuff, severely plain in fashion, but fitting marvellously. "No, I will go," answered little Mrs. Drown, putting up her hand to her soft, rippling black hair. " You are kind. Thank you ! " she added, like a child who remembers its manners, "but I am never tired. When shall I come down again?" " We dine in half an hour," Mrs. Pryor ex- plained. " And that is good ! " said the new-comer with a confiding smile, and dropping her rather astonished patroness a slight courtesy as she turned awa}', "for I am also very hungry." One of the most imperious of Mr. Pryor's invalid fancies required that Augusta, at her solitary meals, should suspend nothing of their accustomed table ceremony. When, therefore, the two ladies met again, and were joined by Miss Eae, it was under the impartial blaze of IS THAT ALL? 73 the big dining-room chandelier. Mrs. Drown had altered the arrangement of her curling hair, drawing it quaintly to the very top of her graceful head with an unusually tall comb, as if resolute to increase her height. The stiff, mannish lines of linen at her throat and wrists were also immaculate, and by contrast with these, one saw that her skin was very brown. Her nose was flat, and a trifle "tip-tilted." Her lips thin, but scarlet, and they parted over perfect teeth ; and her remarkable eyes though set at an Oriental angle, and of a peculiar light, almost yellowish hue sparkled with vivid intelligence. As soon as they were seated, and the soup passed, the hostess turned to Miss Rae. "And the reading, Belle," she said, a little anxiously, w how did it prosper? " Isabel shook her head slightly, with the deepening color which constantly annoyed her- 74 18 THAT ALL? self, and was indeed a little incongruous with her proud and finished manners. "The Colonel is very polite, Mrs. Pry or, and I am very stupid," she said ingenuously, "but I did discover at last how much I tired him." "And then" (affectionately) "I suppose he asked you to sit still and let him look at you? " "It is very absurd," said Miss Rae, who was not in the least vain, yet could never turn a compliment lightly, "that he is always fancying me like some picture or statue." "Have you been abroad?" Mrs. Pry or turned to say to the stranger, but was met by so very inquisitive a look of the lucid eyes, that she began, instead, to explain her husband's help- less and suffering condition. Her protege^ however, interrupted her. "I know, I know," she said, "Mrs. Wyllys told me." The rapid nodding of her small head seemed natural and graceful as that of a flower upon IS THAT ALL? 75 the stalk ; yet it did occur to Mrs. Pryor that, but for a certain oddity and exquisiteness in the creature, she would have thought her a little rude. And the impression was deepened when Mrs. Drown turned to Isabel, and said abruptly, "You do not modulate your tones. I mean," she added with a candid air, when the young lady bent on her a look of some amazement, but did not answer, "you have not notes enough. See how many I have in my common talk ! " (This was true, although neither of her auditors was sufficiently musical to have noticed it before.) "But you have one or two only, and the pitch is too high. That is why you weary the sick gentleman." She paused with a benignant expression, and then added, as on a second courteous after- thought, " Pardon me, miss ! " " Miss Rac," said the hostess, thinking that she hesitated for the name. And then her 76 IS THAT ALL t interrupted question recurred to her, but she put it in an altered form. "You must have lived a good deal abroad?" Always." " "Were you born there? Mrs. Wyllys said, or I fancied she said, that you were a country- woman." " Mrs. Wyllys did not ask," was the cheer- ful and complete reply, on which there ensued a slightly awkward pause. It was the new-comer who seemed to feel that a certain stiffness about the other two made it incumbent upon her to reopen con- versation, which she did in this wise : "I have always thought that the American ladies pitch the voice too high. It is a great pit} 7 , for it makes unquiet those who hear, and it injures the organ. It is not so with all. You, madam," to Mrs. Pryor "have a noblo contralto, largo and rich, but still too monoto- nous. Why not more variety? A low pitch, IS THAT ALL f 77 and yet variety. That is what makes the voice in speech agreeable. If I would read to your suffering husband, rnadain, you should see that he will not be weary." And she glanced swiftly from one rather irresponsive lady to the other, and nodded with the glimmer of a smile. "Va- riety of tone " she repeated " if I have any- thing good in my reading, it is variety of tone." "After all," thought Mrs. Augusta, "it is rather graceful in her to introduce her business in this way." And, lapsing into the manner of sympathetic and therefore not offensive patron- age which had become a second nature to her, : ihe told Mrs. Drown of the arrangements which had been made for a reading in her own house, before the elite of Guildford. Mrs. Drown was thoroughly. simple and frank in her expressions of gratitude. "You are kind, madam," she said, "and I shall read as well as possible. And then, if the company 78 IS THAT ALL? is pleased, they will perhaps hear me again in some theatre or hall. You think I cannot fill a great space, because I am so petite, but you will sec. I have power. And do you know," she continued, engagingly, " what I desire most of all, is to have classes of ladies, it is un- derstood and to teach them I thiuk it is not called reading, but elocution." Mrs. Pry or warmly approved this plan, and felt her faith in the new-comer reviving. " It would not be surprising," she said, M if you found a number of pupils. A good many of us, I fancy," she added, turning to Isabel, "would like to be made less monotonous." And she was almost vexed at the profoundly indifferent manner of that young lady's re- sponse. Dinner being over, Miss Eae took an early leave ; and Augusta lingered with her for a moment in the little reception-room, where she donned her wraps, while Grant waited in the IS THAT ALL? 79 hall to attend her to her home, three doors lower down on the Avenue. " What an odd creature it is," she