Chapter I: Front Matter

WHICH?

OR,

BETWEEN TWO WOMEN.

BY ERNEST DAUDET.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY LAURA E. KENDALL.

* * * * *

"WHICH? OR, BETWEEN TWO WOMEN," is the latest and most powerful
novel from the pen of the celebrated French novelist, Ernest
Daudet. It is fully worthy of its famous author's great reputation,
for a more absorbing and thrilling romance has seldom been
published. The interest begins at once with the flight of the gypsy
mother with her child and her death in the Château de Chamondrin,
where the friendless little one is received and cared for. The plot
is simple and without mystery, but never, perhaps, were so many
stirring incidents crowded within the covers of a novel. The scene
is laid in Paris and the country, and some of the most striking
events of the times are vividly reproduced. The reader is given a
very realistic glimpse of Paris, and part of the action takes place
in that historic prison, the Conciergerie, where nobles and others
accused of crimes against the French Republic were confined.
History and fiction are adroitly mingled in the excellent novel,
which may be termed a double love story in that two women are
passionately attached to one man. On the thrilling adventures and
heart experiences of this trio the romance turns, and the reader's
attention is kept constantly riveted to the exciting narrative. The
other characters are all naturally drawn, and the book as a whole
is one of the best and most absorbing novels that can be found. It
will delight everybody.

* * * * *

NEW YORK:
W. L. ALLISON COMPANY, PUBLISHERS,
1893.

COPYRIGHT:

BY T. B. PETERSON & BROTHERS.

1887.

* * * * *

WHICH?

"WHICH? OR, BETWEEN TWO WOMEN," _is the title of a new, very thrilling and intensely interesting novel, by Ernest Daudet, one of the best known and most widely read of the living French novelists. A highly romantic, attractive and touching love story, in which a gypsy girl of great beauty and heroism, named Dolores, and Antoinette de Mirandol, an heiress, are rivals for the possession of Philip de Chamondrin, the hero, forms the main theme, and it is most skilfully and effectively handled. About this double romance of the heart are clustered a series of exceedingly stirring episodes, many of which are historic. The adventures of Philip, Dolores and Antoinette in Paris are graphically described and hold the reader spell-bound. The book is highly dramatic from beginning to end, and especially so that portion where the Conciergerie prison and its noble inmates are depicted. Very stirring scenes also are the attack on the Château de Chamondrin, Coursegol's struggle with Vauquelas and Bridoul's rescue of the condemned prisoners on the Place de la Révolution. But the entire novel is exceedingly spirited, exciting and absorbing, and every character is finely drawn. "Which? or, Between Two Women," should be read by all who relish an excellent novel._

CONTENTS.

Chapter. Page.

I. THE BOHEMIANS 21

II. THE CHATEAU DE CHAMONDRIN 36

III. THE CHILDHOOD OF DOLORES 53

IV. PERTAINING TO LOVE MATTERS 73

V. IN WHICH HISTORY IS MINGLED WITH ROMANCE 105

VI. PARIS IN 1792 131

VII. CITIZEN JEAN VAUQUELAS 163

VIII. AN EPISODE OF THE EMIGRATION 179

IX. THE MOVING CURTAIN 193

X. COURSEGOL'S EXPLOITS 209

XI. THE CONCIERGERIE 220

XII. ANTOINETTE DE MIRANDOL 238

XIII. LOVE'S CONFLICTS 249

XIV. THE THUNDERBOLT 263

XV. THE LAST FAREWELL 284

XVI. IN THE CHÉVREUSE VALLEY 304

WHICH?

BY ERNEST DAUDET.