Chapter I: Front Matter

BY STEPHEN McKENNA

_NOVELS_:

TO-MORROW AND TO-MORROW
VINDICATION
THE COMMANDMENT OF MOSES
SOLILOQUY
THE CONFESSIONS OF A WELL-MEANING WOMAN
THE SENSATIONALISTS:
I _Lady Lilith_
II _The Education of Eric Lane_
III _The Secret Victory_
SONIA MARRIED
MIDAS AND SON
NINETY-SIX HOURS’ LEAVE
SONIA
THE SIXTH SENSE
SHEILA INTERVENES
THE RELUCTANT LOVER

* * * * *

BY INTERVENTION OF PROVIDENCE
WHILE I REMEMBER
TEX: A CHAPTER IN THE LIFE OF ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS

TO-MORROW AND
TO-MORROW . . .

_A NOVEL_

BY
STEPHEN McKENNA

BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1924

_Copyright, 1924_,
BY STEPHEN MCKENNA.

_All rights reserved_

Published, October, 1924

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

TO

MARION

Three years ago, _The Secret Victory_ brought to an end the trilogy which I called _The Sensationalists_. This book and the antecedent volumes—_Lady Lilith_ and _The Education of Eric Lane_—described the fortunes of certain men and women who constituted part of the larger groups which I had approached in _Sonia, Midas and Son_ and _Sonia Married_.

By the accident of birth, fortune or talent, “these our actors” were made to fill a position—before, during and after the war—which attracted to them more attention than was warranted by their historical importance. My defence—if I must defend myself—is that the butterfly in every age has claimed more notice than the bee. The social scene, to change my metaphor, presented by so single-minded a writer as Mr. Greville has to find room for the D’Orsays, the Egremonts, the Sidney Smiths and the Madame de Lievens, who throng his stage in act after act, as well as for the Peels, Wellingtons and Melbournes.

Is a defence still necessary for continuing the life of a character from one novel to another? Mr. Disraeli, in his splendid progress through a part of Mr. Greville’s period, refused to cut the thread of an imaginary existence at the moment when his last page was bound into its cover; and the novel-sequence which aims to describe a social and political scene must, no less than succeeding volumes of memoirs, call back to the stage the same leaders and the same camp-followers. If this present series have any artistic or historical value, I should like it to be found in the completed picture.

I attempted, in _Sonia_, to trace the adolescence of the generation that grew to manhood in time to meet the shock of the war. That war ends in the first line of the present volume; and, before the last page, the government that was charged to bring peace back to the sparse survivors has itself passed away. One phase in history has been concluded; and this series, which aimed at describing a single English scene in the life of a single generation, ends with the end of that phase.

I ask no one to share any regret which I may feel in taking leave of characters that have been my constant companions for more than eight years. If they are no more likable than the men and women we meet in daily life, I have at least never allowed parental affection to cover up their shortcomings. I present them to you as a small mark of a deep devotion.

STEPHEN MCKENNA.

“All our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death.” . . .

SHAKESPEARE: _Macbeth_.

CONTENTS

PART ONE

CHAPTER

I TRUCE
II RETROSPECT
III THE DAWNING OF MORN
IV AFTER THE DELUGE
V THE RED ACCOUNT

PART TWO

I THE NAKEDNESS OF THE LAND
II THAT WHICH REMAINED
III AS YOU SOW
IV IN A GILDED CAGE
V “UN SACRIFICE INUTILE”

PART THREE

I TO-MORROW AND TO-MORROW
II THE TEST
III TWO IN THE FIELD