Chapter I: Front Matter

[Frontispiece: "YOU HAVE MADE ME ONCE MORE IN LOVE WITH THE GOODNESS OF GOD, IN LOVE WITH LIFE" See page 325]

Adrian
Savage

A Novel

BY LUCAS MALET

AUTHOR OF
"SIR RICHARD CALMADY"

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
MCMXI

COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY HARPER & BROTHERS

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
PUBLISHED OCTOBER, 1911

TO

GABRIELLE FRANCESCA LILIAN MARY

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED. UPON
HER BIRTHDAY. AS A LOVE-TOKEN

BY
LUCAS MALET

THE ORCHARD, EVERSLEY AUGUST 28, 1911

CONTENTS

I

CONCERNING THE DEAD AND THE LIVING

CHAP.

I. In which the Reader is Invited to Make the Acquaintance of the Hero of this Book

II. Wherein a Very Modern Young Man Tells a Time-Honored Tale with but Small Encouragement

III. Telling How René Dax Cooked a Savory Omelette, and Why Gabrielle St. Leger Looked Out of an Open Window at Past Midnight

IV. Climbing the Ladder

V. Passages from Joanna Smyrthwaite's Locked Book

VI. Some Consequences of Putting New Wine into Old Bottles

VII. In which Adrian Helps to Throw Earth into an Open Grave

VIII. A Modern Antigone

II

THE DRAWINGS UPON THE WALL

I. A Waster

II. The Return of the Native

III. A Straining of Friendship

IV. In which Adrian Sets Forth in Pursuit of the Further Reason

V. With Deborah, under an Oak in the Parc Monceau

VI. Recording the Vigil of a Scarlet Homunculus and Aristides the Just

III

THE OTHER SIDE

I. Recording a Brave Man's Effort to Cultivate His Private Garden

II. A Strategic Movement which Secures Victory while Simulating Retreat

III. In which Euterpe is Called Upon to Play the Part of Interpreter

IV. Some Passages from Joanna Smyrthwaite's Locked Book

V. In which Adrian's Knowledge of Some Inhabitants of the Tower House is Sensibly Increased

VI. Which Plays Seesaw between a Game of Lawn Tennis and a Prodigal Son

VII. Pistols or Politeness--For Two

VIII. "Nuit de Mai"

IV

THE FOLLY OF THE WISE

I. Re-enter a Wayfaring Gossip

II. In the Track of the Brain-storm

III. In which the Storm Breaks

IV. On the Heights

V. De Profundis

V

THE LIVING AND THE DEAD

I. Some Passages from Joanna Smyrthwaite's Locked Book

II. Recording a Sisterly Effort to Let in Light

III. In which Joanna Embraces a Phantom Bliss

IV. "Come Unto These Yellow Sands"

V. In which Adrian Makes Disquieting Acquaintance with the Long Arm of Coincidence

VI. Concerning a Curse, and the Manner of Its Going Home to Roost

VII. Some Passages from Joanna Smyrthwaite's Locked Book

VIII. In which a Strong Man Adopts a Very Simple Method of Clearing His Own Path of Thorns

IX. Wherein Adrian Savage Succeeds in Awakening La Belle au Bois Dormant

PREFATORY NOTE

I will ask my readers kindly to understand that this book is altogether a work of fiction. The characters it portrays, their circumstances and the episodes in which they play a part, are my own invention.

Every sincere and scientific student of human nature and the social scene must, of necessity, depend upon direct observation of life for his general types--the said types being the composite photographs with which study and observation have supplied him. But, for the shaping of individual characters out of the said types, he should, in my opinion, rely exclusively upon his imagination and his sense of dramatic coherence. Exactly in proportion as he does this can he claim to be a true artist. Since the novel, to be a work of art, must be impersonal, neither autobiographical nor biographical.--I am not, of course, speaking of the historical novel, whether the history involved be ancient or contemporary, nor am I speaking of an admitted satire.

I wish further to assure my readers that the names of my characters have been selected at random; and belong, certainly in sequence of Christian and surname, to no persons with whom I am, or ever have been, acquainted. I may also add that although I have often visited _Stourmouth_ and its neighborhood--of which I am very fond--my knowledge of the social life of the district is of the smallest, while my knowledge of its municipal and commercial life is _nil_.

Finally, the lamented disappearance of _La Gioconda_, from the _Salon Carré_ of the Louvre, took place when the whole of my manuscript was already in the hands of the printers. May I express a pious hope that this most seductive of women will be safely restored to her former dwelling-place before any copies of my novel are in the hands of the public?

LUCAS MALET.

_August_ 28, 1911

I

CONCERNING THE DEAD AND THE LIVING

ADRIAN SAVAGE