With Edge Tools Part 26

"Of course you may, you dear girl," said Marion, looking up. "You may come in and find the happiest woman in the world. Don't look surprised.

Roswell and I are young lovers, and we are laying plans for our honeymoon. I don't deserve my happiness, but I have just discovered that I have the best husband in the world."

Florence ran to Marion's side and kissed her. "Let me share your joy,"

she said.

That evening Harold Wainwright dined at the Sandersons, and four happy people seated themselves at the little, round table. The candles shed the same cheerful light upon the white linen and the glistening plate, and Francois moved from place to place with his wonted precision; but the fire of love had kindled on the hearth, and in that home a new life had begun.

THE END.

MRS. ABBOTT'S BOOKS.

ALEXIA.

We have rarely found a more perfectly idyllic little love story than this--_The Living Church, Chicago._

The story is told with such an airy touch, such a fine sense of humor, such delicate crispness, that the reader is dealt little shocks of pleasure at every successive sentence.--_Evening Post, Chicago._

Little books like this, unpretentious, honest in motive, pure in sentiment, and marked by true sympathy are not common in current American literature, and therefore appeal all the more strongly to people who are tired of the didactic, and so relish keenly any representation which depends for its final effect not on preconceived notions of the author, but on fidelity to life.--_The Beacon, Boston._

THE BEVERLEYS,

_A Story of Calcutta._

As a story of character it is of high and rare merit. Every person who appears in it is outlined with a distinctness of individuality which cannot be mistaken.--_The Churchman, New York._

"The Beverleys" is one of the notable novels of the year....

The writer knows life and has met people of breeding.... In Eileen she draws a charming creature whose social adventures in Calcutta will be read with unflagging interest.--_The Philadelphia Press._

To have read "Alexia" is to feel a kindly predisposition towards the successor of that charming little book. "The Beverleys" has followed it, and it is perhaps unreasonable to be disappointed at missing in a novel the wild-rose perfume of the story. It is a novel clever in form and style, and in its portraits from Calcutta society. The moods and fascinations of the wild Irish girl and the labyrinths of her naughty heart are prettily described; there are pungent observations on men, women, and manners a plenty; what more would one have.--_The Nation, New York._

Other Books

MONK AND KNIGHT.

An Historical Study in Fiction.

BY THE REV. DR. F. W. GUNSAULUS.

This work is one that challenges attention for its ambitious character and its high aim. It is an historical novel,--or, rather, as the author prefers to call it, "An Historical Study in Fiction." It is the result of long and careful study of the period of which it treats, and hence is the product of genuine sympathies and a freshly-fired imagination. The field is Europe, and the period is the beginning of the sixteenth century,--a time when the fading glow of the later Renaissance is giving place to the brighter glories of the dawning Reformation.

The book deals, in a broad sense, with the grand theme of the progress of intellectual liberty. Many of its characters are well-known historical personages,--such as Erasmus, Sir Thomas Moore, Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII. of England, Francis I. of France, the disturbing monk Martin Luther, and the magnificent Pope Leo X.; other characters are of course fict.i.tious, introduced to give proper play to the author's fancy and to form a suitable framework for the story.

Interwoven with the more solid fabric are gleaming threads of romance; and bright bits of description and glows of sentiment relieve the more sombre coloring. The memorable meeting of the French and English monarchs on the Field of the Cloth of Gold, with its gorgeous pageantry of knights and steeds and silken banners, and all the glitter and charm of chivalry, furnish material for several chapters, in which the author's descriptive powers are put to the severest test; while the Waldensian heroes in their mountain homes, resisting the persecutions of their religious foes, afford some thrilling and dramatic situations.

AN ICELAND FISHERMAN.

BY PIERRE LOTI

Translated from the French

BY ANNA FARWELL de KOVEN.

"An Iceland Fisherman" is really a poem in prose. It has a pure idyllic quality so unlike most of the work which now comes from French hands that one must go back to "Paul and Virginia" to find a worthy companion volume. Other French writers, George Sand notably, have written idyllic chapters, but "An Iceland Fisherman" is a complete idyl from beginning to end. M. Loti is an impressionist of the most delicate quality. He feels with the keenest sensibility the moods and phases of each pa.s.sing hour. In this little volume one is made aware of all the strange, lonely beauty and terror of the North Seas. Few writers have made so keen an observation of those elusive phases through which sky and sea pa.s.s in a day or a season, and still fewer have had the faculty of transferring these subtle things into speech.--_The Christian Union, New York._

The translator of this remarkable story has done her work wonderfully well. Her choice of words, apt, pat, and picturesque--words which instantly appeal to the imagination, is skillful to an uncommon degree. This is no doubt partly due to the characteristics of the original. Whatever may be true of the French, the English of this beautiful and wholesome story is wonderfully idiomatic and good.--_The Advance, Chicago._

Of the story itself nothing can well be too good to say. We pity the one who can read it without being deeply stirred by its simple, pathetic, and, at moments, solemn beauty.--_The Chicago Evening Journal._

It is a gem of the purest ray, a lovely idyl, whose strength is drawn from what is best in human life.--_The Philadelphia Enquirer._

THE STORY OF TONTY.

_AN HISTORICAL ROMANCE._

By Mrs. MARY HARTWELL CATHERWOOD.

"The Story of Tonty" is eminently a Western story, beginning at Montreal, tarrying at Fort Frontenac, and ending at the old fort at Starved Rock, on the Illinois River. It weaves the adventures of the two great explorers, the intrepid La Salle and his faithful lieutenant, Tonty, into a tale as thrilling and romantic as the descriptive portions are brilliant and vivid. It is superbly ill.u.s.trated with twenty-three masterly drawings by Mr. Enoch Ward.

Such tales as this render service past expression to the cause of history. They weave a spell in which old chronicles are vivified and breathe out human life. Mrs. Catherwood, in thus bringing out from the treasure-houses of half-forgotten historical record things new and old, has set herself one of the worthiest literary tasks of her generation, and is showing herself finely adequate to its fulfillment.--_Transcript, Boston._

A powerful story by a writer newly sprung to fame.... All the century we have been waiting for the deft hand that could put flesh upon the dry bones of our early heroes. Here is a recreation indeed.... One comes from the reading of the romance with a quickened interest in our early national history, and a profound admiration for the art that can so transport us to the dreamful realms where fancy is monarch of fact.--_Press, Philadelphia._

"The Story of Tonty" is full of the atmosphere of its time. It betrays an intimate and sympathetic knowledge of the great age of explorers, and it is altogether a charming piece of work.--_Christian Union, New York._

Original in treatment, in subject, and in all the details of _mise en scene_, it must stand unique among recent romances.--_News, Chicago._

A vivid series of fascinating pictures.--_New York Observer._