GOLDEN FLEECE OTHER BOOKS BY DAVID GRAHAM PHILLIPS [Illustration] _The Great God Success_, _Her Serene Highness_, _A Woman Ventures_ [Illustration: _The three descended the grand stairway rapidly_] _GOLDEN FLEECE_ _The American Adventures of a Fortune Hunting Earl_ _By_ _David Graham Phillips_ [Illustration] _Illustrations by Harrison Fisher_ [Illustration] _McClure, Phillips & Co._ _New York_ _1903_ COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO. COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY CURTIS PUBLISHING CO. Published, April, 1903, R ILLUSTRATIONS Facing page The three descended the grand stairway rapidly _Frontispiece_ A strongly-built, fairish young man of perhaps six and thirty 4 “My name is Longview” 16 Barney half a dozen chairs away glowering at Longview 26 He liked the very first glimpse of her 46 “As if we were a pair of new chimpanzees in a zoo” 70 “Just my rotten luck,” he muttered 90 “Then you’re not a Buddhist or a Spiritualist?” 130 “Forgive me--it was all my fault--yet not mine--good-bye--” 164 Cosimo, Prince di Rontivogli 200 “I can imagine many extenuating circumstances” 224 “I’ll give the guinea one more chance” 230 Found Nelly alone in the front parlour 258 “You may _ask_, sir, but I’ll not answer” 284 As soon as her father and mother were out of the way 296 “I take to it like a duck to water” 314 GOLDEN FLEECE I Two hours after Surrey’s letter came his sister Gwen rode over to Beauvais House eager to tell Evelyn the news of his luck in America. It was almost five o’clock in the beautiful autumn afternoon, and she found Evelyn at tea on the porch that looks out upon the Italian garden. “It’s settled,” she said. “They’re to be married on the 5th of November--only two months! And George says she is sweet and lovely--not at all like the Americans we know. And her dot is a million and a half--he calls it seven and a half, but he means in their money, which sounds bigger, but counts smaller, than ours. She’ll get twice that when her father dies--and he’s nearly seventy and not strong. And I’m so glad and so sorry that I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.” “What’s her name? You told me, but I forget.” Evelyn’s hand was trembling just a little as she gave Gwendoline a cup of tea. She spoke slowly, in the clear, monotonous, but agreeable, English tone. Her voice, always calm, seemed stagnant.