Chapter I: Front Matter

"SPARKLING." "FASCINATING." "CHARMING."

A FAIR BARBARIAN.

By Mrs. FRANCES H. BURNETT. One volume 16mo, handsomely bound.

Price $1.00.

"It has a good plot, excellent character-drawing, and the story is told in delightful style. There is a certain freshness and purity about Mrs. Burnett's writings that can never lose their charm, and 'A Fair Barbarian' is among her best productions."--_Boston Post._

"In her latest novel, 'A Fair Barbarian,' we find Mrs. Burnett amid still other scenes and characters; and here she seems likely to eclipse, at least as far as popularity is concerned, all her earlier triumphs. The title of the story is in itself a most happy conception. The 'Fair Barbarian' is a young American lady who has lived in Nevada, and who comes upon an English country town with the suggestive name of 'Slowbridge,' to astonish its inhabitants by an individuality of character wholly unique.... The raciness of the scenes that attend the meeting of these parties is indescribable. This American girl is not an untamed hoiden by any means: she is, on the contrary, true-womanly in the best sense of the term. She is kind of heart, sympathetic, and self-respecting,--a really lovely, if a somewhat unconventional person. She is high-spirited too; and, while she manifests a willingness to learn the standards of those among whom her lot is temporarily cast, there is a charming youthful dignity about her which is one of the best points in her delineation. Of course she finds her lover. Of the results that attend his wooing, we leave the reader to learn from the story. The merit of the novel is largely in its admirable purpose, and the exquisite skill with which it is carried out. It is a refreshing vindication of the American girl, whom it has been too much the custom of writers to depreciate of late. Mrs. Burnett knows her well, and does her ample justice. She knows England too, and we have the benefit of that knowledge in the types of English character presented.

"Her book is likely, not only to succeed in favor beyond her own previous productions, but to gain a popularity which none other of those novels which have treated this phase of the American-girl question have obtained."--_Boston Journal._

"If a more amusing or clever novelette than 'A Fair Barbarian' has ever been given the American public, we fail to recall it."--_Pittsburgh Telegraph._

"The 'Fair Barbarian' is that charming indigenous production of ours, 'an American girl,' who goes to England, and makes John Bull open his eyes in surprise, and frequently admiration."--_Louisville Courier-Journal._

"Mrs. Burnett fascinates her readers without appearing to make an effort, and plays upon the human heart at will, making it thrill and vibrate under the magic influence of her genius."--_New Orleans Democrat._

"We have no hesitation in saying that there is no living writer (man or woman) who has Mrs. Burnett's dramatic power in telling a story."--_New-York Herald._

"The brightest and wittiest of Mrs. Burnett's stories."--_Baltimore Every Saturday._

"A particularly sparkling story, the subject being the young heiress of a Pacific-slope silver-mine, thrown amid the very proper petty aristocracy of an English rural town."--_Springfield Republican._

"Mrs. Burnett's new and charming story, which is much different from, and much better than, 'The Lass of Lowrie's.'"--_Philadelphia Evening News._

FOR SALE EVERYWHERE.

JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO. PUBLISHERS,

=BOSTON.=

_ROUND-ROBIN SERIES._

_Patty's Perversities._

BOSTON
JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY
1881

COPYRIGHT, 1881,
BY JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY.

_All rights reserved._

_Stereotyped and Printed by Rand, Avery, & Co.,
117 Franklin Street, Boston._

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER. PAGE.

I. MORNING 1

II. "A BIRD IN THE BUSH" 5

III. "A BIRD IN THE HAND" 12

IV. THE PICNIC 20

V. A MISHAP 26

VI. CHIT-CHAT 35

VII. A BUSINESS INTERVIEW 43

VIII. ON THE PIAZZA 49

IX. AN ARRIVAL 55

X. A CHANCE MEETING 61

XI. A BUNDLE OF PAPERS 67

XII. AN AFTERNOON RIDE 73

XIII. AT REHEARSAL 79

XIV. AN ELOPEMENT 86

XV. A CASTLE IN THE AIR 95

XVI. THE CHURCH AT SAMOSET 111

XVII. A CONFIDENCE 121

XVIII. A CHAPTER OF SHREDS AND PATCHES 129

XIX. TOXTETH SEEKS AN ALLY 136

XX. AN OUTBURST 144

XXI. THE PRODIGAL'S RETURN 151

XXII. A MISUNDERSTANDING 156

XXIII. NOTES AND SOUVENIRS 163

XXIV. MRS. SANFORD SPEAKS 171

XXV. CLARENCE SPEAKS 181

XXVI. MULLEN HOUSE 186

XXVII. THE RUSTIC ROAD 194

XXVIII. THE THEATRICALS 199

XXIX. NIGHT-SCENES 206

XXX. THE WOUNDS OF A FRIEND 211

XXXI. AUNT JEFF REMONSTRATES 219

XXXII. HEADS AND TAILS 227

XXXIII. "WHEN SHE WILL, SHE WILL" 233

XXXIV. THE MASKERS 241

XXXV. PETER MIXON 246

XXXVI. MRS. SMITHERS 250

XXXVII. THANKSGIVING 256

XXXVIII. A TEST OF CIVILIZATION 262

XXXIX. THE NIGHT-WATCH 269

XL. CLARENCE AGAIN 275

XLI. OLD MULLEN'S WILL 279

XLII. BOLD PLAY 283

XLIII. CLARENCE IS ANSWERED 289

XLIV. WILL AND EASE 294

XLV. A QUIET WEDDING 297

XLVI. CHRISTMAS 302

PATTY'S PERVERSITIES.