Chapter LI: And So the Story Ends

“AND that,” said David, concluding a little speech, “is all.”

A curious silence fell upon the room. Rosamund and John looked at each other; Lady Mary had her hands folded over an old piece of parchment; Elizabeth was watching her; Father Maloney looked at David.

“You mean,” said Father Maloney, breaking the silence, “that you wish to give up your claim to the whole thing?”

“That’s so,” said David pleasantly.

“And what,” demanded Father Maloney, “has brought you to this conclusion?”

“Simply,” said David smiling, “that I have seen that fishes live best in water, as birds live best on land. This,” he waved his hand around the hall, “isn’t my element.”

Lady Mary rose quietly from her chair, and thrust something into a drawer of her desk. Then she turned to David.

“Is that your sole reason?” she asked.

David coloured.

“For practical purposes,” he replied.

Lady Mary looked straight at him.

“In my grandson’s name,” she said, a little smile trembling on her lips, “I accept your generous offer in the spirit in which you make it.”

Father Maloney stared.

“Glory be to God!” he ejaculated inwardly, “she doesn’t mean to tell him. She’s a wonderful woman, is Lady Mary. A wonderful woman!”

And then suddenly a bell rang out, pulled by the stalwart arm of the under gardener.

Father Maloney started.

“Bless my soul,” he cried, “’tis time for Benediction.”

And he bolted towards the dining-hall, which, as I told you long ago led to the chapel.

Lady Mary looked at the little group.

“We’re all coming,” said Elizabeth with fine assurance.

And then Lady Mary led the way.

Said John in a low voice to Rosamund:

“I have at least three thanksgivings to make.”

“I think,” she replied, looking at him, “that so have I.”

Said David in a low voice to Elizabeth:

“What are you thinking about?”

“I am thinking,” quoth she smiling, “that there is a folly which is very very wise.”

And then they all went in to Benediction.

_A Selection from the Catalogue of_

G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS

Complete Catalogues sent on application

Rose Cottingham

A Novel

By Netta Syrett

_12°. $1.35_

Miss Syrett’s novel might be called _The Making of a Modern Woman_. The story begins in 1885, when Rose Cottingham, the heroine, is nine years old. It shows us Rose first as a child at war with her home environment, then her life as a school girl, and then her wider emotional and intellectual experiences when she goes out into the world and mixes in literary society. The book is not only a subtle study of a girl’s development, but is also a striking picture of the social and literary life of the late Victorian period, the period of _The Savoy_ and _The Yellow Book_, of Oscar Wilde and Aubrey Beardsley, of the æsthetic and the earlier Socialist movements.

G. P. Putnam’s Sons
New York London

The Iron Stair

A Romance of Dartmoor

By

“Rita”

In this novel is told how, for the sake of a girl, in pity for her grief, in blind obedience to her entreaties, Aubrey Derrington, a possible peer of the realm, the fastidious, bored, dilettante man about town, whom his friends had known only as such, finds himself not only in love, but in as tight a corner as ever a man was placed, with the risk of criminal prosecution as an accessory after the fact. A love story, full of charm, complexity, and daring, is unfolded in the fresh gorse and heather-strewn setting of the Devonshire moors and against the dark background of frowning prison walls. A girl, an innocent convict, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and the hero of the story are the central figures.

G. P. Putnam’s Sons
New York London

The Jester

By

Leslie Moore

Author of “The Peacock Feather”

_12°. $1.35 net_

A mediæval story in which romance, magic, and a woman’s fascination are blended effectively. The reader is introduced to Peregrine, son of Nichol the Jester, who, after the death of his father, succeeds to the motley. Nichol on his deathbed unfolds the theory of the Jester’s life. He has been a jester on the surface, but a man inside, and counsels Peregrine to remember that. The Lady Isabel, vain and greedy of power, seeks to ensnare Peregrine. Isabel, who has had dealings with a witch, casts her spell upon Peregrine and provokes him to a jealous brawl, in consequence of which he is dismissed in disgrace. He spends some time in the castle of a mediæval Circe; then, seeing the ideal woman in a dream, he begins the quest of her, a quest which, after many adventures and interesting happenings, results in fulfillment.

G. P. Putnam’s Sons
New York London

The Golden Slipper

And Other Problems for Violet Strange

_By_

_Anna Katharine Green_

_12°. Frontispiece by A. I. Keller. $1.35_

The dominant figure in this series of detective stories is a young girl, Violet Strange--detective _par excellence_. She observes sharply, thinks intensely, and has the faculty of disentangling, out of a maze of perplexing circumstances, the one explanation that accords with facts, and carries out her reasoning with the most consummate ability.

The author wrote “The Leavenworth Case” nearly forty years ago, and ever since has steadily maintained an important position among writers of fiction.

G. P. Putnam’s Sons
New York London

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:

On page 7, grimmess has been changed to grimness.

On page 9, known has been changed to know.

On page 16, solicitiously has been changed to solicitously.

On page 33, Brampton has been changed to Brompton.

On page 39, MURRL has been changed to MURAL.

On page 44, scroll work has been changed to scroll-work.

On page 65, circumlocutous has been changed to circumlocutious.

On page 110, mischeevousness has been changed to mischievousness.

On page 146, carpetted has been changed to carpeted.

On page 147, pocketted has been changed to pocketed.

On page 176, sumbeam has been changed to sunbeam.

On page 270, you has been changed to your.

On page 276, comorant has been changed to cormorant.