Transcribed from the 1905 Gay and Bird edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org [Picture: Book cover] MARM LISA BY KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN The eternal-womanly Ever leadeth us on. GOETHE’S _Faust_. SIXTH EDITION [Picture: Decorative graphic] GAY AND BIRD 22 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND LONDON 1905 _All rights reserved_ * * * * * Edinburgh: T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty CONTENTS PAGE I. EDEN PLACE 1 II. MISTRESS MARY’S GARDEN 16 III. A FAMILY POLYGON 29 IV. MARM LISA IS TRANSPLANTED 46 V. HOW THE NEW PLANT GREW 59 VI. FROM GRUBB TO BUTTERFLY 77 VII. THE COMET AND THE FIXED STAR 88 VIII. THE YOUNG MINISTER’S PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS 106 IX. MARM LISA’S QUEST 121 X. THE TWINS JOIN THE CELESTIALS 135 XI. RHODA FREES HER MIND 150 XII. FLOTSAM AND JETSAM 167 XIII. LEAVES FROM MISTRESS MARY’S GARDEN 186 XIV. MORE LEAVES 202 XV. ‘THE FEAST O’ THE BABE’ 219 XVI. CLEANSING FIRES 231 I EDEN PLACE EDEN PLACE was a short street running at right angles with Eden Square, a most unattractive and infertile triangle of ground in a most unattractive but respectable quarter of a large city. It was called a square, not so much, probably, because it was triangular in shape, as because it was hardly large enough to be designated as a park. As to its being called ‘Eden,’ the origin of that qualifying word is enveloped in mystery; but it is likely that the enthusiastic persons who projected it saw visions and dreamed dreams of green benches under umbrageous trees, of a green wire fence, ever green, and of plots of blossoming flowers filling the grateful air with unaccustomed fragrance.