He came forward like a courtier, lifted my hand to his lips, and kissed it.
"With your permission, Monseigneur, I will now retire and ride slowly back along the river until you overtake me. I should like to have some time for solitary thought."
"You have my permission, Monsieur Abbé."
He bowed to Madame de Ferrier, and so moving to the door, he bowed again to me, and took his leave.
His horse's impatient start, and his remonstrance as he mounted, came plainly to our ears. The regular beat of hoofs upon the sward followed; then an alternating tap-tap of horse's feet diminished down the trail.
Eagle and I avoided looking at each other.
A bird inquired through the door with inquisitive chirp, and was away.
Volcanoes, and whirlwinds, fire, and all force, held themselves condensed and quiescent in the still room.
I moved first, laying Marie-Therese's message on the padlocked book. Standing with folded arms I faced Eagle, and she as stonily faced me. It was a stare of unspeakable love that counts a thousand years as a day.
She shuddered from head to foot. Thus a soul might ripple in passing from its body.
"I am not worth a kingdom!" her voice wailed through the room.
I opened my arms and took her. Volcanoes and whirlwinds, fire, and all force, were under our feet. We trod them breast to breast.
She held my head between her hands. The tears streamed down her face.
"Louis!—you are a king!—you are a king!"
THE END.
A LIST OF RECENT FICTION OF
THE BOWEN-MERRILL COMPANY
WHEN KNIGHTHOOD WAS IN FLOWER
Over one-quarter of a million copies have been sold of this great historical love-story of Princess Mary Tudor, sister of Henry VIII. Price, $1.50
ASK YOUR BOOKSELLER FOR IT
A VIVACIOUS ROMANCE OF REVOLUTIONARY DAYS
ALICE of OLD VINCENNES
By MAURICE THOMPSON
The Atlanta Constitution says:
"Mr. Thompson, whose delightful writings in prose and verse have made his reputation national, has achieved his master stroke of genius in this historical novel of revolutionary days in the West."
The Denver Daily News says:
"There are three great chapters of fiction: Scott's tournament on Ashby field, General Wallace's chariot race, and now Maurice Thompson's duel scene and the raising of Alice's flag over old Fort Vincennes."
The Chicago Times-Herald says:
"More original than 'Richard Carvel,' more cohesive than 'To Have and To Hold,' more vital than 'Janice Meredith,' such is Maurice Thompson's superb American romance, 'Alice of Old Vincennes.' It is, in addition, more artistic and spontaneous than any of its rivals."
12mo, with five illustrations and a frontispiece in color, all drawn by Mr. F.C. Yohn
Price, $1.50
The Bowen-Merrill Company, Indianapolis
"A NOVEL THAT'S WORTH WHILE"
The REDEMPTION of DAVID CORSON
By CHARLES FREDERIC GOSS
A Mid-century American Novel of Intense Power and Interest
The Interior says:
"This is a book that is worth while. Though it tells of weakness and wickedness, of love and license, of revenge and remorse in an intensely interesting way, yet it is above all else a clean and pure story. No one can read it and honestly ask 'what's the use.'"
Newell Dwight Hillis, Pastor of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, says:
"'The Redemption of David Corson' strikes a strong, healthy, buoyant note.'"
Dr. F.W. Gunsaulus, President Armour Institute, says:
"Mr. Goss writes with the truthfulness of light. He has told a story in which the fact of sin is illuminated with the utmost truthfulness and the fact of redemption is portrayed with extraordinary power. There are lines of greatness in the book which I shall never forget."
President M.W. Stryker, Hamilton College, says:
"It is a victory in writing for one whose head seems at last to have matched his big human heart. There is ten times as much of reality in it as there is in 'David Harum,' which does not value lightly that admirable charcoal sketch."
Price, $1.50
The Bowen-Merrill Company, Indianapolis
"AS CRISP AND CLEAN CUT AS A NEW MINTAGE."
THE PUPPET CROWN
BY HAROLD MACGRATH
A princess rarely beautiful; a duchess magnificent and heartless; a villain revengeful and courageous; a hero youthful, humorous, fearless and truly American;—such are the principal characters of this delightful story.—Syracuse Post-Standard.
Harold MacGrath has attained the highest point achievable in recent fiction. We have the climax of romance and adventure in "The Puppet Crown."—The Philadelphia North American.
Superior to most of the great successes.—St. Paul Pioneer Press.
