A story of life at Spathorpe――perhaps the most beautiful and attractive of all the watering-places on the English East Coast. Rupert Brandor, a young and wealthy man, and a poet with some pretension to fame, comes to Spathorpe to spend a few weeks of the season. Under rather amusing circumstances he makes the acquaintance on the beach of a young and very fascinating little girl, by name Bella Dysart, who is staying with her mother at Cromwell Lodge――a large and well-known villa on the esplanade. Bella’s personal charm and the unsophisticated frankness of her disposition win the poet’s interest and affection. Shortly he makes the acquaintance of Mrs. Dysart, and with her enters the new, and deeper, and more dangerous element into the poet’s story. As the days go by, the poet and Bella and Mrs. Dysart draw into a closer circle of friendship. Meanwhile, they have come to be noted by Spathorpe’s busy eyes. This beautiful woman and her scarcely less beautiful daughter, and the handsome boy, attract a large measure of public notice; and the inevitable whispers arise. Mrs. Dysart’s reputation suffers tarnish; her acquaintance with the poet is construed according to the canons of the world. Their uncloaked intimacy acquires the character of scandal. From this point onward the action of the story accelerates. In the final chapters it is a study in temptation, and the story occupies itself with the youthful and poetic temperament under influence of seductive womanly beauty and the counter-influences of a pure and girlish friendship. Following Darkness. _By FORREST REID. 6s._ A study of boyhood and adolescence. The hero is the son of a National schoolmaster in a village on the north coast of Ireland, and the contrast of temperaments between father and son is from the beginning strongly marked. A domestic tragedy having culminated in the disappearance of his mother, the boy becomes the protégé of a wealthy lady living in the neighbourhood. Her influence, and still more the influence of her surroundings, of the house above all, which occupies a distinct place in the story, tend to widen still further the breach between him and his father. The advent of this lady’s niece, a charming girl who comes on a visit, and by her presence transforms everything, introduces the element of romance, and is the prelude to a story of first love, really the central theme of the book. _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ The Bracknels. A Family Chronicle. 6s. “A work of rare distinction.”――_Daily News._ “An admirable novel, from which one has had no ordinary amount of pleasure.”――_Manchester Guardian._ The Soul of Unrest. _By EMILY JENKINSON, Author of “Silverwool,” etc. 6s._