SIR JOHN DERING

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

Sampson Low, Marston & Co., Ltd.

SIR JOHN DERING

A ROMANTIC COMEDY

BY
JEFFERY FARNOL
AUTHOR OF “THE BROAD HIGHWAY” ETC.

LONDON
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & CO. LTD.

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY PURNELL AND SONS
PAULTON, SOMERSET, ENGLAND

TO

MY FRIEND OF YEARS
AND RIGHT TRUSTY COMRADE

HERBERT LONDON POPE

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK AS A SMALL TRIBUTE TO HIS PATIENCE, FAITHFULNESS, AND UNFALTERING LOYALTY: WITH THE EARNEST HOPE THAT TIME MAY BUT KNIT US EVER MORE CLOSE

JEFFERY FARNOL

Sussex

CONTENTS

PAGE
Prologue[1]
CHAP.
I.Which introduces the Dog with a Bad Name[6]
II.Which describes a Fortuitous but Fateful Meeting[20]
III.Telleth of Mrs. Rose, the Guileful Innocent[29]
IV.Sheweth the Wicked Dering in a New Rôle[34]
V.The Allure of Simplicity: Moonlight and an Elopement[39]
VI.Of Souls, Solitude and a Dusty Road[46]
VII.Which introduces My Lord Sayle and the Clash of Steel[54]
VIII.Of a Post-chaise, Iniquity and a Grandmother[65]
IX.Describes the Adventures of the True Believer[71]
X.Further concerning the Same[79]
XI.Of an Altruistic Scot[85]
XII.Describeth the Duplicity of Innocence[94]
XIII.Concerning the Advent of John Derwent[99]
XIV.How the Man of Sentiment sentimentalised in a Ditch[109]
XV.Which introduces a Frieze Coat and its Wearer, one George Potter[119]
XVI.Describes a Scandalous Item of Fashionable Intelligence and the Consequences thereof[129]
XVII.How Sir John Dering came back to Mayfair[140]
XVIII.How Sir John Dering went a-wooing[143]
XIX.Tells how Sir John went “Bear-baiting”[149]
XX.How Sir John pledged his Word: with Some Description of the Properties of Snuff[156]
XXI.Of George Potter, his Whistle[163]
XXII.My Lady Herminia Barrasdaile weaves Webs for an Unwary He[176]
XXIII.How George Potter circumvented the Preventives[181]
XXIV.Of Mr. Bunkle and the Room with Five Doors[193]
XXV.Telleth how Sir John beheld the Ghost[200]
XXVI.Concerns itself mainly with the “Morning after”[206]
XXVII.Telleth how Mr. Derwent began his Wooing[212]
XXVIII.Telleth how My Lady adopted a Fairy Godmother[223]
XXIX.Giveth some Descriptions of a Tea-drinking[228]
XXX.In which Sir John receives a Warning[238]
XXXI.Being a Chapter of no Great Consequence[243]
XXXII.Telleth how Sir John Derwent went a-wooing[247]
XXXIII.Which, among other Small Matters, telleth of a Snuff-box[251]
XXXIV.Concerns itself with One of the Many Mysteries of the ‘Market Cross Inn’[258]
XXXV.Being the Shortest in this Book[271]
XXXVI.Which contains further Mention of a Certain Snuff-box[273]
XXXVII.Which giveth Some Description of a Murderer’s Hat[281]
XXXVIII.Of the Terror by Night[289]
XXXIX.How they warned Captain Sharkie Nye[299]
XL.Describes, among Other Things, how My Lady trampled triumphantly at last[308]
XLI.Telleth of the Duel on Dering Tye[318]
XLII.Mr. Dumbrell mediates[325]
XLIII.In which Sir John devotes himself to the Muse[331]
XLIV.In which the Ghost flits to Good Purpose[337]
XLV.Which, as the Reader observes, Begins and Ends with My Lord Sayle[344]
XLVI.Tells how Sir John Dering fled the Down-country[352]
XLVII.Telleth how My Lady Herminia Barrasdaile went a-wooing[360]
XLVIII.Which is, happily, the Last[366]