Secret History Revealed by Lady Peggy O'Malley
By C. N. & A. M. WILLIAMSON
Author of "The Lightning Conductor Discovers America," "ASoldier of the Legion," "Lady Betty Across the Water," Etc.
With Frontispiece in Colors By CLARENCE ROWE
A. L. BURT COMPANY
Publishers New York
Published by arrangements with
Doubleday, Page and Company
Copyright, 1915, by
C. N. & A. M. Williamson
All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreignlanguages, including the Scandinavian
"As I kicked it away, one of the slippers flew off and seemed spitefully to follow the coat."
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVIII
CHAPTER XIX
CHAPTER XX
CHAPTER XXI
CHAPTER XXII
CHAPTER XXIII
CHAPTER XXIV
CHAPTER XXV
CHAPTER I
If I didn't tell this, nobody else ever would; certainly not Diana, norMajor Vandyke—still less Eagle himself—I mean Captain Eagleston March;and they and I are the only ones who know, except a few such people aspresidents and secretaries of war and generals, who never tell anythingeven under torture. Besides, there is the unofficial part. Without that,the drama would be like a play in three acts, with the first and thirdacts chopped off. The presidents and secretaries of war and generalsknow nothing about the unofficial part.
It's strange how the biggest things of life grow out of the tiniestones. There is the old simile of the acorn and the oak, for instance.But oaks take a long time to grow, and everybody concerned in oakculture is calmly expecting them to do it. Imagine an acorn exploding tolet out an oak huge enough to shadow the world!
If, two years ago, when I was sixteen, I hadn't wanted money to buy awhite frock with roses on it, which I saw in Selfridge's window, asecret crisis between the United States and Mexico would have beenavoided; and the career of a splendid soldier would not have beenbr