The Young Diana: An Experiment of the Future

Once upon a time, in earlier and less congested days of literary effort, an Author was accustomed to address the Public as “Gentle Reader.” It was a civil phrase, involving a pr...

Diana was “old enough,” as her recalcitrant lover had informed her, to value the blessing of a good night’s rest. She had a clear conscience,--she was, indeed, that _rara avis_,...

Within a very few days of their “settling down” at Rose Lea, everybody in the neighbourhood,--that is to say, everybody of “county” standing--that height of social magnificence-...

When morning came it brought with it intense heat and an almost overpowering glare of sunshine, and Mr. James Polydore May, stimulated by the warm atmosphere, went down to break...

On that same eminently tragic afternoon when Mr. Polydore May found it necessary to change his white flannels so soon after putting them on, and his wife had to think seriously...

There are certain people who take a bland and solemn pleasure in the details of death and disaster,--who are glad to assume an air of what they call “Christian resignation,” and...

Geneva is one of those many towns in Switzerland which give the impression of neat commonplace in the midst of romance,--the same impression which is conveyed by a housewife’s l...

Arrived at her hotel, Diana gave notice that she was leaving that afternoon. Then she packed up her one portmanteau and sent it by a porter to the station, with instructions to...

“Light is Life,” he repeated, slowly. “Light--and the twin portion of Light,--Fire. The Rosicrucians have come nearer than any other religious sect in the world to the comprehen...

That first evening in the Château Fragonard taught Diana exactly what was expected of her. It was evident that both Dimitrius and his mother chose to assume that she was a frien...

The next day Diana entered upon her work,--and for a fortnight following she was kept fully employed. But nothing mysterious, nothing alarming or confusing to the mind was prese...

Once in her own pretty suite of rooms, Diana locked the door of the _entresol_, so that no one might enter by chance. She wished to be alone that she might collect her thoughts...

Meantime, Diana, up in her own room, was engaged in what to her had, of late years, been anything but an agreeable pastime,--namely, looking at herself in the mirror. She was ke...

So she knew! She knew that, as usual, she was, personally, a valueless commodity. So far as herself, her own life and feelings were concerned, her fate continued to follow her--...

“And you are interested in that kind of thing?” he queried, with a touch of disdain. “A stolen gem, and therefore an unlucky one--‘looted’ by a French officer from the forehead...

Two or three days later the Château Fragonard was closed,--its windows were shuttered and its gates locked. The servants were dismissed, all save Vasho, who, with his black face...

It was quite the end of the season at Davos before Dimitrius quitted it and took his mother and Diana on to the Riviera. Here, in the warm sunshine of the early Southern spring...

The strange spirit of complete indifference, and the attitude of finding nothing, apparently, worth the trouble of thinking about, stood Diana in such good stead, that she found...

The fated eve,--eve of the longest day in the year,--came in a soft splendour of misty violet skies and dimly glittering stars--after lovely hours of light and warmth which had...

The next morning dawned cloudlessly, and a burning sun blazed intense summer heat through all the hours of the longest and loveliest day. Such persistent warmth brought its own...

While Dimitrius thus perplexed himself with a psychological question for which he could find no satisfactory answer, Diana was happily free from doubts and fears of any kind wha...

The swiftness and silence of Diana’s departure from the Château Fragonard was of an almost uncanny nature. There were no affectionate leave-takings,--and she made no attempt to...

Destiny having apparently taken sides with Diana in her new existence, she lost no time in availing herself of the varied and curious entertainment thrown in her way. The first...

Genius takes a century or more to become recognised,--but Beauty illumines this mortal scene as swiftly as a flash-light. Brief it may be, but none the less brilliant and blindi...

The chaotic condition of mind into which Mr. Polydore May found himself plunged by what to him was the inexplicable and crazy conduct of the inexplicable and crazy young woman w...