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THE HUMAN INTEREST

COPYRIGHT 1899, BY
HERBERT S. STONE & CO

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THE HUMAN INTEREST

CHAPTER I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI.

CHAPTER I

One dull afternoon—and it was in summer—aLondon authoress of some repute, whose nom-de-guerrewas Egidia, was wandering along the pavementof a dull and imposing street in Newcastle.Day was beginning to decline, but the approach ofevening was not alone responsible for the heart-feltejaculation of the South-country woman, “Oh, thisNorthern gloom!” as she walked along under thesmoky pall that, summer and winter, shrouds the city.

She stood still presently, carefully scanning thesolemn, stately houses with pillared porticos all ofthe self-same pattern, which run in an interminablerow to a vanishing point seemingly far beyond conjecture.

“Each of the houses is exactly like the other,” shemurmured to herself. “In which, I wonder, doesthe Muse of Newcastle hold her court? Like mostmuses, she gave no number. I must judge by out-{2}sides.Oh, here we are; green Liberty curtains inthe windows—a more daring green on the door—aknocker of mediæval tendencies! I will try.”

She went up the steps of No. 59 Savile Street andrang the bell, and stood there pensive.

“I promised to call on this woman, and I am doingit, but I shall be bored. She will talk of Ibsen, andMeredith, and tell me she had read Plato throughbefore she was fifteen. She will take herself seriously,and me too, and inundate me with questionsabout the people in London. All these provincialsdo. Still, she pressed me so prettily to call that Icould not say No. But I shall be bored!—Is Mrs.Mortimer Elles at home?” she enquired of the handsome,full-blown parlour maid who opened the doorwidely and invitingly.

“Oh, yes, ma’am—this is Mrs. Elles’ day at home.”

“Much too familiar!” thought Egidia, as she followedthe swing of the maid’s cap streamers throughportièred doorways and past Syrian shawl-drapedc

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