Cameron of Lochiel
commission in his pocket. I assure you that every one gets on well with
his deeds, which are drawn with a most scrupulous honesty that supplies
the place of the diction, purer but often tarnished by bad faith, of
more learned notaries."
"Your nomadic notary," replied Archie, smiling, "arrives opportunely. I
have work for him."
In fact, Lochiel, who was already well advanced in the task of clearing
which he was so actively engaged upon for the benefit of his friend
Dumais, made over to him in due form all his real estate, reserving
only for himself during his life-time the half of the new and spacious
house which he had built.
The visits of Archie to the manor house became more frequent as he
advanced in age, and he ended by establishing himself there altogether.
Blanche was no longer in his eyes anything more than an adopted sister;
and the sweet name of brother, which Blanche had given him, purified
the remnant of passion which yet clung to the heart of this noble woman.
* * * * *
The author has become so attached to the chief characters in this
veracious history that it costs him a pang to banish them from the
scene. He fears also to grieve those of his readers who may share this
attachment should he kill them all off with one stroke of the pen. Time
will do the fatal work without the author's assistance.
It is eleven o'clock in the evening, toward the end of October. The
D'Haberville family are gathered in a little parlor sufficiently
illuminated, without the help of the candles, by the flame from an
armful of dry cedar chips which are blazing in the great chimney.
Lochiel, now nearly sixty years of age, is playing a game of draughts
with Blanche. Jules, seated between his wife and daughter, near the
fire, is teasing them both without altogether neglecting the players.
Young Archie D'Haberville, only son of Jules and godson of Lochiel,
is in a brown study. He is following the fantastic figures which his
imagination has created in the flames now dying slowly on the hearth.
"What are you thinking about, my grave philosopher?" said his father.
"I have been watching with intense interest," answered the young man,
"a little group of men, women, and children who have been walking,
dancing, rising, falling, and who have at length all vanished."
The cedar fire had just died out.
"You are the true son of your mother, a godson worthy of your
godfather," said Jules D'Haberville, rising to bid good-night.
Like the fantastic figures which young D'Haberville was watching in
the flames, my characters, dear reader, have been moving for some time
before your eyes, to vanish suddenly, perhaps forever, with him who set
them in motion.
Farewell, then, dear reader, before my hand, growing more cold than our
Canadian winters, refuses any longer to trace my thoughts.
THE END.
L. C. Page and Company's
Announcement List
of New Fiction
The Flight of Georgiana
+A Romance of the Days of the Young Pretender.+ By +Robert Neilson
Stephens+, author of "The Bright Face of Danger," "An Enemy to the
King," "The Mystery of Murray Davenport," etc.
Library 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $1.50
Mr. Stephens's novels all bear the hall-mark of success, for his men
are always live, his women are always worthy of their cavaliers, and
his adventures are of the sort to stir the most sluggish blood without
overstepping the bounds of good taste.
The theme of the new novel is one which will give Mr. Stephens splendid
scope for all the powers at his command. The career of "Bonnie Prince
Charlie" was full of romance, intrigue, and adventure; his life was a
series of episodes to delight the soul of a reader of fiction, and Mr.
Stephens is to be congratulated for his selection of such a promising
subject.
Mrs. Jim and Mrs. Jimmie
By +Stephen Conrad+, author of "The Second Mrs. Jim."
Library 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $1.50
This new book is in a sense a sequel to "The Second Mrs. Jim," since
it gives further glimpses of that delightful step-mother and her
philosophy. This time, however, she divides the field with "Mrs.
Jimmie," who is quite as attractive in her different way. The book has
more plot than the former volume, a little less philosophy perhaps, but
just as much wholesome fun. In many ways it is a stronger book, and
will therefore take an even firmer hold on the public.
The Story of Red Fox
Told by +Charles G. D. Roberts+, author of "The Watchers of the
Trails," "The Kindred of the Wild," "Barbara Ladd," etc.
Library 12mo, cloth decorative, with fifty illustrations and cover
design by Charles Livingston Bull
$2.00
Mr. Roberts's reputation as a scientifically accurate writer, whose
literary skill transforms his animal stories into masterpieces, stands
unrivalled in his particular field.
This is his first long animal story, and his romance of Red Fox, from
babyhood to patriarchal old age, makes reading more fascinating than
any work of fiction. In his hands Red Fox becomes a personality so
strong that one entirely forgets he is an animal, and his haps and
mishaps grip you as do those of a person.
Mr. Bull, as usual, fits his pictures to the text as hand to glove, and
the ensemble becomes a book as near perfection as it is possible to
attain.
Return
+A Story of the Sea Islands in 1739.+ By +Alice MacGowan+ and
+Grace MacGowan Cooke+, authors of "The Last Word," etc. With six
illustrations by C. D. Williams. Library 12mo, cloth
$1.50
A new romance, undoubtedly the best work yet done by Miss MacGowan and
Mrs. Cooke. The heroine of "Return," Diana Chaters, is the belle of the
Colonial city of Charles Town, S. C., in the early eighteenth century,
and the hero is a young Virginian of the historical family of Marshall.