said, "but with a sort of fascination ! " " She is very strange indeed. She is French, don't you think?" "A foreigner, evidently; at least by birth and habitual speech. Her idioms are un- English, and particularly un-Yankee. But she is extremely piquante, and appears to have ideas. I anticipate something from her read- ing. I must make Alfred see her. I should so like to know how she would strike him. Good-night, my dear ! " And Mrs. Augusta returned to the library, where she found her other guest nearly buried in the depths of the Colonel's favorite loung- ing-chair. Whereupon, issuing a kind but ap- parently superfluous command that the small stranger should be entirely at home, she apolo- 80 18 THAT ALL f gized, briefly, for herself hastening to her husband. But Mrs. Drown, when she was left alone, slid out from amon the corner of IS THAT ALLf 239 his eye. K It is not inconceivable to me," he added, "that the natural patrons and guardians of this young man should have desired for him a new career of usefulness, unhampered by the associations of an unfortunate past, and that they should have endeavored, by the power of their recommendations, to secure him the same ; but I am forced to conclude," and here the Doctor indulged in a gesture which he usually reserved for the pulpit, "that the impression prevailed among them that a slightly lower order of morality and decorum might be admis- sible here than could be tolerated under the immediate effulgence of Christian Civilization ! " It was during the same visit that Dr. Price informed Mrs. Anderson that he had made choice of her admirable young relative, Mr. Mason, as Mr. Warburton's successor. Frankly, but somewhat feebly, the mother remonstrated. w Lily is an only child, Dr. Price ! You 240 IS THAT ALLt know her expectations. A great deal too young to understand her own mind; yet so wilful where she has taken a fancy ! " " A great deal too wilful, my dear madam," said the Doctor, shaking his head wisely, "to be influenced in her little determinations by prudential arrangements of yours or mine." Isabel Rae's engagement was announced at about this time, and Alfred, on the first day of his promotion to the sofa, insisted on her coming up, that he might felicitate her face to face. She entered the room, blushing of course, but now that her blushes were in order, and no longer intensified by her own indignation against them, they were no more than brilliantly becoming. He held her white hand inevitably it was rather more substantial than his own just now while he praised the man of her choice, just as a girl best likes to have her lover praised ; and expressed his joy in her present IS THAT ALL? 24! happiness, and his faith in her future, with a sympathy so ardent and yet so delicate, that, added to his thrice etherealized appearance, poor Belle found it quite overpowering, and was fain to turn her head away. " What does that mean ? " he cried gayly . "Face the light if you please, miss ! I thought so ! A tear stands in your bright blue eye, Isabel, and it is for me ! Don't shed it, dear girl ! I never deserved it less. I'm going to recover in a hurry, if that's what you mean ! Did you not know that the gracious Faculty have given me full permission to get wholly well as fast as ever I like ? I shall go abroad to select your wedding-present, my dear, and return to dance at the ceremony. Now you may go, and order that lucky dog, McArthur, to report at headquarters for congratulations." The ensuing winter was, in fact, redeemed from dulness in Guildford, by three mem- orable weddins. Miss Eae was united to 242 IS THAT ALL? Capt. McArthur ; Miss Anderson triumphantly achieved that which, in American society, cor- responds to marrying the curate ; and Miss Annie Faxon Miss Richards being providen- tially absent with an invalid friend in Cuba bestowed her hand and a snug fortune, recently inherited from the Aunt Nancy for whom she was named, on Mr. George Aspinwall. All the weddings were splendid ; and although it is not the custom in Guildford to publish the caterer's bills, an inventory of the bride's ward- robe, or a list of her gifts, I may perhaps be allowed to mention, since it is a positive addi- tion to the art-treasures of our country, that exquisite little cabinet of Mrs. McArthur's, filled with rarest china, concerning which every one cried, with gasps of enthusiasm, that of course it could only have been discovered at the ends of the earth ; and equally, of course, the con- tents could only have been selected by Col. Pryor in person. IS THAT ALL? 243 The Colonel was present at this wedding, although he did not dance nobody did and then and there he resumed his position as aesthetic dictator and chief ornament of society iu Guildford. His war-record is almost for- gotten now ; and all except the few who know him intimately are wont to imply, when, they speak of him, just as they always used, that he is a flatterer and a trifler, elegant, self- indulgent, fastidious, and fain&nt, to a degree that well-nigh passes patience in a native Amer- ican citizen. Is that all? Yes ! it is all told my gossiping little story a very meringue of a story, you may justly complain ; unsubstantial and flavor- less. Not a great situation or ideal type of character, and but one passably fine action ! I confess it. The people of Guildford are little better or worse than those of other places, and 244 IS THAT ALLf even with them I have not ventured far below the surface. Yet I am half-inclined to appeal against your sentence on behalf of one person my own favorite and to ask whether the strong, generous, loyal wife, with her infinite pride and devotion, and her unassailable faith, whether Augusta Pryor, in short, be not almost worthy to be called a heroine ? NO NAME (THIRD) SKRIKS. JUSTINA. " The third series of the justly popular ' No Name ' novels has held nothing so noteworthy as ' Justina.' There is no clew to the authorship ; but the writer, whether man or woman, may have the satisfaction of knowing that a wellnigh perfect bit of work has been accomplished, and that though its very simplicity and purity will be against its wide popularity, that it has its place among the