TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: —Obvious print and punctuation errors were corrected. —Whereas adequate characters are not available, superscript text has been rendered as a^b and a^{bc}. THE VICISSITUDES OF EVANGELINE _All rights reserved._ _Copyright in America._ [Illustration: _Evangeline._] THE VICISSITUDES OF EVANGELINE BY ELINOR GLYN AUTHOR OF “THE VISITS OF ELIZABETH” AND “THE REFLECTIONS OF AMBROSINE” [Illustration] LONDON DUCKWORTH & CO. 3, HENRIETTA STREET COVENT GARDEN, W.C. MDCCCCV CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. TO THE WOMEN WITH RED HAIR THE BEGINNING OF EVANGELINE’S JOURNAL THE BEGINNING OF EVANGELINE’S JOURNAL BRANCHES PARK, _November 3rd, 1904_. I WONDER so much if it is amusing to be an adventuress, because that is evidently what I shall become now. I read in a book all about it; it is being nice-looking and having nothing to live on, and getting a pleasant time out of life--and I intend to do that! I have certainly nothing to live on, for one cannot count £300 a year--and I am extremely pretty, and I know it quite well, and how to do my hair, and put on my hats, and those things, so, of course, I am an adventuress! I was not intended for this _rôle_--in fact Mrs. Carruthers adopted me on purpose to leave me her fortune, as at that time she had quarrelled with her heir, who was bound to get the place. Then she was so inconsequent as not to make a proper will--thus it is that this creature gets everything, and I nothing! I am twenty, and up to the week before last, when Mrs. Carruthers got ill, and died in one day, I had had a fairly decent time at odd moments when she was in a good temper. There is no use pretending even when people are dead, if one is writing down one’s real thoughts. I detested Mrs. Carruthers most of the time. A person whom it was impossible to please. She had no idea of justice, or of anything but her own comfort, and what amount of pleasure other people could contribute to her day!