"The Puppet Crown" is a profusion of cleverness.—Baltimore American.
Challenges comparison with authors whose names have become immortal—Chicago American.
Latest entry in the list of winners.—Cleveland World.
With illustrations by R. Martine Reay
12mo. Price, $1.50.
The Bowen-Merrill Company, Indianapolis
FULL of INCIDENT, ACTION & COLOR
LIKE ANOTHER HELEN
By GEORGE HORTON
Mr. Horton's powerful romance stands in a new field and brings an almost unknown world in reality before the reader—the world of conflict between Greek and Turk.
The island of Crete seems real and genuine after reading this book; not a mere spot on the map. The tragic and pathetic troubles of this people are told with sympathetic force.
Mr. Horton employs a vivid style that keeps the interest alive and many passages are filled with delicate poetic feeling.
Things happen and the story moves. The characters are well conceived and are human and convincing. Beyond question Mr. Horton's fine story is destined to take high rank among the books of the day.
With illustrations by C.M. Relyea
12mo, Cloth bound
Price, $1.50
The Chicago Times-Herald says:
"Here are chapters that are Stephen Crane plus sympathy; chapters of illuminated description fragrant with the atmosphere of art."
The Bowen-Merrill Company, Indianapolis
ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL HISTORICAL NOVEL
THE BLACK WOLF'S BREED
By HARRIS DICKSON
From the Boston Globe:
"A vigorous tale of France in the old and new world during the reign of Louis XIV."
From the Philadelphia Press:
"As delightfully seductive as certain mint-flavored beverages they make down South."
From the Los Angeles Herald:
"The sword-play is great, even finer than the pictures in 'To Have and To Hold.'"
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
"As fine a piece of sustained adventure as has appeared in recent fiction."
From the St. Louis Globe-Democrat:
"There is action, vivid description and intensely dramatic situations."
From the Indianapolis News:
"So full of tender love-making, of gallant fighting, that one regrets it's no longer."
Illustrated by C.M. Relyea. Price $1.50
The Bowen-Merrill Company, Indianapolis
A FINE STORY OF THE COWBOY AT HIS BEST
WITH HOOPS of STEEL
By FLORENCE FINCH KELLY
"The friends thou hast, and
their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with
hoops of steel"
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
"Western men and women will read it because it paints faithfully the life which they know so well, and because it gives us three big, manly fellows, fine types of the cowboy at his best. Eastern readers will be attracted by its splendid realism."
From Julian Hawthorne:
"For my own part, I finished it all in one day, and dreamt it over again that night. And I am an old hand, heaven knows"
From the Denver Times:
"Mrs. Kelly's character stands out from the background of the New Mexican plains, desert and mountain with all the distinctness of a Remington sketch."
With six illustrations, in color, by Dan Smith
Price, $1.50
The Bowen-Merrill Company, Indianapolis
A NOVEL OF EARLY NEW YORK
PATROON VAN VOLKENBERG
By HENRY THEW STEPHENSON
From the New York Press:
"Many will compare 'Patroon Van Volkenberg,' with its dash, style and virility, with 'Richard Carvel,' and in that respect they will be right, as one would compare the strong, sturdy and spreading elm with a slender sapling."
The action of this stirring story begins when New York was a little city of less than 5,000 inhabitants.
The Governor has forbidden the port to the free traders or pirate ships, which sailed boldly under their own flag; while the Patroon and his merchant colleagues not only traded openly with the buccaneers, but owned and managed such illicit craft. The story of the clash of these conflicting interests and the resulting exciting happenings is absorbing.
The atmosphere of the tale is fresh in fiction, the plot is stirring and well knit, and the author is possessed of the ability to write forceful, fragrant English.
From the Brooklyn Standard-Union:
"The tale is one of vibrant quality. It can not be read at a leisurely pace. It bears the reader through piratical seas and buccaneering adventures, through storm and stress of many sorts, but it lands him safely, and leads him to peace."
12mo,
Illustrated in color by C.M. Relyea
Price, $1.50
The Bowen-Merrill Company, Indianapolis
A STORY OF THE MORGAN RAID,
DURING THE WAR of the REBELLION
THE LEGIONARIES
By HENRY SCOTT CLARK
The Memphis Commercial-appeal says:
"The backbone of the story is Morgan's great raid—one of the most romantic and reckless pieces of adventure ever attempted in the history of the world. Mr. Clark's description of the Ride of the Three Thousand is a piece of literature that deserves to live; and is as fine in its way as the chariot race from 'Ben Hur.'"