The youth, beauty, and wealth of the fashionable world, which first
form the environment of the romance, are pictured in sharp contrast to
the rude and exciting life of the frontier settlements in the Georgia
Colony, and the authors have missed no opportunities for telling
characterizations. But "Return" is, above all, a _love-story_.
We quote the opinion of Prof. Charles G. D. Roberts, who has read the
advance sheets: "It seems to me a story of quite unusual strength and
interest, full of vitality and crowded with telling characters. I
greatly like the authors' firm, bold handling of their subject."
Lady Penelope
By +Morley Roberts+, author of "Rachel Marr," "The Promotion of the
Admiral," etc. With nine illustrations by Arthur W. Brown.
Library 12mo, cloth $1.50
Mr. Roberts certainly has versatility, since this book has not a
single point of similarity with either "Rachel Marr" or his well-known
sea stories. Its setting is the English so-called "upper crust" of
the present day. Lady Penelope is quite the most up-to-date young
lady imaginable and equally charming. As might be expected from
such a heroine, her _automobiling_ plays an important part in the
development of the plot. Lady Penelope has a large number of suitors,
and her method of choosing her husband is original and provocative of
delightful situations and mirthful incidents.
The Winged Helmet
By +Harold Steele MacKaye+, author of "The Panchronicon,"
etc. With six illustrations by H. C. Edwards.
Library 12mo, cloth $1.50
When an author has an original theme on which to build his story,
ability in construction of unusual situations, skill in novel
characterization, and a good literary style, there can be no doubt
but that his work is worth reading. "The Winged Helmet" is of this
description.
The author gives in this novel a convincing picture of life in the
early sixteenth century, and the reader will be delighted with its
originality of treatment, freshness of plot, and unexpected climaxes.
A Captain of Men
By +E. Anson More+.
Library 12mo, cloth, illustrated $1.50
A tale of Tyre and those merchant princes whose discovery of the value
of tin brought untold riches into the country and afforded adventures
without number to those daring seekers for the mines. Merodach, the
Assyrian, Tanith, the daughter of the richest merchant of Tyre,
Miriam, her Hebrew slave, and the dwarf Hiram, who was the greatest
artist of his day, are a quartette of characters hard to surpass in
individuality. It has been said that the powerful order of Free Masons
first had its origin in the meetings which were held at Hiram's studio
in Tyre, where gathered together the greatest spirits of that age and
place.
The Paradise of the Wild Apple
By +Richard LeGallienne+, author of "Old Love Stories
Retold," "The Quest of the Golden Girl," etc.
Library 12mo, cloth decorative $1.50
The theme of Mr. LeGallienne's new romance deals with the instinct of
wildness in human nature,--the wander spirit and impatience of tame
domesticity, the preference for wild flowers and fruits, and the glee
in summer storms and elemental frolics. A wild apple-tree, high up in
a rocky meadow, is symbolic of all this, and Mr. LeGallienne works out
in a fashion at once imaginative and serious the romance of a young man
well placed from the view of worldly goods and estate, who suddenly
hungers for the "wild apples" of his youth. The theme has limitless
possibilities, and Mr. LeGallienne is artist enough to make adequate
use of them.
The Grapple
Library 12mo, cloth decorative $1.50
This story of a strike in the coal mines of Pennsylvania gives both
sides of the question,--the Union and its methods, and the non-Union
workers and their loyal adherents, with a final typical clash at the
end. The question is an absorbing one, and it is handled fearlessly.
For the present at least "The Grapple" will be issued anonymously.
Brothers of Peril
By +Theodore Roberts+, author of "Hemming the Adventurer."
Library 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $1.50
"Brothers of Peril" has an unusual plot, dealing with a now extinct
race, the Beothic Indians of the sixteenth century, who were the
original inhabitants of Newfoundland when that island was merely a
fishing-station for the cod-seeking fleets of the old world.
The story tells of the adventures of a young English cavalier, who,
left behind by the fleet, finds another Englishman, with his daughter
and servants, who is hiding from the law. A French adventurer and
pirate, who is an unwelcome suitor for the daughter, plays an important
part. Encounters between the Indians and the small colony of white men
on the shore, and perilous adventures at sea with a shipload of pirates
led by the French buccaneer, make a story of breathless interest.
The Black Barque
By +T. Jenkins Hains+, author of "The Wind Jammers," "The Strife of the
Sea," etc. With five illustrations by W. Herbert Dunton.
Library 12mo, cloth $1.50
According to a high naval authority who has seen the advance sheets,
this is one of the best sea stories ever offered to the public. "The
Black Barque" is a story of slavery and piracy upon the high seas about
1815, and is written with a thorough knowledge of deep-water sailing.
This, Captain Hains's first long sea story, realistically pictures
a series of stirring scenes at the period of the destruction of the
exciting but nefarious traffic in slaves, in the form of a narrative
by a young American lieutenant, who, by force of circumstances, finds
himself the gunner of "The Black Barque."
Cameron of Lochiel
Translated from the French of +Philippe Aubert de Gaspé+ by +Prof.
Charles G. D. Roberts+.
Library 12mo, cloth decorative $1.50