... T 'Margaret Larminief^- MRS. RAVEN drew up the red blind and pushed the window open. Outside, a silent, deserted street greeted her-- wind-swept and chilly; scraps of paper blew to and fro in the gutters like tiny ghosts. She crossed to the fire and stood warm ing her bare arms and hands, and staring at the clock on the overmantel. It was close on half-past one. Hartley Raven a moment later ...

... By LEONARD MERRICK Author of 11 The Worldlings Conrad in Quest of His Youth f The Quaint Companions etc. The Bishop of Westborough had seldom found himself in a more delicate position. Since Sweetbay objected so strenuously to its rector being a dramatist, Sweetbay was clearly no place for the Rector; and it devolved upon His Lordship to intimate the fact. But secretly His Lordship was also ...

... lV(;i!)o!, O ih'I Put on Your Hat! By LEONARD MERRICK (Author of The House of Lynch, Whispers About Women, etc.) CARTER had been a widower for nearly five years when the Bank transferred him to the Blithe point branch, and the change was not disagreeable to him at first. After Islington, a watering-place that pretended to be fashionable looked well in his eyes. It was when he had been in ...

... By JOHN F. MACDONALD Yes-- in Dumpton, a romance, a veritable romance! Were this the month of August there would be no reason to marvel at romance in Dumpton: for, at that season, graceful as well as dashing visitors from the London suburbs pace the Dumpton pier, and idle on the Dumpton sands, and at sunset and in the moonlight --sentimental hours-- softly and emotionally agree that life is ...

... By RITA All down the long corridor of the Hotel the boots stood in rows or pairs. Sometimes large and small together, betokening matrimonial couples, sometimes only a single pair of either size. At one door the small boot of a child stood eloquently beside the guardianship of a No. 4: Woman's. (Very few modern women take anything smaller than No. 4 nowadays: twos and threes have gone out of ...

... BY SAKI IT was Reggie Bruttle's own idea for converting what had threatened to be an albino elephant into a beast of burden that should help him along the stony road of his finances. The Limes, which had come to him by inheritance without any accompanying provision for its upkeep, was one of those pretentious, unaccommodating mansions which none but a man of wealth could afford to live in, ...

... HIDDEN EXES not only absurd, but well, wished a nervous hand quickly over of soi ,ck, not quite straight, and t^le ver so lightly from his l\ V^yi wj- an interesting air /AV\X vV v' c n a man of the n :rable to an y\ spirat _! J dismissed v r Sy 't itish \y^ lightly beside the atti se of \V But it was not to be qi Hvar's V^w V' Some trouble over a ticket at recent UP the stream of travellers ...

... il What ^Uhey Ideally Say No. VI-- THE SURGEON BY DELL LEIGH Scene Country House. Major operation about to be performed, after weeks of sus pense and immense preparation. Spirit of household en tirely broken by autocracy of two hospital nurses. Wife and best friend in drawing-room awaiting arrival of surgeon I KNOW what it will be, they'll say the light isn't good enough when they have got ...

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... s By BERTRAM ATKEY What I have done I have done, repenting it nothing at all, And I would do it again, though the lid of my life should fall But for all I have done, or would do, I cannot wholly restore, And the shame of the theft and the brand of the thief is on me evermore. Ah Would I could build up anew, make as pure and as perfect and sweet, The Youth I have well-nigh destroyed or set back ...

... By BASIL MACDONALD HASTINGS Why did we choose the evil part? Why did we leave our Paradise?-- E. Nesbit. THE restful woman is not a commonplace type. Her mouth and eyes are sweet in expression, she is graciously plump, dressed either in black or dark neutral tints, and her speech is soft. Such was Mrs. Eleanor Hildreth. To the suspicious private secretary of John Winckworth Wilson, M.P., she ...

... By J. R. HARRIS BURLAND ONE summer afternoon the Comtesse de Lusignac sat alone in the gorgeous drawing-room that looked out across the green expanse of Hyde Park. She lay back wearily on a large Chesterfield couch, and fanned herself slowly with a cheque-book. Two visitors had just departed, and they had taken £30 with them for the Restoration of the Church. The Rev. Mr. Gillxflower, in his ...