The Cincinnati Commercial-Tribune says:
"'The Legionaries' is pervaded with what seems to be the true spirit of artistic impartiality. The author is simply a narrator. He stands aside, regarding with equal eye all the issues involved and the scales dip not in his hands. To sum up, the first romance of the new day on the Ohio is an eminently readable one—a good yarn well spun."
The Rochester Herald says:
"The appearance of a new novel in the West marks an epoch in fiction relating to the war between the sections for the preservation of the Union. 'The Legionaries' is a remarkable book, and we can scarcely credit the assurance that it is the work of a new writer."
12mo, illustrated Price, $1.50
The Bowen-Merrill Company, Indianapolis
THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN CRUCIFIXION
THE PENITENTES
By LOUIS HOW
The Chicago Record says:
"To describe the customs of this band of intensely religious people, to retain all the color and picturesqueness of the original scene without excess, was the difficult task which Mr. How has done well."
The Brooklyn Eagle says:
"The author has been fortunate enough to unearth a colossal American tragedy."
The Chicago Tribune says:
"'The Penitentes' abounds in dramatic possibilities. It is full of action, warm color and variety. The denouement at the little church of San Rafael, when the soldiers surprise the Penitentes at mass in the early dawn of their fete day, will appeal strongly to the dramatizer."
The Interior says:
"Mr. How has done a truly remarkable piece of work * * * any hand, however practiced, might well be proud of the marvelously good descriptions, the dramatic, highly unusual story, the able characterizations."
12mo, Cloth, Ornamental
Price, $1.50
The Bowen-Merrill Company, Indianapolis
THE SUBTLE SPIRIT OF THE SEA
SWEEPERS OF THE SEA
The Story of a Strange Navy
By CLAUDE H. WETMORE
From the St. Louis Mirror:
"The recital of the deeds of the 'Sweepers of the Sea' is a breathless one. The romance is heightened by the realism of the technique of naval warfare, by the sureness and voluminosity of nautical knowledge."
From the Buffalo Review:
"It rivals Stevenson in its ingenuity of plot and dramatic interest."
From the Albany Journal:
"There rings the exultant note of tossing billows and a crashing ship."
From the Minneapolis Times:
"Mr. Wetmore has the genius of Jules Verne and can make the improbable seem the actual. In fact, 'Sweepers of the Sea' comes into the class of important fiction, and as such will be received and read by a discriminating public."
Illustrated Price, $1.50
The Bowen-Merrill Company, Indianapolis
A STORY TOLD BY A REAL STORYTELLER
A SON OF AUSTERITY
By GEORGE KNIGHT
Mr. Knight has created a real atmosphere for his men and women to breathe, and his men and women take deep breaths. They are alive, they are human, they are real.
He has a delightful story to tell and knows how to tell it. It is a story of human life, of possible people in possible situations, living out their little span of life in that state in which it has pleased God to call them.
The reader realizes at once that Mr. Knight is a man who served his seven years of apprenticeship before opening a shop on his own account.
The deftness and charm of his literary style, combined with the absorbing interest of the story, can not but prove a delight to every reader.
With a frontispiece by Harrison Fisher
12mo, Cloth. Price, $1.50
The Liverpool Mercury says:
"This is a book far removed from the ordinary mass of featureless fiction. There is no gainsaying the strength of characterization and the command of English language."
The Bowen-Merrill Company, Indianapolis
VIGOROUS, ELEMENTAL, DRAMATIC
A HEART OF FLAME
The story of a Master Passion
BY CHARLES FLEMING EMBREE
Author of "A Dream of a Throne."
The men and women in this story are children of the soil. Their strength is in their nearness to nature. Their minds are vigorous, their bodies powerful, their passions elemental, their courage sublime. They are loyal in friendship, persistent in enmity, determined in purpose.
The story is a story of great wrongs and of supreme love. It is done in black and white, with few strokes, but they are masterly. The shadows at the back are sombre but the value of contrast is appreciated for the vivid high light in the foreground.
It is a work of art—powerful, convincing and abiding. Powerful, because true to life; convincing, for it has the saving touch of humor; and abiding because love, like "A Heart of Flame," prevails in the end.
With illustrations by Dan Smith
12mo. cloth. Price, $1.50.
The Bowen-Merrill Company, Indianapolis