"I pray we may. I believe we shall," answered her husband earnestly.

"I know we shall, doubting Thomas. I'm one of the women who are strong in unreasoning faith."

They stood silently smiling at each other for a moment.

"Shall we celebrate the beginning of home with pomp and music?" she asked. "There's a little time before dinner. Make yourself comfortable.

Push Mrs. Percival up to the fire."

"Mrs. Percival!" Ellery exclaimed, dropping his guilty arm and looking about in a startled manner.

"Oh, I forgot you didn't know. I've been all over the house this afternoon, christening our things with the names of the people that gave them to us. Doesn't it make all the wedding presents seem very friendly and not at all new? Wouldn't you know, even if you hadn't been told, that this particular chair was Mother Percival--it's so graceful and comforting. Dump yourself into it, Ellery."

She pushed him down laughing.

"Ah, I begin to see that you stole your atmosphere. The things aren't so new after all. They're old acquaintances."

"Of course they are. Isn't it jolly to have 'your loving friends' tucked around in spirit in every nook and corner of the house, without the nuisance of having the good people here in the body to disturb our privacy?"

"I see," he meditated, then went on ungratefully: "After all, I think I'm more taken with the privacy than with the spiritual presences, though they can hardly be considered skeletons at the feast."

"I should think not," exclaimed Madeline indignantly. "I love them each and all--well, with a few exceptions, Ellery. You needn't grin sarcastically. Now there's the piano--such a piano as I have always dreamed of but never hoped to own. If I called it a Steinway Grand, I should know that it was an excellent instrument; but when I call it 'Vera,' it warms and delights my heart a thousand times."

Ellery rose and bowed ceremoniously to the piano.

"Vera, will you and Mrs. Norris favor me with Schubert's _Serenade_, while I sit on Mrs. Percival?" he asked. "I am ragingly hungry, but perhaps the _Serenade_ will keep me harmless and quiet for a little."

He sat and listened and looked into the warm deep heart of the friendly fire. Dreams and hopes came back to him, as things once seen through a gla.s.s darkly, but now face to face. Without turning, he was conscious of Madeline, across the room, filling life with music.

When a small maid, as new as the books, appeared to announce dinner, he looked up startled.

"Shall we go?" asked Madeline, rising.

"To our own private particular family communion-table," he answered, drawing her arm through his.

FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS

Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size.

Printed on excellent paper--most of them with ill.u.s.trations of marked beauty--and handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume, postpaid.

THE CIRCULAR STAIRCASE, By Mary Roberts Reinhart

With ill.u.s.trations by Lester Ralph.

In an extended notice the _New York Sun_ says: "To readers who care for a really good detective story 'The Circular Staircase' can be recommended without reservation." The _Philadelphia Record_ declares that "The Circular Staircase" deserves the laurels for thrills, for weirdness and things unexplained and inexplicable.

THE RED YEAR, By Louis Tracy

"Mr. Tracy gives by far the most realistic and impressive pictures of the horrors and heroisms of the Indian Mutiny that has been available in any book of the kind * * * There has not been in modern times in the history of any land scenes so fearful, so picturesque, so dramatic, and Mr. Tracy draws them as with the pencil of a Verestschagin or the pen of a Sienkiewics."

ARMS AND THE WOMAN, By Harold MacGrath

With inlay cover in colors by Harrison Fisher.

The story is a blending of the romance and adventure of the middle ages with nineteenth century men and women; and they are creations of flesh and blood, and not mere pictures of past centuries. The story is about Jack Winthrop, a newspaper man. Mr. MacGrath's finest bit of character drawing is seen in Hillars, the broken down newspaper man, and Jack's chum.

LOVE IS THE SUM OF IT ALL, By Geo. Cary Eggleston

With ill.u.s.trations by Hermann Heyer.

In this "plantation romance" Mr. Eggleston has resumed the manner and method that made his "Dorothy South" one of the most famous books of its time.

There are three tender love stories embodied in it, and two unusually interesting heroines, utterly unlike each other, but each possessed of a peculiar fascination which wins and holds the reader's sympathy. A pleasing vein of gentle humor runs through the work, but the "sum of it all" is an intensely sympathetic love story.

HEARTS AND THE CROSS, By Harold Morton Cramer

With ill.u.s.trations by Harold Matthews Brett.

The hero is an unconventional preacher who follows the line of the Man of Galilee, a.s.sociating with the lowly, and working for them in the ways that may best serve them. He is not recognized at his real value except by the one woman who saw clearly. Their love story is one of the refreshing things in recent fiction.

GROSSET & DUNLAP. Publishers,--NEW YORK

FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS

Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size.

Printed on excellent paper--most of them with ill.u.s.trations of marked beauty--and handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume, postpaid.

NEW CHRONICLES OF REBECCA, By Kate Douglas Wiggin With ill.u.s.trations by F. C. Yohn

Additional episodes in the girlhood of the delightful little heroine at Riverboro which were not included in the story of "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm," and they are as characteristic and delightful as any part of that famous story. Rebecca is as distinct a creation in the second volume as in the first.

THE SILVER b.u.t.tERFLY, By Mrs. Wilson Woodrow

With ill.u.s.trations in colors by Howard Chandler Christy.

A story of love and mystery, full of color, charm, and vivacity, dealing with a South American mine, rich beyond dreams, and of a New York maiden, beyond dreams beautiful--both known as the Silver b.u.t.terfly.

Well named is _The Silver b.u.t.terfly_! There could not be a better symbol of the darting swiftness, the eager love plot, the elusive mystery and the flashing wit.

BEATRIX OF CLARE, By John Reed Scott

With ill.u.s.trations by Clarence F. Underwood.

A spirited and irresistibly attractive historical romance of the fifteenth century, boldly conceived and skilfully carried out. In the hero and heroine Mr. Scott has created a pair whose mingled emotions and alternating hopes and fears will find a welcome in many lovers of the present hour. Beatrix is a fascinating daughter of Eve.