E-text prepared by Rick Niles, Gene Smethers, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 15384-h.htm or 15384-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/3/8/15384/15384-h/15384-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/3/8/15384/15384-h.zip) THE REAL ADVENTURE A Novel by HENRY KITCHELL WEBSTER Illustrated by R.M. Crosby Indianapolis The Bobbs-Merrill Company Publishers Serial Version 1915 The Ridgway Company Press of Braunworth & Co. Bookbinders and Printers Brooklyn, N.Y. 1916 [Illustration: "We can't talk here," he said. "We must go elsewhere."] CONTENTS BOOK I THE GREAT ILLUSION CHAPTER I A Point of Departure II Beginning an Adventure III Frederica's Plan and What Happened to It IV Rosalind Stanton Doesn't Disappear V The Second Encounter VI The Big Horse VII How It Struck Portia VIII Rodney's Experiment IX After Breakfast BOOK II LOVE AND THE WORLD I The Princess Cinderella II The First Question and an Answer to It III Where Did Rose Come In IV Long Circuits and Short V Rodney Smiled VI The Damascus Road VII How the Pattern Was Cut VIII A Birthday IX A Defeat X The Door That Was to Open XI An Illustration XII What Harriet Did XIII Fate Plays a Joke XIV The Dam Gives Way XV The Only Remedy XVI Rose Opens the Door BOOK III THE WORLD ALONE I The Length of a Thousand Yards II The Evening and the Morning Were the First Day III Rose Keeps the Path IV The Girl With the Bad Voice V Mrs. Goldsmith's Taste VI A Business Proposition VII The End of a Fixed Idea VIII Success--and a Recognition IX The Man and the Director X The Voice of the World XI The Short Circuit Again XII "I'm All Alone" XIII Frederica's Paradox XIV The Miry Way XV In Flight XVI Anti-Climax XVII The End of the Tour XVIII The Conquest of Centropolis BOOK IV THE REAL ADVENTURE I The Tune Changes II A Broken Parallel III Friends IV Couleur-de-rose V The Beginning BOOK ONE The Great Illusion CHAPTER I A POINT OF DEPARTURE "Indeed," continued the professor, glancing demurely down at his notes, "if one were the editor of a column of--er advice to young girls, such as I believe is to be found, along with the household hints and the dress patterns, on the ladies' page of most of our newspapers--if one were the editor of such a column, he might crystallize the remarks I have been making this morning into a warning--never marry a man with a passion for principles." It drew a laugh, of course. Professorial jokes never miss fire. But _the_ girl didn't laugh. She came to with a start--she had been staring out the window--and wrote, apparently, the fool thing down in her note-book. It was the only note she had made in thirty-five minutes.