PLAYING WITH FIRE
BY AMELIA E. BARR
AUTHOR OF "ALL THE DAYS OF MY LIFE," "THE BOW OF ORANGE RIBBON," ETC.
stagnates; creeds are merely stagnant truth."
ILLUSTRATED BY
HOWARD HEATH
WILLIAM BRIGGS
TORONTO
1914
Copyright, 1914, by
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
Printed in the United States of America
WITH SINCERE RESPECT AND EVERY GOOD WISH
I INSCRIBE THIS NOVEL
TO
WILLIAM JOHN MATHESON, ESQ.
OF HUNTINGTON, LONG ISLAND
"'Good-bye, Richard!' she cried. 'Good-bye, dearest of all!'"]
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. The Minister's Family
CHAPTER II. Lord Richard Cramer
CHAPTER III. Donald Pleases His Father
CHAPTER IV. The Great Temptation
CHAPTER V. The Minister in Love
CHAPTER VI. Donald Takes His Own Way
CHAPTER VII. Marion Decides
CHAPTER VIII. Macrae Learns a Hard Lesson
CHAPTER IX. When Will the Night Be Past?
CHAPTER X. A Dream
CHAPTER XI. Love Is the Fulfilling of the Law
CHAPTER XII. Afterward
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"'Good-bye, Richard!' she cried. 'Good-bye, dearest of all!'"
"There came again to her that singular sense of a past familiarity"
"She smiled and laid her jeweled white hand confidingly on his"
"The descent seemed steep and dark"
PLAYING WITH FIRE
CHAPTER I
THE MINISTER'S FAMILY
An high priest clothed with doctrine and with truth.—Esdras I:5:40.
Glasgow is the city of Human Power. It is not a beautiful city, but thegray granite of which it is built gives it a natural nobility. There isnothing romantic about its situation, and its streets are too oftensteeped in wet, gray mist, or wrapped in yellowish vapor. But there areno loungers in them. The crowd is a busy, hard-working crowd, whosecivic motto is Enterprise and Perseverance. They made the river thatmade the city, and then established on its banks those immenseshipbuilding yards, whose fleets take the river to the ocean, and theocean to every known port of the world.
It is also a very religious city. Its inhabitants do