Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries. See http://archive.org/details/pittowncoronetfa01will Project Gutenberg has the other two volumes of this work. Volume II: see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42168 Volume III: see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42169 THE PIT TOWN CORONET: A Family Mystery. by CHARLES J. WILLS, Author of "In the Land of the Lion and Sun," etc. In Three Volumes. VOL. I. Ward and Downey, 12, York Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. 1888 [The right of translation is reserved, and the Dramatic Copyright protected.] Printed by Kelly and Co., Gate Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C.; and Middle Mill, Kingston-on-Thames. THE PIT TOWN CORONET. INSCRIBED TO EDMUND YATES, Esq. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I.--IN THE ROSE GARDEN 1 II.--THE CROQUET PARTY 26 III.--THE VILLAGE DORCAS 45 IV.--WALLS END CASTLE 67 V.--AT THE PANDEMONIUM CLUB 96 VI.--GEORGIE'S WEDDING 118 VII.--LORD MAYOR'S DAY 138 VIII.--AT THE CASTLE 161 IX.--ANASTATIA'S COURTSHIP 182 X.--ROME.--THE BALLO PAPAYANI 205 XI.--A MEETING IN THE GOOD OLD STYLE 229 XII.--THE VILLA LAMBERT 256 THE PIT TOWN CORONET. CHAPTER 1. IN THE ROSE GARDEN. Big Reginald Haggard had been exceedingly attentive to the elder of two very pretty girls of the name of Warrender. Both families came from the eastern counties. The Warrenders had inhabited The Warren, or at all events the older portion of the house, for nearly four centuries. They were harmless people. They manfully stuck to their ancestral acres of fat Essex land. The present head of the family farmed the greater part of the estate himself, as his fathers had done before him. Many a Warrender had held the rich living of King's Warren, and the parson, whoever he might be, and the reigning Squire Warrender were always the two greatest men in King's Warren village and parish.