best literature, and will keep it. Without being in the slightest didactic, it holds a powerful moral lesson ; but it is the reader who discovers the moral, not the author who obtrudes it. There is no space here tor clot or details. It can only be repeated that 'Justina' is among the very best of recent fiction, and its characters all worth knowing." Mrs, Helen Campbell, in The Orange Chronicle. " After a considerable pause the ' No Name Series ' takes the field once more, and with a book which is a beginning again. ' Justina ' is an ' epoch-making book ' in its famous series. A stronger, finer story has not been written with an American pen this many a day. " It is a fine and noble story, a new and firm and skilful hand touching the old notes of love and longing, and awakening out of them a fresh variation of the one theme that underlies all human life. The book is extremely well written ; is a master's work, whoever he is." The Literary World. "This charming story revives some of the best characteristics of the ' No Name Series,' in which there have appeared a number of singularly fresh and delightful studies of character and life. Justina herself is one of those pure, high-minded, and attractive women who never cease to interest in fiction as in real life, and who revive and sustain the noblest traditions of high living in the world. We venture the guess that the writer is a woman, and that this is not her first venture with her pen. The style has a finish which comes only by practice, and the management of the stnry be- trays the experienced hand. The motive, although very strongly developed, is never suffered to overlade the movement of the narrative or to obscure tlie charm of the story. The writer's purpose is to show the absolute sanctity of the marriage tie, as against all theories of free or loose divorce. To accomplish this purpose she has taken a very effective line of inventing a series of circumstances which would justify, if anything could, the severance of the marriage tie. Having done this, she offsets against all the pleas and claims of individual happiness the sure moral instinct of a noble woman, who refuses to confuse for a single moment the question by allowing the passionate pleadings of another, or the pleadings of her own heart, to overbear her sense of right and wrong. The story is very effectively told, with episodes of genuine power and real beauty, and can hardly fail to make clear a vital issue often beclouded." Christian Union. One Volume i6mo. Brown Cloth. Price, $1.00. Our publications are to be had of all booksellers. Mailed, post-paid, by the publishers, ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON. MESSRS. ROBERTS BROTHERS' PUBLICATIONS. NO NAME (THIRD) SERIES. LITTLE SISTER. "Tin's last volume of the new 'No Name' series is a tender little story. It stands by itself in the series. So far as we remember, there is not, in the whole long Hst of the very unequal and much-named ' No Names,' another of its order. It is a bit of faithful and delicate genre work, a sort of work too much neglected by our story-wrights. Their neglect of it is perhaps only the natural result of the law <'l supply and demand ; so large a proportion of readers belong to the class of that excel- lent old lady who, knowing no better health-test than her appetite for sensational narratives, remarked sadly one day that she was sure she must be ill, for she had lost all her relish for the murders in the newspapers. By readers of this class stories like 'Little Sister' are thrown away, dismissed as dull, with a hasty contempt which would be much surprised, no doubt, at being told that the very quality for which it had rejected books was their one excellence, namely, every-dayness, simplicity, slenderness of plot. There is also in Little Sister' an undertone of clear-hearted spirituality. This, without taking shape in technical religious phrase, makes itself felt in every emergency and crisis through which the characters are carried, and is far more likely to cast its weight on the right side of balances for the very silence and reserve in which its presence is wrapped." "fi. ff." in The Critic. " ' Little Sister ' is a recerlt addition to that deservedly popular series whose name is ' No Name.' It is a bright, sweet, simple story. There is no villain and no adven- turess. The plot is just such a one as is woven daily by the incidents, sorrows, joys, common to the majority of lives. The unassuming little heroine is what every woman should be, a silent power for good. She illustrates in her quiet life the beauty of unselfishness. There are sparkles of bubbling laughter and touches of tender grief, and on every page some useful lesson to sink into the heart and bear fruit." The Chicago Tribune. " It is not every day that brings a novel so wholesome, so homely (in the best sense of the word), so simple, so true to life, so full of common sense, so bright, and so interesting as ' Little Sister.' There is not a character in it whom one would not lile to know ; and that is the greatest compliment, because the scene is laid in Philadelphia. . . . It is a genuinely ' match-making ' book, but withal the story is so healthy that it mi>!.ht well prove infectious. It is the kind of a novel that makes one feel that life is worth living." The Philadelphia Press. One volume, 16mo, brown cloth. Price, 81. OO. Our publications are to be had of all booksellers. When not to be found, send directly to the publishers, ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON. MESSXS. ROBERTS BROTHERS' PUBLICATIONS. NO NAME (THIRD) SERIES. PRINCESS AMELIE. " No man or woman can read it without being not only interested and charmed by its subtlety and beauty, but also purified and strengthened by the story of a simple life and a pure love. As the term is usually employed, it is not a novel ' with a pur- pose,' but it effects the only purpose which :s sufficient to justify the writing of any novel it makes its reader better No one can peruse its pages without feeling the influence of a sweet, steadfast, honest life simply and brightly told." The Continent. " Few lovelier tales than that have been told us. It is so