_THE DAZZLING MISS DAVISON_ [Illustration] THE DAZZLING MISS DAVISON BY FLORENCE WARDEN AUTHOR OF “THE HOUSE ON THE MARSH” NEW YORK THE H. K. FLY COMPANY PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1910, by THE NEW IDEA PUBLISHING CO. Copyright, 1910, by THE H. K. FLY COMPANY _Entered at Stationers’ Hall, London_ (_All Rights Reserved_) Printed in the United States of America THE DAZZLING MISS DAVISON CHAPTER I A roomy, comfortable, old-fashioned house in Bayswater, with high windows, big rooms, and little balconies just big enough to hold a wealth of flowers in summer and a very pretty show of evergreens when the season for flowers was past. On October a row of asters, backed up by a taller row of foliage plants, made the house look bright and pretty, and the young faces that appeared at the windows of the drawing-room made it prettier still. Mr. and Mrs. Aldington, the occupiers of the house, thought that there was nothing pleasanter in life than the gayety of young people, and so, as they had only two children, a son and a daughter, both grown up, they gave a general invitation to the younger generation, of which, particularly on a Sunday afternoon and evening, the contemporaries of their son and daughter were not slow to avail themselves. Especially was it the pleasure of these good-hearted people to extend hospitality to those young folks whose lives were, for one reason or another, not so bright as those of their own children. And many a friendless young barrister waiting for a brief, young doctor struggling for a practice, and many a girl whose parents had a hard time of it in keeping up a fair position on an unfairly small income, found recreation and a warm welcome at the old-fashioned house in Bayswater. Some of them found more than that. Gerard Buckland, for instance, a clever young barrister who was tired of hearing of the great things he was to do some day, since he was unable to get even small things to do to go on with, found at the Aldingtons something that he had stoutly resolved to do without until he had “got on.” He found, in other words, his “ideal.” It was on a bright Sunday afternoon, when the big drawing-room was full of lively people, mostly young, and all talking at once, that Gerard, having been introduced by Arthur Aldington two Sundays previously, took advantage for the third time of the general invitation given him by the host and hostess, and found himself surrounded by a dozen people among whom he knew no one except the Aldingtons themselves. Whereupon Rose, the daughter of the house, made him sit by her, and, as he was shyly looking over a basketful of loose photographs which he had found on a table beside him, undertook the task of showman, and told him all about the pictures as he looked at them one by one. It chanced that the second picture he picked up after Rose’s arrival was the portrait of a girl which attracted him at once.