Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Robert Ledger and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Illustration: "'Please do tell me somebody is scandalised.'"] THE DANGER MARK BY ROBERT W. CHAMBERS WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY A.B. WENZELL 1909 TO MY FRIEND JOHN CARRINGTON YATES CONTENTS I. The Seagraves II. In Trust III. The Threshold IV. The Year of Discretion V. Roya-Neh VI. Adrift VII. Together VIII. An Afterglow IX. Confession X. Dusk XI. Fete Galante XII. The Love of the Gods XIII. Ambitions and Letters XIV. The Prophets XV. Dysart XVI. Through the Woods XVII. The Danger Mark XVIII. Bon Chien XIX. Questions and Answers XX. In Search of Herself XXI. The Golden Hours XXII. Cloudy Mountain XXIII. Sine Die XXIV. The Prologue Ends LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS "'Please do tell me somebody is scandalized'" "'Can I have what other women have--silk underwear and stockings?'" "'Duane!' she gasped--'why did you?'" "Oh, the horror of it!--the shame, the agonized surprise" "'This is one of those rare occasions ... where goodness is ... amply rewarded'" "'I want to confess! I've been horribly depraved for a week!'" "She dropped him a very low, very slow, very marvellous courtesy" "Crumpled up like a white flower in his arms" CHAPTER I THE SEAGRAVES All day Sunday they had raised the devil from attic to cellar; Mrs. Farren was in tears, Howker desperate. Not one out of the fifteen servants considered necessary to embellish the Seagrave establishment could do anything with them after Kathleen Severn's sudden departure the week before. When the telegram announcing her mother's sudden illness summoned young Mrs. Severn to Staten Island, every servant in the household understood that serious trouble was impending for them. Day by day the children became more unruly; Sunday they were demons; and Mrs. Farren shuddered to think what Monday might bring forth. The day began ominously at breakfast with general target practice, ammunition consisting of projectiles pinched from the interior of hot muffins. Later, when Mrs. Farren ventured into the schoolroom, she found Scott Seagrave drawing injurious pictures of Howker on the black-board, and Geraldine sorting lumps of sugar from the bowl on the breakfast-tray, which had not yet been removed. "Dearies," she began, "it is after nine o'clock and----" "No school to-day, Mrs. Farren," interrupted Scott cheerfully; "we haven't anything to do till Kathleen comes back, and you know it perfectly well!" "Yes, you have, dearie; Mrs. Severn has just sent you this list of lessons." She held out a black-edged envelope. Geraldine, who had been leisurely occupied in dropping cologne on a lump of sugar, thrust the lump into her pink mouth and turned sharply on Mrs. Farren.