sincere and so pure, such a contrast to the Ouida school. Such a book gives one back one's faith in goodness and truth, in life lived for duty's sake." Mrs. L. C. Moulton. " We have before us the last publication, ' Princess Amelie,'' and have no hesitation hi proclaiming it an ingenious, brilliant, and original story. The reader who has gone through with Miss Yonge's beautiful story called ' Stray Pearls,' will find in ' Princess Atne'lie ' a continuation of the interest in the stately and splendid old French society of the pre-revolutionary period. . . . The writer has with infinite cleverness concealed his or her great coup from the reader ; and we leave the reader to find it out. The story is in every way a delightful one ; a book that young girls may read with pleasure, and with profit. This time the ' No Name Series * has scored a suc- cess." Toronto Mail. " ' Princess Amdlie ' is the best volume yet published in the third ' No Name ' series. It is called a fragment of autobiography, and the royal love-story is charm- ingly told. The simple style, and the quaint turn of the plot, give the story an added grace, and one lays it down with a sigh that it should end so soon." One Volume. IGmo. Brown Cloth. Price, 81.00. For sale by all booksellers, or mailed, post-paid, on receipt of price, by the publishers, ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON. Messrs. Roberts Brothers' Publications. NO NAME (THIRD) SERIES. A SUPERIOR WOMAN. One volume. i6mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00. " In these days of morbid fiction, when to describe what may be called path- ological eccentricities in human nature seems to be the ambition of each new novelist, it is as unexpected as it is refreshing to come upon a story as fresh and wholesome and true to life as is ' A Superior Woman.' There is a happy fidelity to nature in the character-painting. Even the lighter sketches, such as Mrs. Cleve, Charley and Walter Thorn, and the Hemingway sisterhood, show the same sense of proportion and precision of stroke which makes Rose dear Rosamond Leigh, the heroine as real to us and as vitally fresh and interesting as any girl we know out of a book." " ' A Superior Woman ' is a pleasant and delicate story of an earnest young girl whose young life is led by her own pure and sweet svmpathies, her loyal friendships, and her most practical good sense. It is a book that interests deeply, but never thrills its readers ; because it deals wholly with the interests of to-day, and to-day has but few tragedies, and but few comedies that are in any sense too strange to be believed. It is a book of helpfulness for such young women as desire to make the most of the domestic materials at hand, and also for such young men as are evolving prospective wives and toiling for prospective firesides of their own. In fact, it is a treasure for all those who are in search of the 'superior woman.' The novel is one of the ' No Name ' series, and these books are never inferior in literary quality." Sold by all booksellers. Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of price, by the Publishers, ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON. Messrs. Roberts Brothers' Publications. No NAME (THIRD) SERIES. HER CRIME " The third series of ' No Name ' novels begins with ' Her Crime,' a story which in its opening chapters seems likely to be commonplace, but which grows more and more powerful as it goes on, developing a very remarkable character in its heroine, and a plot of extraordinary intricacy, considering the limited size of the book. The story is told by the heroine's friend, a simple, bright little woman, whose life is well- nigh ruined by the heroine's jealousy and unscrjpulousness, but who loves her to the last. . . . But it is Florence Homer alone who makes the story, and she will live in the reader's memory for some time, a beautiful, unscrupulous woman, loving as well us a woman without a conscience can love, and biigl.ti.ig every life that touches her own." Sunday Budget. "A wonderfully dramatic book is the new ' No Nairt* story, ' Her Crime,' with which the publishers begin the third series of that name. The plot is altogether out of the common, and readers who thirst for a sensation have it here. We do not pro- pose to destroy the charm of the story by telling its secret in advance, but can only commend it as one of the best as well as one of the most cripnal works in the long list of ' No Names' which have yet seen the light." Boston Transcript. " The latest issue in the ' No Name ' series is a brightly written story of New York life, with little glimpses of the South and West. The heroii.e, Florence, a sin- gularly beautiful and fascinating woman, jealous, passionate under her calmness, and jtbsorbing weaker natures, whether men or women, is a moving and powerful figure. The failure of ' her crime,' which has shattered her husband, to urpair in the least her splendid charm, makes a striking ending, where an ordinary writer would have given a merely melodramatic one. The ' local color ' seems to be faithful. An air of propriety and high breeding without a particle of priggishness pervades the whole novel, which is full of brisk conversation and eminently readable." Good Litera- ture. " If art in a story is that which carries the reader along a rather bright narrative, interesting him in character and incident, without allowing him to be too conscious of the thickening mystery that unfolds like a cloudburst at the climax of interest, then there is a high order of art in this story." Inter-Ocean. One Volume, i6mo, Brown Cloth, Black and Gold Stamp. Price, $1.00. Sold by all booksellers, or mailed, post-paid, to any address on receipt of price, by the publishers, ROBERTS BROTHERS, Boston. JlfESSRS. ROBERTS BROTHERS' PUBLICATIONS. NO NAME (THIRD) SERIES. BARRINGTON'S FATE. " ' Harrington's Fate ' is a novel of considerable power. It is re- markably coherent ; its character-drawing is artistic ; its conversations are bright and natural ; its plot is a good one. It is a novel sure to make its mark." Philadelphia Press. " ' Harrington's Fate,' the last issue in the ' No Name ' series, bears the marks of a