Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) MISS DIVIDENDS A Novel BY ARCHIBALD CLAVERING GUNTER AUTHOR OF "MR. BARNES OF NEW YORK," "MR. POTTER OF TEXAS," "THAT FRENCHMAN!" "MISS NOBODY OF NOWHERE," "SMALL BOYS IN BIG BOOTS," "A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT," ETC., ETC. NEW YORK THE HOME PUBLISHING COMPANY 3 EAST FOURTEENTH STREET 1892 COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY A. C. GUNTER. _All rights reserved._ Press of J. J. Little & Co. Astor Place, New York CONTENTS. BOOK I. THE GIRL FROM NEW YORK. I.--Mr. West 7 II.--Miss East 17 III.--Her Father's Friend 30 IV.--Mr. Ferdie begins his Western Investigations 38 V.--The Grand Island Eating-House 54 VI.--Mr. Ferdie Discovers a Vigilante 66 VII.--What Manner of Man is This? 77 BOOK II. A CURIOUS CLUB MAN. VIII.--The City of Saints 101 IX.--The Ball in Salt Lake 115 X.--"Papa!" 135 XI.--"For Business Purposes" 153 XII.--A Daughter of the Church 166 XIII.--The Love of a Bishop 179 XIV.--A Rare Club Story 197 BOOK III. OUT OF A STRANGE COUNTRY. XV.--The Snow-Bound Pullman 217 XVI.--"To the Girl I Love!" 233 XVII.--A Voice in the Night 240 XVIII.--The Last of the Danites 251 XIX.--Orange Blossoms among the Snow 264 MISS DIVIDENDS. BOOK I. THE GIRL FROM NEW YORK. CHAPTER I. MR. WEST. "Five minutes behind your appointment," remarks Mr. Whitehouse Southmead in kindly severity; then he laughs and continues: "You see, your oysters are cold." "As they should be, covered up with ice," returns Captain Harry Storey Lawrence. A moment after, however, he adds more seriously, "I had a good excuse." "An excuse for keeping _this_ waiting?" And Whitehouse pours out lovingly a glass of Chateau Yquem. "Yes, and the best in the world, though probably not one that would be considered good by a lawyer." "Aha! a woman?" rejoins Mr. Southmead. "The most beautiful I have ever seen!" cries Lawrence, the enthusiasm of youth beaming in his handsome dark eyes.