The Splendid Folly

Splendid Folly, The

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Title: The Splendid Folly
Author: Margaret Pedler

Release Date: August 4, 2005 [eBook #16427]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
SPLENDID FOLLY***
E-text prepared by Al Haines

THE SPLENDID FOLLY
by
MARGARET PEDLER
Author of the Hermit of Far End, etc.

New York Grosset & Dunlap Publishers
1921

TO MY HUSBAND
W. G. Q. PEDLER

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I
THE VERDICT II FELLOW-TRAVELLERS III AN ENCOUNTER
WITH DEATH IV CRAILING RECTORY V THE SECOND
MEETING VI THE AFTERMATH OF AN ADVENTURE VII
DIANA SINGS VIII MRS. LAWRENCE'S HOSPITALITY IX A
CONTEST OF WILLS X MISS LERMONTOF'S ADVICE XI THE
YEAR'S FRUIT XII MAX ERRINGTON'S RETURN XIII THE
FRIEND WHO STOOD BY XIV THE FLAME OF LOVE XV
DIANA'S DECISION XVI BARONI'S OPINION OF MATRIMONY
XVII "WHOM GOD HATH JOINED TOGETHER" XVIII THE
APPROACHING SHADOW XIX THE "FIRST NIGHT"
PERFORMANCE XX THE SHADOW FALLS XXI THE OTHER
WOMAN XXII THE PARTING OF THE WAYS XXIII PAIN XXIV
THE VISION OF LOVE XXV BREAKING-POINT XXVI THE
REAPING XXVII CARLO BARONI EXPLAINS XXVIII THE
AWAKENING XXIX SACRIFICE

THE HAVEN OF MEMORY
Do you remember Our great love's pure unfolding, The troth you gave,
And prayed for God's upholding, Long and long ago?

Out of the past A dream--and then the waking-- Comes back to me, Of
love and love's forsaking, Ere the summer waned.
Ah! Let me dream That still a little kindness Dwelt in the smile That
chid my foolish blindness, When you said good-bye.
Let me remember, When I am very lonely, How once your love But
crowned and blessed me only, Long and long ago!
MARGARET PEDLER.

NOTE:--Musical setting by Isador Epstein. Published by G. Ricordi &
Co.; 14 East 43rd Street, New York.

THE SPLENDID FOLLY
CHAPTER I
THE VERDICT
The March wind swirled boisterously down Grellingham Place,
catching up particles of grit and scraps of paper on his way and making
them a torment to the passers-by, just as though the latter were not
already amply occupied in trying to keep their hats on their heads.
But the blustering fellow cared nothing at all about that as he drove
rudely against them, slapping their faces and blinding their eyes with
eddies of dust; on the contrary, after he had swept forwards like a
tornado for a matter of fifty yards or so he paused, as if in search of
some fresh devilment, and espied a girl beating her way up the street
and carrying a roll of music rather loosely in the crook of her arm. In an
instant he had snatched the roll away and sent the sheets spread-eagling
up the street, looking like so many big white butterflies as they flapped
and whirled deliriously hither and thither.

The girl made an ineffectual grab at them and then dashed in pursuit,
while a small greengrocer's boy, whose time was his master's (ergo, his
own), joined in the chase with enthusiasm.
Given a high wind, and half-a-dozen loose sheets of music, the elusive
quality of the latter seems to be something almost supernatural, not to
say diabolical, and the pursuit would probably have been a lengthy one
but for the fact that a tall man, who was rapidly advancing from the
opposite direction, seeing the girl's predicament, came to her help and
headed off the truant sheets. Within a few moments the combined
efforts of the girl, the man, and the greengrocer's boy were successful
in gathering them together once more, and having tipped the boy, who
had entered thoroughly into the spirit of the thing and who was
grinning broadly, she turned, laughing and rather breathless, to thank
the man.
But the laughter died suddenly away from her lips as she encountered
the absolute lack of response in his face. It remained quite grave and
unsmiling, exactly as though its owner had not been engaged, only two
minutes before, in a wild and undignified chase after half-a-dozen
sheets of paper which persisted in pirouetting maddeningly just out of
reach.
The face was that of a man of about thirty-five, clean-shaven and
fair-skinned, with arresting blue eyes of that peculiar piercing quality
which seems to read right into the secret places of one's mind. The
features were clear-cut--straight nose, square chin, the mouth rather
sternly set, yet with a delicate uplift at its corners that gave it a
singularly sweet expression.
The girl faltered.
"Thank you so much," she