practised hand, and is a book that no novel reader, once having begun, will feel like laying aside until the last page is turned. It is a love story, pure and simple. The incidents are skilfully handled, and one or two of the characters are drawn with remarkable cleverness. A well-known American author a lacy who read the works in sheets, says of it in a private letter : ' The heroine is a girl after my own heart, she is so purely feminine. Her very mistakes are but the excesses of her good qualities, her self-devotion, and her tender- ness for other people. And she knows how to love as not one woman in a hundred does, in a novel or out of it. Indeed, the special grace of this book is that it is just a love story with no tractarian purpose. It is good to get acquainted with such a charming specimen of girl- hood as Katherine, and no less with a man who knows his own mind as well as Harrington knows his from the beginning. Mrs. Wilbra- ham is an absolutely new character in fiction ; something to be grateful for in these days.' The author has not been guessed at, so far as we have seen ; but that it is by a woman is certain, and if we are not mistaken, by a woman who holds to-day a distinguished place in the English world of letters." Transcript. '" Harrington's Fate* is the latest and best of all the ' No Name' series. It is not deep, but immensely entertaining and brilliant, as a story should be. The characters are lovable, refined, and charmingly natural. One meets them like acquaintances. The lover is exactly the kind of a lover that a woman thoroughly appreciates. . . . Men like Harrington, determined, persistent, and not afraid to let the world know that they are in love, are adored by women. . . . We recom- mend this bright, clever story to readers in this column, not as a book notice, but with a genuine feeling of pleasure that there is such a pretty new story to enjoy in these winter evenings." Hartford Times, com mun i cation . One volume. lOmo. Brown cloth. Price, SI. 00. For sale by all booksellers, or mailed, post-paid, on receipt of price, by the publishers, ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON. MESSRS. ROBERTS BROTHERS' PUBLICATIONS. NO NAME (THIRD) SERIES. A DAUGHTER OF THE PHILISTINES " There is nothing like a well-written novel to give the reader a true insight of hu- tnan life in all its phases, its society, aims, and aspirations, and of the scenes and scen- ery in which it moves. The ' No Name ' novels dp this. They are all blight and truthful, and of a refined order ; they are so good it is singular that the publishers, Roberts Brothers, of Boston, are able to sell them at the cheap price of one dollar a volume. The binding is tasteful, and the books are convenient to handle, just the right size to tuck away in a satchel, for reading during a journey, or for the summer holidays. While one is entertained by these charming little stories, there is also a satisfactory feeling that time is not wasted in their perusal, but much profit gained. They keep one abreast with the times in many social directions, and, in a pleasurable way. they are adapted to give ladies a great deal of the general information of the day, in which many are sadly lacking. The ' No Name Series ' is better and better ihe older it grows. The Third Series includes some of the best. ' Harrington's Fate ' is iollowed by ' A Daughter of the Philistines.' and it is good from beginning to end. . . . The book is brimming with little bits of wisdom, and genuine worldly knowledge. . . . " ' A Daughter of the Philistines' does not claim to be a society novel, but it gives more comprehensive information of New York society than the books that make that subject a specialty. It also depicts faithfully the scheiring stock operations of Wall street ; but the ugliest facts of society and of stock gambling are presented with a re- fined ta*te and a delicate humor that would please the most fastidious reader. " Hartford Times. " We commend the story as a picture cf the demoralizing effect of Wall Street spec- ulation on domestic life, for its graphic portraiture of fashionable life on Murray HiU, and for the lesson it inculcates of the misfortune and disaster that follow in the train of those who give themselves up to the worship ol Mammon." Providence Journal. " ' A Daughter of the Philistines ' is one of the latest of the ' No_Name Series ' and it is the most interesting of the collection. Its literary superiority and originality s'rike one upon its first page, and they are continued. Ihere is not a dull page in the book.'' Home Journal. " If we were to hazard a guess, it would be that this took is by the author of ' The House of a Merchant Prince,' Mr. Bishop, of New York. We are, however, it seems, never to know who any of these ' No Name ' writers are. and so even guess- ing i-i unprofitable. The story is of New York life, and its incidents lie chiefly among the rich and fashionable. The 'Philistines' in question are what are called the noin'eanx ri'hes Their character, career, and end are sketched in a way to show where and how intense worldliness is apt to bring up. The 'Daughter,' however, has elements of character of a better order, and falling in love with a superior man, is by him saved from the fate which at first threatens her. The whole is managed with the *ki!l of a practised writer, with the insight of true genius, and with an aim which the judicious reader fully indorses." Standard, Chicago. One Volume. IGmo. Brown Cloth. Gilt and Black. Price, 81.00. Our publications are to be had of all booksellers, or will be mailed, post-paid, on receipt of price, by the publishers, ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON Messrs. Roberts Brothers' Publications. NO NAME (SECOND) SERIES. BABY RUE. " One peculiar charm of the " No Name " novels is that they are really light reading, in the best sense of the term ; bright and clever stories, which are really entertaining, because they are neither dull nor harrowing to the feelings of the reader. This is the kind of reading the American people need ; especially in the summer season, as means of relaxation to over-taxed brains, and as helps to the rest