Produced by Ron Swanson SALLY BISHOP A ROMANCE BY E. TEMPLE THURSTON NEW AND CHEAPER EDITION LONDON CHAPMAN & HALL, LTD. 1912 _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_. THE APPLE OF EDEN. TRAFFIC. THE REALIST. THE EVOLUTION OF KATHERINE. MIRAGE. THE CITY OF BEAUTIFUL NONSENSE. THE GREATEST WISH IN THE WORLD. THE PATCHWORK PAPERS. THE GARDEN OF RESURRECTION. THIRTEEN. THE FLOWER OF GLOSTER. THE ANTAGONISTS. _Copyright in the United States of America by E. Temple Thurston, 1909_. To GERALD DU MAURIER _MY DEAR GERALD,_ _Amongst the many things which I anticipate in the reception of this book, is the shrug-shoulder smile of critics at my sub-title--a Romance. There are canons and rubrics to be observed, it would seem, in the slightest action that a man attempts in this Great World's Fair of Conventionality, whose every sideshow is hedged around with the red-tape of the Law. Witness even that delusive proverb--there is honour amongst thieves. So is there an unwritten canon in literature and the making of books, that a Romance must end with a phrase to convey another illusion--namely, the happiness that is ever after._ _And so, in this respect, I throw canons to the winds--it sounds a herculean feat--wash out the printed red of the rubric, and call, perhaps the saddest story I shall write, a Romance._ _Yet I profess to have a reason beyond mere contrariness. The world of Romance must be at all times an elusive star--never capable of being put in the exact same place on any one's calendar. And to me it conveys no fixed beginning, no fixed end, so long as it possesses that quality of dreaming imagination in the mind of the character with whom the circumstances are first concerned. All that we know certainly of life is reality, and of all those myriad things which combine to make up the one great scheme, of which we know nothing, there is the quality of Romance--free to any one who cares to let his mind drift upon the sea of conjecture._ _In that this was the case with Sally; in that she made her dream out of Reality itself--I have called it a Romance. The Romance that remains a Romance until the end, is not as yet within the reach of my pen. If it ever should be--then I promise you that book as well._ _On all my other anticipations--the attitude of the critical mind towards Chapter IV. in Book I., the sensitiveness of the delicate mind when it closes its eyes on Chapter VI. of Book II.--I will keep silent. As I have said, I anticipate many things, but I only hope for your approval._ _Yours always,_ _E. TEMPLE THURSTON._ _LONDON,_ _January 31st, 1908._ CONTENTS BOOK I. THE CONSCRIPT BOOK II. THE DESERTER BOOK III. DERELICT BOOK IV. THE EMPTY HORIZON SALLY BISHOP BOOK I THE CONSCRIPT CHAPTER I