E-text prepared by Annie McGuire COQUETTE * * * * * THE NOVELS OF FRANK SWINNERTON THE HAPPY FAMILY ON THE STAIRCASE THE CHASTE WIFE SHOPS AND HOUSES NOCTURNE SEPTEMBER COQUETTE COQUETTE FRANK SWINNERTON * * * * * BY FRANK SWINNERTON COQUETTE SEPTEMBER SHOPS AND HOUSES NOCTURNE THE CHASTE WIFE ON THE STAIRCASE THE HAPPY FAMILY THE CASEMENT THE YOUNG IDEA THE MERRY HEART GEORGE GISSING _A Critical Study_ R. L. STEVENSON _A Critical Study_ * * * * * COQUETTE by FRANK SWINNERTON Author of "September," "Shops and Houses," "Nocturne," Etc. New York George H. Doran Company Copyright, 1921, by George H. Doran Company CONTENTS PAGE BOOK ONE TOBY 9 BOOK TWO GAGA 89 BOOK THREE CONSEQUENCES 209 BOOK ONE: TOBY i It was Saturday night--a winter night in which the wind hummed through every draughty crevice between the windows and under the doors and down the chimneys. Outside, in the Hornsey Road, horse-omnibuses rattled by and the shops that were still open at eleven o'clock glistened with light. Up the road, at the butcher's just below the Plough public-house, a small crowd lingered, turning over scraps of meat, while the butcher himself, chanting "Lovely, lovely, lovely!" in a kind of ecstasy, plunged again into a fresh piece of meat the attractive legend, "Oh, mother, look! Three ha'pence a pound!" Just over the way, at the Supply Stores, they had begun to roll down the heavy shutter, hiding the bright windows, and leaving only a narrow doorway, through which light streamed and made rainbow colours on the pavement outside. The noise of the street was a racketting roar, hardly lower now than it had been all the evening. Sally crouched at the window of the first floor flat, looking down at the black roadway, and watching the stragglers from the Supply Stores.