of over-worked bodies. ' Baby Rue ' is just a book of this sort. It is cleverly written, and deals with characters and events always of interest to American peo- ple, gathered from the military life on the Western frontier forty years ago; and it deals also to some extent with the " Indian Question,' 1 that very large ques. tion to which, in those forty years, we have been able to give so very snail ait answer." Penn Monthly . " In turning over its pages, the thoughtful reader cannot help feeling that the author had something more than the simple story in view. He has given what seems to be a thoroughly impartial view of the Indian question, and showed the natural result of the faithless and treacherous policy followed by the government in dealing with the savage tribes. He shows that in warfare soldiers and savages are alike cruel, and that nobility of character is not confined wholly to the white race. All in all, ' Baby Rue ' is a notable book, and one that will have more than a momentary popularity; full of vivid descriptive passages, strong in character drawing, and touching with equal skill the springs of pathos and humor. It will be read to be remembered." Boston Transcript. "The book is one of great earnestness and beauty, of exceeding interest and undeniable power. In all fiction we recall no more touching incident than the friendly Indian's brinping, in his folded blanket, about a square foot of damp, sandy earth, bearing the imprint of the little lost child's foot, which proves her to be still alive. He must be, indeed, a hardened reader of fiction who can read without moist eyes, how the young officer stooped to kiss the footprint of his Baby Rue, and offered a hundred dollars to the man who would carry it intact to the child's mother at the fort." The Critic. " The novel of incident is almost an unknown thing to the present generation of fiction readers ; and, therefore, it is a positive relief to turn from books which are in the main mere studies of character clothed in epigramatic dialogue, to a work which recalls the days when a story had color and movement, and did not remind us of the scientist who would " peep and botanize upon hismother'sgrave.'' Not that the novel of the present day has not its merits, but because it wearies with minute dissections, when we are in the mood to read a story for itself alone, and not for any analytical power which an author may display. Having these ideas in mind, we have found genuine pleasure in reading ' Baby Rue,' the latest addition to the ' No Name Series." . . . The descriptive passages are done with a facile pen, and show that the author is thoroughly familiar with his ground, and the reproduction of negro dialect and peculiarities is very happy." Boston Courier. One volume. IGmo. Green Cloth. Price, $1.00. Our publications are to be had of all booksellers. When not to be found, send directly to the publishers. ROBERTS BROTHERS, Boston. Messrs. Roberts Brothers Publications. THE "NO NAME" (SECOND) SERIES- SALVAGE. " On the whole, the ' No Name ' books are the most remarkable series of novels ever published in this country. All of them are up to the average standard of good stories, while some are far above. It seems hardly fair to keep the public in ignorance of the authors for ever. Some of them have been guessed ; but, really, after one of the ' No Names ' has come out and had its success, why should not an admiring public know who wrote it? 'Salvage 'is one of the best of the series. The character of Adela in its development from child to woman is a very pure and beautiful one. The scene of the meeting of the little boy, Lance, with his un- known papa, is drawn with a masterly touch." Cincinnati Commercial. " We confess to being very much interested in this new volume of ' The No Name Series.' We like it. The plot is new and refreshingly so. The characters are limned with a free pen ; the situations are decidedly original ; and, save that unfortunate fortunate shipwreck, and its expected outcome, are not unnatural or improbable. It is written with ease, grace, and snap. The ' No Name Series ' improves ; give us more of it. When shall we know the name of the author ? We speak our thanks now." Press, Providence. "This story fully keeps up the reputation of the series to which it belongs. Its plot is very simple and its moral excellent. It is aimed against the false divorce system which separates husband and wife so easily, and the misconceptions of marriage which have affected so many minds." Christian Intelligencer. " It is wonderfully well written, and we predict for it a popularity even greater than that which attended 'Mercy Philbrick' or 'Kismet.' The plot is alto- gether original, the style brilliant, and the interest of the story intense. It reads like a bit of real life." " These chapters " ( describing the storm, shipwreck, and rescue ), " which com- prise the major portion of the work, are written with rare power, and possest an absorbing interest. It is a sufficient compliment to the author of ' Salvage ' to say that the book is enough to make one almost vow never to go to sea. For spirited and vivid portrayal of the horrors of shipwreck, it is in prose what Byron's description in ' Don Juan ' is in poetry," says the Dial. " There has been pretty nearly as much guessing over the authorship of the different volumes of the ' No Name ' series as there was over the identity of rhe author of ' Waverley.' To repeat the story of the success of these novels would be supererogatory. The latest addition to the series is entitled ' Salvage.' Who is the author ?" Express, New York. In one volume. 