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in hell since yesterday.

Mrs. Tremaine.

I daresay. I have not been in Paradise, I assure you. What are you going to do? (Pours out some tea.)

Denham.

I don't know.

Mrs. Tremaine.

(puts in sugar) Will sheโ€”stay with you?

Denham.

What else can she do?

Mrs. Tremaine.

(stirring her tea) Then I wish you joy of the mรฉnage. You don't seem to have gained much by making a fool of me.

Denham.

You have renewed the world for me. The mere thought of you is sunshine. Here we have always been at loggerheads with life.

Mrs. Tremaine.

Then whyโ€”? (Sips her tea.) Bah! Upon my word, Arthur Denham, that woman has drained you of your manhood like a vampire, made you the limp coward that you are.

Denham.

Not a word against Constance, or I shall hate you, Blanche. Noโ€”I am haunted by a ghost.

Mrs. Tremaine.

A metaphorical one?

Denham.

The ghost that came to Hamlet in the shape of his fatherโ€”duty. It is a trick of my British bourgeois blood, I suppose.

Mrs. Tremaine.

What duty? To that internal Mrs. Grundy we call conscience? To the thing called Society? To the sacred bond of marriage? Her own principles are against you there. Noโ€”she holds you in some deeper way than this.

Denham.

It is trueโ€”she does.

Mrs. Tremaine.

(rising) Is it because you love her that you abandon me? If so, say so; and I shall understand that I am a toy goddess, nothing more.

Denham.

She loves me.

Mrs. Tremaine.

Ah! a woman's love can blight as terribly as a man'sโ€”almost. Well, I like you none the worse for this curious spice of loyalty. It is so rare in a man.

Denham.

Noโ€”not so rare. Don't let us talk any more about it now. I think you begin to understand. But where can she be? I seem to feel her presence here. (He looks behind the screen, then thrusts it aside, showing Mrs. Denham lying dead on the couch.) Blanche! Blanche! Look here! Is sheโ€”?

Mrs. Tremaine.

She has faintedโ€”let meโ€”!

Denham.

(throws himself down beside the couch and puts his finger on her wrist) Oh my God! Dead! Dead!

Mrs. Tremaine.

No, no, no! It is too terrible! Let us try ifโ€” (Attempts to open dress, then recoils in horror.) And I had begun to hate herโ€”yes, to hate her. My poor good Constance!

Denham.

But howโ€”? (Rising.) Is she dead, Blanche?

Mrs. Tremaine.

(mastering her agitation) Yes, dear, dead! She has taken poison. See here! (Picks up the cup.) What a horrible death! Her face is awful!

Denham.

Oh, Constance, why did I leave you? I had a vague fear of somethingโ€”but not this! (Throws himself down again, and stoops to kiss her.) Ha! Prussic acid! No help! No hope! Yet she is warm. (He starts up.) Could weโ€”? But death is a matter of seconds with that infernal stuff. Blanche, Blanche, I have killed her!

Mrs. Tremaine.

I claim my share in the guilt.

Denham.

No, no. Leave me! Let the dead bury their dead!

Mrs. Tremaine.

If you wish me to leave you, dear, I will go.

Denham.

Yesโ€”for God's sake, go! (She moves towards the door.) But, Blanche, don't leave the house. I can't bear this alone.

Mrs. Tremaine.

(returns to him) You know, dear, I am yours always. Oh, don't hate me! I dare to say it in this presence. (She kisses his hand. He shrinks from her.) Now I can go. (She goes to the door and looks back as Denham kneels and clasps the body in his arms.) Will he hate me now? (Exit Mrs. Tremaine.)

Denham.

Constance! I meant to have kept you from all the thorns of life! It was fate! It was fate!

CURTAIN.

Printed by Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.

THE INDEPENDENT THEATRE SERIES OF PLAYS. Edited by J.T. Grein. Crown 8vo, 2s. 6d. net.

The undermentioned are now ready:โ€”

I.

