Produced by Suzanne Shell, Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) Transcriber's note: Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Words printed in italics in the original document are represented| here between underscores, as in _text_; THE STORY OF LOUIE BY OLIVER ONIONS Author of "In Accordance With the Evidence," "The Debit Account," etc. GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY NEW YORK _Publishers in America for Hodder & Stoughton_ TO GWLADYS CONTENTS PAGE PROLOGUE 9 PART ONE RAINHAM PARVA 25 PART TWO SUTHERLAND PLACE 109 PART THREE MORTLAKE ROAD 175 PART FOUR PILLAR TO POST 213 PART FIVE THE CONSOLIDATION 259 ENVOI 356 PROLOGUE I In an old number of _Punch_, under the heading "Society's New Pet: The Artist's Model," is to be found a drawing by Du Maurier, of which the descriptive text runs: "And how did you and Mr. Sopley come to quarrel, dear Miss Dragon?" "Well, your Grace, it was like this: I was sitting to him in a cestus for 'The Judgment of Paris,' when someone called as wished to see him most particular; so he said: 'Don't move, Miss Dragon, or you'll disturb the cestus.' 'Very good, sir,' I said, and off he went; and when he come back in an hour and a 'alf or so he said: 'You've moved, Miss Dragon!' 'I 'aven't!' I said. 'You '_ave_!' he said. 'I 'AVEN'T!' I said--and no more I 'adn't, your Grace. And with that I off with his cestus an' wished him good-morning, an' I never been near him since!" Du Maurier may or may not have been wrong about the newness of this craze of "Society's." If he was right, the Honourable Emily Scarisbrick becomes at once a pioneer. Let there be set down, here in the beginning, the plain facts of how, a good ten years before the indignant Miss Dragon "offed with" Mr. Sopley's cestus, the Honourable Emily found a way to bridge the gulf that lies between Bohemia and Mayfair.