16 mo. Green cloth. Price $1.OO. Our publications are to be had of all booksellers. When not to be found, send directly to the publishers, ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON. Messrs. Roberts Brothers' Publications. NO NAME (SECOND) SERIES. DON JOHN. "Of the many pleasant volumes which this successful series has included, none is more attractive than Don John. The plot is ingenious, something too much so : for the hurry of desire to disentangle its thread leads the reader to miss the charm of the genuine modern idyl to which this harassing mystery seems alien. ... Asa last word to the reader read Don John as rapidly as you will for sake of finding out the book's secret ; but be sure to read it again, for its sweetness must be drawn out slowly as a bee takes honey from the little slim goblets of the pink clover." Portland Press. "Don John has the first and chiefest requisite of a novel, it is extremely inte- esting from first to last. Nobody could mistake the plot, or no plot the remarkable children . . . clever beyond the actualities of real life, unique as never were any American nursery plants, whatever English ones may be, lustrous with the author's peculiar humor, abounding in scintillations of aphoristic wit. with that sad and only half-satisfying ending which Miss Ingelow is in the habit of giving to her stories. It is largely a vivid picture of boy-and-girl life, and as such is specially delightful." Home Journal. " The delineation of character and the portrayal of the delightful relations ex- isting between parents and children in the cultured circles of English middle-class society, is most skilfully done, and it is safe to say that, though quite different from the preceding novels of the ' No Name ' series, none exceed it in point of interest and charm of style." N. Y. Graphic. " Don John, the latest of Messrs. Roberts Brothers* ' No Name' novels, is a clever, entertaining, and in some repects an ouginal book. . . . The story is always interesting ; sometimes it is fascinatingly so. ... It is a novel in all re- spects above the average. Not only will it fix and hold the reader in virtue of the ingenuity of its plot and the spirit with which it is told, but there is very good character work in it. ... The scene is England, and the story presents a very charming study of English home life. The style in which the story is written is very pleasing. While there are fine, delicate touches of palhos, the general tone is bright and cheery, and at times the text becomes brilliant, especially in the sayings of Charlotte. Above and beyond its power to amuse, the novel teaches a lesson, well to learn. It is a valuable addition to the popular series." Boston Pott. " The persons are well conceived and sustained, and in their various ways are highly interesting. The plot is odd and effective. The book has a noble moral tone, and there is much capital fun in it." Congrcgationalist. In one volume, 1 61110. Green cloth. Price, $1.0O. Our publications are to be had of all booksellers. When not to be found, send directly to the publishers, ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON. Messrs. Roberts Brothers' Publications. NO NAME (SECOND) SERIES. THE TSAR'S WINDOW. "The basis of all novels is, more or less, love. Of course that is the principal subject of this story, and an extremely pretty love ta'e it is, with an excellent plot and some interesting characters well drawn. Incidental to the story are introduced some excellent descriptions, not only of Russia's two great cities, St. Petersburg and Moscow, as they appear to any observer, but of Russian society and its pecul- iar features. It is really a book of valuable instruction iu this respect, and the instruction is made highly interesting." Post. . . "The pretty story of 'The Tsar's Window" is told by some happy and fortunat c-nn n-iw. Vi-ac t m \r*\ \&A in Wiiccta iinHpr arl vsntacrpnn*; rirriim^lnnrp^. Anrl wh In one volume, i6mo, green cloth. Price, $1.00. Our publications are to be found in all bookstores, or will be mailed, post-paid, on receipt of price, by the publishers, ROBERTS BROTHERS, Boston. Roberts Brothers' Publications. NO NAME (SECOND) SERIES. MY WIFE AND MY WIFE'S SISTER. " ' The No Name Series' has had in it so many good novels that to say " This is the best," may be called in question. And yet this in many respects is true. The book is remarkable in its naturalness and easiness of belief, even when the incidents re so wholly improbable. The reader stops to wonder at the audacity of the author in taxing the credulity of his readers, but in a moment is swept along into a forgetful- cess of all doubt by the ingenuity of the artist who paints the pictures. Without pandering to any depravity, the story is more excitingly interesting than any French novel of the most famous authors." Inter-Ocean, Chicago.- " One of the best written and most attractive volumes of the piquant series to which it belongs." Portland Press. " Well maintains the reputation of the remarkable series of which it is the latest volume." Washington Herald- " The last ' No Name ' has already been declared by a competent critic the best of the series, and though, remembering certain volumes in the list to which it belongs, we may hesitate to award it that extreme praise, we cannot help acknowledging that it shows a certain quality of excellence more conspicuous than any of its predeces- sors." Boston Transcript. ' One of the strongest stories of a sensational kind that we have had presented in the famous series to which it belongs. It is related professedly by a member of a French-American firm settled in Boston in the early part of the century. After a brief episode of his youthful life he visits Paris in 1818, and the scenes are all laid in that capital. The descriptions of the great personages and the life of Paris have an air of vraisemblance which would be worthy of De Foe. The sensational plot of the story is the detection of a convict who has risen to a high rank among the changes subsequent to the French Revolution. In all that makes an absorbingly interesting story this book ranks with the very best of its kind." Christian Intelligencer. " If it is not the best of the excellent stories which have appeared in this series, it stands very near to that position. We cannot see how novel readers can fail to enjoy it." New Bedford Mercury. "One of the best novels of the year. The plot might have been constructed by Victor Hugo and the story written by Edward Everett Hale." New London Tele- gram. " If this does not prove the most popular of the series we shall miss our guess. It is a charming book." Peoria Call. " ' My Wife and My Wife's Sister,' the latest novel issued by Messrs. Roberts