PROUD LADY _NEW BORZOI NOVELS_ _SPRING 1923_ STAR OF EARTH _Morris Dallett_ DOWNSTREAM _Sigfrid Siwertz_ RALPH HERNE _W. H. Hudson_ GATES OF LIFE _Edwin Björkman_ DRUIDA _John T. Frederick_ THE LONG JOURNEY _Johannes V. Jensen_ THE BRIDAL WREATH _Sigrid Undset_ THE HILL OF DREAMS _Arthur Machen_ A ROOM WITH A VIEW _E. M. Forster_ PROUD LADY NEITH BOYCE [Illustration] NEW YORK··ALFRED·A·KNOPF 1923 COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC. _Published, January, 1923_ _Set up and printed by the Vail-Ballou Co., Binghamton, N. Y._ _Paper furnished by W. F. Etherington & Co., New York._ _Bound by H. Wolff Estate, New York._ MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PROUD LADY I Across the ringing of the church bells came the whistle of the train. Mary Lavinia, standing in the doorway, watched her mother go down the walk to the gate. Mrs. Lowell's broad back, clad in black silk, her black bonnet stiffly trimmed with purple pansies, bristled with anger. She opened the gate and slammed it behind her. The wooden sidewalk echoed her heavy tread. She went down the street out of sight, without looking back. The slow melancholy bells were still sounding, but now they stopped. Mrs. Lowell would be late to church. Mary listened, holding her breath. She heard the noise of the train. Now it whistled again, at the crossing, now it was coming into town--white puffs of smoke rose over the trees. The engine-bell clanked, and the shrill sound of escaping steam signalled its stopping. Mary listened, but there was no cheering, though a number of people had gone to the depot to welcome the little knot of returning soldiers. She remembered the day, three years before, when the company raised in the town had marched to the train--there was plenty of cheering then. Now perhaps half a dozen of those men were coming back. The war was over, but the rest of them had been left on southern battle-fields.