[Illustration] [Illustration] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ DEAR ENEMY DADDY LONG LEGS JUST PATTY PATTY AND PRISCILLA THE FOUR POOLS MYSTERY JERRY MUCH ADO ABOUT PETER LONDON HODDER AND STOUGHTON ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE WHEAT PRINCESS By JEAN WEBSTER Author of ‘Daddy Long Legs,’ ‘Just Patty,’ ‘Dear Enemy’ HODDER AND STOUGHTON LIMITED LONDON ------------------------------------------------------------------------ O. HENRY “The time is coming, let us hope, when the whole English-speaking world will recognise in O. HENRY one of the greatest masters of modern fiction.” STEPHEN LEACOCK. HODDER & STOUGHTON publish all the books by O. HENRY in their famous Popular Series THE FOUR MILLION THE TRIMMED LAMP SIXES AND SEVENS STRICTLY BUSINESS ROADS OF DESTINY CABBAGES AND KINGS HEART OF THE WEST THE GENTLE GRAFTER OPTIONS WHIRLIGIGS THE VOICE OF THE CITY ROLLING STONES Cloth LONDON: HODDER AND STOUGHTON ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PROLOGUE IF you leave the city by the Porta Maggiore and take the Via Prænestina, which leads east into the Sabine hills, at some thirty-six kilometers’ distance from Rome you will pass on your left a grey-walled village climbing up the hillside. This is Palestrina, the old Roman Præneste; and a short distance beyond—also on the left—you will find branching off from the straight Roman highway a steep mountain road, which, if you stick to it long enough, will take you, after many windings, to Castel Madama and Tivoli.