Produced by Al Haines PATRICIA BRENT, SPINSTER BY HERBERT JENKINS HERBERT JENKINS LIMITED 3 YORK STREET, LONDON S.W.1 1918 A HERBERT JENKINS' BOOK _Fifteenth printing completing 153,658 copies_ MADE AND PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY PURNELL AND SONS, PAULTON (SOMERSET) AND LONDON CONTENTS CHAPTER I. PATRICIA'S INDISCRETION II. THE BONSOR-TRIGGS' MENAGE III. THE ADVENTURE AT THE QUADRANT GRILL-ROOM IV. THE MADNESS OF LORD PETER BOWEN V. PATRICIA'S REVENGE VI. THE INTERVENTION OF AUNT ADELAIDE VII. LORD PETER PROMISES A SOLUTION VIII. LORD PETER'S S.O.S. IX. LADY TANAGRA TAKES A HAND X. MISS BRENT'S STRATEGY XI. THE DEFECTION OF MR. TRIGGS XII. A BOMBSHELL XIII. A TACTICAL BLUNDER XIV. GALVIN HOUSE MEETS A LORD XV. MR. TRIGGS TAKES TEA IN KENSINGTON GARDENS XVI. PATRICIA'S INCONSTANCY XVII. LADY PEGGY MAKES A FRIEND XVIII. THE AIR RAID XIX. GALVIN HOUSE AFTER THE RAID XX. A RACE WITH SPINSTERHOOD XXI. THE GREATEST INDISCRETION WHAT THIS STORY IS ABOUT Patricia Brent is a "paying guest" at the Galvin House Residential Hotel. One day she overhears two of her fellow "guests" pitying her because she "never has a nice young man to take her out." In a thoughtless moment of anger she announced that on the following night she is dining at the Quadrant with her fiancé. When in due course she enters the grill-room, she finds some of Galvin Houseites there to watch her. Rendered reckless by the thought of the humiliation of being found out, she goes up to a young staff-officer, and asks him to help her by "playing up." This is how she meets Lt.-Col. Lord Peter Bowen, D.S.O. The story is a comedy concerned with the complications that ensue from Patricia's thoughtless act. PATRICIA BRENT, SPINSTER CHAPTER I PATRICIA'S INDISCRETION "She never has anyone to take her out, and goes nowhere, and yet she can't be more than twenty-seven, and really she's not bad-looking." "It's not looks that attract men," there was a note of finality in the voice; "it's something else." The speaker snapped off her words in a tone that marked extreme disapproval. "What else?" enquired the other voice. "Oh, it's--well, it's something not quite nice," replied the other voice darkly, "the French call it being _très femme_. However, she hasn't got it." "Well, I feel very sorry for her and her loneliness. I am sure she would be much happier if she had a nice young man of her own class to take her about." Patricia Brent listened with flaming cheeks. She felt as if someone had struck her. She recognised herself as the object of the speakers' comments. She could not laugh at the words, because they were true. She _was_ lonely, she had no men friends to take her about, and yet, and yet---- "Twenty-seven," she muttered indignantly, "and I was only twenty-four last November."