The Passionate Friends By H. G. WELLS Author of "Marriage." [Illustration] WITH FRONTISPIECE A. L. BURT COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 114-120 East Twenty-third Street - - New York PUBLISHED BY ARRANGEMENT WITH HARPER & BROTHERS COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY HARPER & BROTHERS PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PUBLISHED OCTOBER, 1913 TO L. E. N. S. [Illustration: "OUR KISSES WERE KISSES OF MOONLIGHT" See p. 85] CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. MR. STRATTON TO HIS SON 1 II. BOYHOOD 14 III. INTENTIONS AND THE LADY MARY CHRISTIAN 40 IV. THE MARRIAGE OF THE LADY MARY CHRISTIAN 73 V. THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA 102 VI. LADY MARY JUSTIN 132 VII. BEGINNING AGAIN 197 VIII. THIS SWARMING BUSINESS OF MANKIND 220 IX. THE SPIRIT OF THE NEW WORLD 246 X. MARY WRITES 280 XI. THE LAST MEETING 318 XII. THE ARRAIGNMENT OF JEALOUSY 358 THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS CHAPTER THE FIRST MR. STRATTON TO HIS SON § 1 I want very much to set down my thoughts and my experiences of life. I want to do so now that I have come to middle age and now that my attitudes are all defined and my personal drama worked out I feel that the toil of writing and reconsideration may help to clear and fix many things that remain a little uncertain in my thoughts because they have never been fully stated, and I want to discover any lurking inconsistencies and unsuspected gaps. And I have a story. I have lived through things that have searched me. I want to tell that story as well as I can while I am still a clear-headed and active man, and while many details that may presently become blurred and altered are still rawly fresh in my mind. And to one person in particular do I wish to think I am writing, and that is to you, my only son. I want to write my story not indeed to the child you are now, but to the man you are going to be. You are half my blood and temperamentally altogether mine. A day will come when you will realize this, and want to know how life has gone with me, and then it may be altogether too late for me to answer your enquiries. I may have become inaccessible as old people are sometimes inaccessible. And so I think of leaving this book for you--at any rate, I shall write it as if I meant to leave it for you. Afterwards I can consider whether I will indeed leave it.... The idea of writing such a book as this came to me first as I sat by the dead body of your grandfather--my father. It was because I wanted so greatly such a book from him that I am now writing this. He died, you must know, only a few months ago, and I went to his house to bury him and settle all his affairs.