E-text prepared by S. Drawehn, Suzanne Shell, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 24389-h.htm or 24389-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/3/8/24389/24389-h/24389-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/3/8/24389/24389-h.zip) BLUE-BIRD WEATHER * * * * * Works of Robert W. Chambers The Streets Of Ascalon Blue-Bird Weather Japonette The Adventures of a Modest Man The Danger Mark Special Messenger The Firing Line The Younger Set The Fighting Chance Some Ladies in Haste The Tree of Heaven The Tracer of Lost Persons A Young Man in a Hurry Lorraine Maids of Paradise Ashes of Empire The Red Republic Outsiders The Common Law Ailsa Paige The Green Mouse Iole The Reckoning The Maid-at-Arms Cardigan The Haunts of Men The Mystery of Choice The Cambric Mask The Maker of Moons The King in Yellow In Search of the Unknown The Conspirators A King and a Few Dukes In the Quarter For Children Garden-Land Forest-Land River-Land Mountain-Land Orchard-Land Outdoor-Land Hide and Seek in Forest-Land D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, New York * * * * * BLUE-BIRD WEATHER by ROBERT W. CHAMBERS [Decoration] With Illustrations by Charles Dana Gibson [Illustration: "She trotted away to Marche's door and tapped softly." [Page 140]] D. Appleton and Company New York and London :: MCMXII Copyright, 1912, by Robert W. Chambers Copyright, 1911, by International Magazine Company Published October, 1912 Published in the United States of America TO JOSEPH LEE OF NEEDWOOD FOREST LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE "She trotted away to Marche's door and tapped softly." _Frontispiece_ "She said gravely: 'I am afraid it will be blue-bird weather.'" 14 "'Well,' he said pleasantly, 'what comes next, Miss Herold?'" 26 "'I'm _so_ sorry, Jim.'" 33 "They ate their luncheon there together." 88 "'Jim,' he said, 'where did you live?'" 99 "'He tells you that he--he is in love with you?'" 127 BLUE-BIRD WEATHER I It was now almost too dark to distinguish objects; duskier and vaguer became the flat world of marshes, set here and there with cypress and bounded only by far horizons; and at last land and water disappeared behind the gathered curtains of the night. There was no sound from the waste except the wind among the withered reeds and the furrowing splash of wheel and hoof over the submerged causeway.