Brothers in their ' No Name Series,' will rank with the best of its predecessors. It is full of incident, much of it of a dramatic and even startling character ; is remarkably well written ; is intensely interesting, and can hardly fail to prove among^ the most popular successes of recent publications. The author, who tells his story in the first person, professes to be a gentleman of Boston birth and French descent. The scene Is principally laid in France in the early years of the present century. There is a strong love story connected with it, but the most exciting features of the plot relate to events in Paris society as that society was left after the convulsions that attended the French Revolution had partially subsided. We hear no conjecture as to the identity of this author. His (?) is a practised hand, apparently, in literature, if it has not before appeared in fiction. His narrative power is something remarkable, and can Sardly fail to strongly impress the reader," says the Boston Saturday Gazette. One Volume. i6mo. Green Cloth. Price, $x.oo. Our publications are to be had of all booksellers. When not to be found, send directly to the publishers, ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON. THE "NO NAME SERIES" GEMINI. It has been rumored that the present volume of the " No Name Series" is from the pen of Louisa M. Alcott. After reading it, we are fully convinced that the surmise is correct- It is written in the truly delighful vein of her former works, is full of bits of pathos that suddenly move one to tears, and also of inci- dents and character-studies that are irresistibly amusing. St. Louis Evening Post. The lover of a sterling work of fiction will read "Gemini" with a sentiment of gratitude, it is so genuine, honest, serious, and unpretending in its character. There is little room for doubt that it is by one of our most popular and prolific authors, who has given us a long series of brilliant and fascinating stories, that have charmed equally th old and the young. Her books have generally more gayety and buoyant sprightliness than the present one, which keeps to the minor key throughout ; but there are none among them all that will be more universally liked. Its subdued, even pensive, tone exercises a strong power, stirring and exciting to active sympathy the deeper feelings of our nature. Chicago Tribune. " Gemini " is a genuine New-England idyl, pure and sweet, and as natural as it is delightful. The breath of the country blows through it, and the thrice-blessed reader \\hose childhood was passed among green fields, and who remembers the scent of (he woods, the song of the birds, and the feel of the wind, will welcome it as a remembrancer of all of them. It is not a novel. It is a narrative, so sim- ply and plainly told, that one almost feels it to be real. There is in it no straining for effect, no attempt at the construction of a plot. The whole interest is centred in a single family of a little out-of-the-way mountain community ; and so intense does that interest become, that, when the book is finished and laid aside, the characters follow the reader like people he has met and known. The story is not so brilliant as " Kismet," nor so deeply analytical as " Mercy Philbrick ;" but as a study of real life, and as an excitant of human sympathy, it is better and more powerful than either. Boston Transcript. One volume, 16mo, cloth. Price $1.00. Our publications are to be had of all Booksellers. When not to be found, send directly to ROBERTS BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, BOSTON "NO NAMi A 000 083 001 8 WILL DENBIGH, NOBLEMAN. " The latest of the ' No Name Series ' is a simple, lovely Devonshire story, exquisitely told. Will Denbigh, whose name is the title of the book, is a noble hero ; the little heroine wins and keeps his heart ; but the great charm of the tale is not in its love stories, hearty and direct those are, but in its pict- ures of country life and country curates, the curates who must be scattered all over England, of whom Charles Kingsley was one, gentlemen and scholars, who devote all they are and all they have to the cause of Christianity, and whose lives of service in the little parishes of farmers or fishermen are a close following of the Master whom they worship. The author does not preach, but tells these beautiful things and paints these noble and tender pictures as if he or she had always known them, had always been familiar with such characters, and talks about them with a tenderness and direct simplicity that makes them alive and real to the reader. The book is thoroughly sweet, sound and hopeful in spirit ; the style has the strength and simplicity of an accomplished writer." Boston Daily Advertiser. " This charming and clever story we are disposed to regard as the best tale yet produced in the ' No Name Series.' " The Philadelphia Press. " Inferior to none of them in point of interest ... Its perusal will be a source of delight to every reader, and will add greatly to the reputation of a most deservedly popular series." New Bedford Mercury. " The novels in the ' No Name Series ' seem to take on a more ambitious character as their number increases, and the one here before us ( ' Will Den- bigh ') ranks higher up in the scale of literary merit than most of its prede- cessors." Boston Post. "The story admirably maintains the reputation of the series." Boston Com man wealth . " ' Will Denbigh ' is the best of the novels that have as yet appeared in the 'No Name Series.' It is a fresh, wholesome, and thoroughly agreeable story. ' ' Portland Press. " ' No Name ' is considered a perfect guarantee of excellence. The last . issue, ' Will Denbigh ' will not detract from t'-ie conceded excellence of the series." Albany Evening Journal. " On the whole, ' Will Denbigh ' continues the series well, and is still another kind of link in this chain, unlike in form and ring of metal to any of its predecessors. " Boston Traveller. One volume, bound in Cardinal red and black. Price Sl.OO. Our Publications are to be had of all booksellers. When not to be fcund^ send directly to ROBERTS BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS. Boston.