The summer of 1892 he spent in England and on the Continent. In 1895 he went abroad for fifteen months, for rest and literary work, living in Paris and Florence during most of the period. While in Europe he wrote the first draft of “The Man Who Wins,” which was published two years later; also the first form of “The Gospel of Freedom,” and various short stories, which were first published in the magazines and afterward reprinted in “Literary Love Letters and Other Stories,” and in “Love’s Dilemmas.” In addition to his writing in the line of fiction, Mr. Herrick has done a great deal of work on more or less professional topics. Magazine articles about methods of teaching rhetoric, introductions and notes for school editions of classics, one or two text-books on rhetoric,--these items give an idea of the sort of work which has occupied Mr. Herrick’s attention apart from fiction. He is one of the few modern American writers who have the courage and the strength to paint life exactly as they see it,--in its joy, its beauty, its sombreness, and its sorrow alike,--without making it seem happier or nearer the ideal than it is. ILLUSTRATIONS Portrait of Robert Herrick _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE “His wife was ... hurriedly undressing the child” 50 “She knelt beside him and took his head in her hands” 90 THEIR CHILD [Illustration] THEIR CHILD I “There he comes with Dora! I am so glad. I wanted you to see him so much--all of you.” The company gathered in the drawing-room smiled sympathetically at the mother’s pride. They craned their necks about the window to get sight of the small boy. He was a white speck in the long green lawn. “Comes rather reluctantly,” observed Dr. Vessinger, with a touch of irony. “Doesn’t seem to have his mother’s taste for society!” “The little dear! How cunning! A perfect dear!” the women exclaimed with more or less animation. “Why, he is in such a temper! Little Oscar! What is the matter with little Oscar?” The child’s screams could be heard plainly, coming upward from the lawn, in shrill bursts of infantile passion. Mrs. Simmons was troubled with a mother’s confusion and distress. The nurse was holding little Oscar at arm’s length, for safety, while the child circled about her, kicking and thrusting with legs and arms. Mrs. Simmons stepped through the open window to the terrace and called: “Oscar! Oscar!” But neither nurse nor child paid any attention to her. “He is occupied with a greater passion,” the doctor laughed. “Unconscious little animals, children,” observed one of the women. “He has temperament--” “His mother’s?” another woman suggested slyly. She was large, very blonde, very well preserved, and was known by her intimates as “the Magnificent Wreck.”