CONTENTS.
| Chapter | Page | |
| I. | [Lady Typewriter Wanted] | 9 |
| II. | [Outlining the Scheme] | 21 |
| III. | [An Evening at Koster and Bial's] | 32 |
| IV. | ["You are a hopeless scamp"] | 46 |
| V. | [Meeting Miss Marjorie] | 57 |
| VI. | ["Do you really want me?"] | 71 |
| VII. | [Getting Ready for my Journey] | 83 |
| VIII. | ["A woman I like very well"] | 93 |
| IX. | [A Private Dining Room] | 104 |
| X. | ["Once there was a child"] | 116 |
| XI. | [A Theft on Board Ship] | 129 |
| XII. | [A Little Game of Cards] | 144 |
| XIII. | [Bathing in the Surf] | 155 |
| XIV. | ["Oh! this naughty boy!"] | 166 |
| XV. | [Wesson Becomes a Nuisance] | 176 |
| XVI. | ["It is from a girl"] | 184 |
| XVII. | [A Struggle on the Balcony] | 196 |
| XVIII. | [Our Night at Martinique] | 208 |
| XIX. | ["It is a strange idea"] | 219 |
| XX. | [New Work for my Typewriter] | 230 |
| XXI. | ["You were in my room?"] | 241 |
| XXII. | [Too Much Excitement] | 252 |
| XXIII. | [A Wedding Ring] | 265 |
| XXIV. | [The Brutal Truth] | 275 |
| XXV. | ["With his wife, of course"] | 286 |
| XXVI. | [Behind the Bars] | 297 |
| XXVII. | ["I pressed them to my lips"] | 305 |
TO MY READERS.
It is a common question of my correspondents, "Are your novels ever founded on fact?" Sometimes; not often. This one is.
A year ago I had an attack of neurasthenia, as did "Donald Camran." I did not die, nor go to an insane asylum, both of which items of "news" appeared in the daily papers from one end of the country to the other; but I wasn't exactly well for awhile. In January of this year I made my second trip to the Caribbean Islands and wrote this novel among the scenes I have described.
Before going I advertised in the New York Herald "Personal" column for a typewriter to accompany me as private secretary. I received more than a hundred letters from women who desired the situation and interviewed quite a number of them. I decided, however, to go alone. (If the reader doesn't believe me I refer him to the passenger lists of the "Madiana" and "Pretoria.") The basis of this story, however, grew out of the advertisement and answers.
"Marjorie" and "Statia" have a genuine existence, and so have many of the other characters in this tale. I have used real people as an artist does his models, taking a little from one, a little from another, and a great deal from the vivid imagination with which nature has endowed me. I hope the result will be satisfactory to my friends, who have waited double the usual time for this novel.