THE PRINCESS PASSES

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. WOMAN DISPOSES

II. MERCÉDÈS TO THE RESCUE

III. MY LESSON

IV. POTS, KETTLES, AND OTHER THINGS

V. IN SEARCH OF A MULE

VI. THE WINGS OF THE WIND

VII. AT LAST!

VIII. THE MAKING OF A MYSTERY

IX. THE BRAT

X. THE SCRAPING OF ACQUAINTANCE

XI. A SHADOW OF NIGHT

XII. THE PRINCESS

XIII. AFTERNOON CALLS

XIV. THE PATH OF THE MOON

XV. ENTER THE CONTESSA

XVI. A MAN FROM THE DARK

XVII. THE LITTLE GAME OF FLIRTATION

XVIII. RANK TYRANNY

XIX. THE LITTLE RIFT WITHIN THE LUTE

XX. THE GREAT PAOLO

XXI. THE CHALLENGE

XXII. AN AMERICAN CUSTOM

XXIII. THERE IS NO SUCH GIRL

XXIV. THE REVENGE OF THE MOUNTAIN

XXV. THE AMERICANS

XXVI. THE VANISHING OF THE PRINCE

XXVII. THE STRANGE MUSHROOM

XXVIII. THE WORLD WITHOUT THE BOY

XXIX. THE FAIRY PRINCE'S RING

XXX. THE DAY OF SUSPENSE

XXXI. THE BOY'S SISTER

CHAPTER I

Woman Disposes

"Away, away, from men and towns,
To the wild wood and the downs,
To the silent wilderness."
--PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.

"To your happiness," I said, lifting my glass, and looking the girl in
the eyes. She had the grace to blush, which was the least that she
could do, for a moment ago she had jilted me.

The way of it was this.

I had met her and her mother the winter before at Davos, where I had
been sent after South Africa, and a spell of playing fast and loose
with my health--a possession usually treated as we treat the poor,
whom we expect to have always with us. Helen Blantock had been the
success of her season in London, had paid for her triumphs with a
breakdown, and we had stopped at the same hotel.

The girl's reputation as a beauty had marched before her, blowing
trumpets. She was the prettiest girl in Davos, as she had been the
prettiest in London; and I shared with other normal, self-respecting
men the amiable weakness of wishing to monopolise the woman most
wanted by others. During the process I fell in love, and Helen was
kind.

THE PRINCESS PASSES