The Cruise of the Make-Believes

THE discreet Pringle, as on one other memorable occasion, had seated himself on the box in the middle of the road out of earshot; Daniel Meggison, lounging not too steadily agai...

DISAPPOINTMENT sat heavily on the face of Gilbert Byfield as an obsequious porter who knew him pulled open the door of the carriage and seized his bag. For there was no one with...

IT becomes necessary that we should return to the deck of that yacht _Blue Bird_, there to discover Mr. Daniel Meggison beaming upon Gilbert Byfield, and inwardly congratulating...

ARCADIA STREET is noted--locally, at least--for its "gardens." By this term I would not have you understand that hidden away in that corner of Islington are bowers of beauty, or...

A DULL week in that civilization to which he obstinately refused to be accustomed brought Gilbert Byfield back again--naturally, as it seemed--to Arcadia Street. It had been a w...

JUST how long Bessie might have sat there in the dusk of the garden it is impossible to say; an interruption was to be provided. Almost the last of her sobs had died away, and s...

ARCADIA STREET, on a warm July evening some twelve months after that surprising day when Mr. Daniel Meggison had waved farewell to the Arcadia Arms for ever, looked much the sam...

DURING the time he had awaited the return of Pringle, Gilbert Byfield had been able to look the position clearly in the face, and to understand exactly how he was situated. Bess...

IN that sudden strange finding of the truth there was no degradation for the girl; the degradation was for those who had deceived her. Even Mrs. Ewart-Crane--hard woman of the w...

THE explanation of that coming of Daniel Meggison to the yacht is a very simple one. He had seen for himself that the game could not last very much longer; he knew that in all p...

THAT absurd business of climbing the wall again had to be got over, and was safely accomplished; to do him justice, Mr. Simon Quarle refrained from watching Gilbert's departure,...

BESSIE MEGGISON had no suspicion; for it was scarcely possible, in the first place, that anyone should be interesting himself on her behalf. She was glad to think that her fathe...

THE thin young man with the glossy hat got out of the cab at the end of the street, and looked somewhat distrustfully down that street; glanced with equal distrust at the cabman...

IN the course of many scrambling, shambling years Mr. Daniel Meggison had learnt much, in the sordid sense, concerning the value of men. Had it been necessary for him, at any ti...

WHATEVER judgment may be passed upon Byfield's methods at that time, it has to be remembered that up to that moment--and indeed long afterwards, in a lesser degree--he had regar...

THE morning which followed that night of wild exaggerations found Mr. Daniel Meggison in a despairing mood. He knew that he had gone too far--understood that he had plunged not...

JUST so surely as had come about the division of the little company into its several parts, socially speaking--that necessary "drawing of the line" insisted upon in all things b...

THE first business of the shipwrecked party, after hauling up the boat and taking out of it the various stores it contained, was to make some attempt at exploring the place upon...

IT must not be imagined for a moment that a person of the quality and the dignity of Mrs. Ewart-Crane could long sustain life under the conditions imposed upon her on that first...