WIDOWERS' HOUSES. By George Bernard Shaw, with a Preface by the Author, an Address to Dramatic Critics, and an Appendix treating of the discussion raised by the performance.

 
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ALAN'S WIFE. Anonymous. With a Preface by William Archer.

 
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THE HEIRS OF RABOURDIN. By Emile Zola. Translated by A. Teixeira de Mattos. With a Preface by the Author.

 
IV.

THE BLACK CAT. By Dr. Todhunter. With an Introduction by the Author.

DRAMA

 
I.

THE GARDEN OF CITRONS. By Emilio Montanaro. Translated by J.T. Grein. With a Preface by John Gray. Paper Covers, 1s. net.

 
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TWO PLAYS. By Meyrick Milton. With a Preface by the Author. Crown 8vo, 2s. 6d. net.

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EDITED BY THE MARQUIS DE RUVIGNY AND RAINEVAL. THE LEGITIMIST KALENDAR FOR 1895.

Containing a full account of the claims of the Carlists in Spain, the Miguelists in Portugal, the Blancs d'Espagne in France, and the Jacobite Party in England. Illustrated with Portraits of their Most Christian and Catholic Majesties the King and Queen of France, Spain, and Navarre. Published by Subscription only at 5s. net. Twenty-Five Copies on Dutch Hand-made Paper at One Guinea. Prospectus forwarded on application.

IN THE GREEN PARK. By F. NORREYS CONNELL.

With Illustrations by F.H. Townsend.

Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d.

"Excellent fooling. Teems with classical chaff and latter-day badinage. The chief attraction is the uninterrupted flow of exuberant animal spirits which permeates its pages. Mr. Townsend's illustrations to this quaint work are decidedly funny."โ€”Daily Telegraph.

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"Not at all a bad specimen of the New Humour."โ€”Truth.

"The newest New Humour."โ€”National Observer.

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With Illustrations by George Hutchinson.

Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d.

St. James's Gazette: "Some exceedingly clever fooling, and a happy audacity of whimsical invention."

Daily Graphic: "A genuine humorist. We own to having laughed heartily, and appreciated the cleverness and the cynicism."

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Freeman's Journal: "Very clever and amusing; highly interesting, humorous and instructive."

Pictorial World: "One of the smartest books of the season. Brimful of funny ideas, comically expressed."

Man of the World: "Witty to excess. To gentlemen who dine out, the book will furnish a stock of 'good things' upon every conceivable subject of conversation."

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DISILLUSION: A STORY WITH A PREFACE. By DOROTHY LEIGHTON,

Author of "As a Man is Able."

Three Vols. At all Libraries.

"The leading characters in this typically modern tale are very well drawn, and the author has distanced all her fellow-novelists of her own sex in the delineation of a woman whose heartlessness may be truly called devilish. The strength of this portrait is remarkable. The other woman is effective too, and the tangle of the relations of the three is put right by a device of startling originality."โ€”World.

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"Has a quaintness and distinction of its own, an elusive quality of style, a personal touch, that lends to it a whimsical fascination,"โ€”Daily News.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

IN A CANADIAN CANOE.

Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d.

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"Mr. Barry Pain has a decided sense of humour. The best things in the volume are the classical burlesques grouped under the title of 'The Nine Muses minus One.' They are really clever and full of esprit."โ€”Academy.

"Nor is he deficient in fancy, and 'The Celestial Grocery' is as whimsical as it is fresh. 'Bill' is in yet another vein, and proves that Mr. Pain can handle the squalor of reality: while the last half of 'The Girl and the Beetle,' the best of the book, suggests a certain comprehension of character."โ€”National Observer.

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Second Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d.

"Mr. Pain has a delicate fancy and a graceful style, a bitter-sweet humour, and a plentiful endowment of 'the finer perceptions.'"โ€”Punch.

"Amazingly clever.... Teems with satire and good things."โ€”Speaker.

"'The Magic Morning,' though dealing with a young city man

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