THE IMAGINARY MARRIAGE Henry St. John Cooper CONTENTS CHAPTER I. A MASTERFUL WOMAN CHAPTER II. IN WHICH HUGH BREAKS THE NEWS CHAPTER III. JOAN MEREDYTH, TYPIST CHAPTER IV. FACE TO FACE CHAPTER V. “PERHAPS I SHALL GO BACK” CHAPTER VI. “THE ONLY POSSIBLE THING” CHAPTER VII. MR. SLOTMAN ARRIVES AT A MISUNDERSTANDING CHAPTER VIII. THE DREAM GIRL CHAPTER IX. THE PEACEMAKER CHAPTER X. “IN SPITE OF EVERYTHING” CHAPTER XI. THE GENERAL CALLS ON HUGH CHAPTER XII. “I TAKE NOT ONE WORD BACK” CHAPTER XIII. THE GENERAL CONFESSES CHAPTER XIV. THE BEGINNING OF THE TRAIL CHAPTER XV. “TO THE MANNER BORN” CHAPTER XVI. ELLICE CHAPTER XVII. UNREST CHAPTER XVIII. “UNGENEROUS” CHAPTER XIX. THE INVESTIGATIONS OF MR. SLOTMAN CHAPTER XX. “WHEN I AM NOT WITH YOU” CHAPTER XXI. “I SHALL FORGET HER” CHAPTER XXII. JEALOUSY CHAPTER XXIII. “UNCERTAIN—COY” CHAPTER XXIV. “—TO GAIN, OR LOSE IT ALL” CHAPTER XXV. IN THE MIRE CHAPTER XXVI. MR. ALSTON CALLS CHAPTER XXVII. THE WATCHER CHAPTER XXVIII. “HE DOES NOT LOVE ME NOW” CHAPTER XXIX. “WHY DOES SHE TAKE HIM FROM ME?” CHAPTER XXX. “WAITING” CHAPTER XXXI. “IF YOU NEED ME” CHAPTER XXXII. THE SPY CHAPTER XXXIII. GONE CHAPTER XXXIV. “FOR HER SAKE” CHAPTER XXXV. CONNIE DECLARES CHAPTER XXXVI. “HE HAS COME BACK” CHAPTER XXXVII. THE DROPPING OF THE SCALES CHAPTER XXXVIII. “HER CHAMPION” CHAPTER XXXIX. “THE PAYING” CHAPTER XL. “IS IT THE END?” CHAPTER XLI. MR. RUNDLE TAKES A HAND CHAPTER XLII. “WALLS WE CANNOT BATTER DOWN” CHAPTER XLIII. “NOT TILL THEN WILL I GIVE UP HOPE” CHAPTER XLIV. POISON CHAPTER XLV. THE GUIDING HAND CHAPTER XLVI. “—SHE HAS GIVEN!” CHAPTER XLVII. “AS WE FORGIVE—” CHAPTER XLVIII. HER PRIDE’S LAST FIGHT CHAPTER I A MASTERFUL WOMAN “Don’t talk to me, miss,” said her ladyship. “I don’t want to hear any nonsense from you!” The pretty, frightened girl who shared the drawing-room at this moment with Lady Linden of Cornbridge Manor House had not dared to open her lips. But that was her ladyship’s way, and “Don’t talk to me!” was a stock expression of hers. Few people were permitted to talk in her ladyship’s presence. In Cornbridge they spoke of her with bated breath as a “rare masterful woman,” and they had good cause. Masterful and domineering was Lady Linden of Cornbridge, yet she was kind-hearted, though she tried to disguise the fact. In Cornbridge she reigned supreme, men and women trembled at her approach. She penetrated the homes of the cottagers, she tasted of their foods, she rated them on uncleanliness, drunkenness, and thriftlessness; she lectured them on cooking. On many a Saturday night she raided, single-handed, the Plough Inn and drove forth the sheepish revellers, personally conducting them to their homes and wives. They respected her in Cornbridge as the reigning sovereign of her small estate, and none did she rule more autocratically and completely than her little nineteen-year-old niece Marjorie.