Produced by Al Haines [Frontispiece: The amiable shopman pressed various toys on monsieur and madame "_pour les enfants_"] The Sentimental Adventures of Jimmy Bulstrode BY MARIE VAN VORST With Illustrations by ALONZO KIMBALL NEW YORK HURST & COMPANY PUBLISHERS COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS Published March, 1908 TO THE MEMORY OF H. E. TESCHEMACHER CONTENTS _THE FIRST ADVENTURE_ In which he buys a Christmas tree _THE SECOND ADVENTURE_ In which he tries to buy a portrait _THE THIRD ADVENTURE_ In which he finds there are some things which one cannot buy _THE FOURTH ADVENTURE_ In which he makes three people happy _THE FIFTH ADVENTURE_ In which he makes nobody happy at all _THE SIXTH ADVENTURE_ In which he discards a knave and saves a queen _THE SEVENTH ADVENTURE_ In which he becomes the possessor of a certain piece of property _THE EIGHTH ADVENTURE_ In which he comes into his own ILLUSTRATIONS From drawings by ALONZO KIMBALL _The amiable shopman pressed various toys on monsieur and madame "pour les enfants"_ . . . . . . Frontispiece "_I only like him like a kind, kind friend_" _In the midst of this rabble little Simone was dancing_ "_I've had a telegram from my husband_" THE FIRST ADVENTURE I IN WHICH HE BUYS A CHRISTMAS TREE There was never in the world a better fellow than Jimmy Bulstrode. If he had been poorer his generosities would have ruined him over and over again. He was always being taken in, was the recipient of hundreds of begging letters, which he hired another soft-hearted person to read. He offended charitable organizations by never passing a beggar's outstretched hand without dropping a coin in it. He was altogether a distressingly impracticable rich person, surrounded by people who admired him for what he really was and by those who tried to squeeze him for what he was worth! It was a general wonder to people who knew him slightly why Bulstrode had never married. The gentleman himself knew the answer perfectly, but it amused him to discuss the question in spite of the pain, as well as for the pleasure that it caused him to consider--_the reason why_. Mary Falconer, the woman he loved, was the wife of a man of whom Bulstrode could only think in pitiful contempt. But, thanks to an element of chivalry in the character of the hero of this story the years, as time went on, spread back of both the woman and the man in an honorable series, of whose history neither one had any reason to be ashamed. Nevertheless, it struck them both as rather humorous, after all, that of the three concerned her husband should be the only renegade and, notwithstanding, profit by the combined good faith of his wife and the man who loved her.