CONTENTS.
[CHAPTER I. Irene]
[CHAPTER II. The Period, and the Coming of Wings]
[CHAPTER III. The Million to One Chance]
[CHAPTER IV. The Compact]
[CHAPTER V. The Downtrodden]
[CHAPTER VI. Miss Lisle tells a Long Pointless Story]
[CHAPTER VII. "Schedule B"]
[CHAPTER VIII. Tantroy earns his Wage]
[CHAPTER IX. Secret History]
[CHAPTER X. The Order of St. Martin of Tours]
[CHAPTER XI. Man between Two Masters]
[CHAPTER XII. By Telescribe]
[CHAPTER XIII. The Effect of the Bomb]
[CHAPTER XIV. The Last Chance and the Counsel of Expedience]
[CHAPTER XV. The Great Fiasco]
[CHAPTER XVI. The Dark Winter]
[CHAPTER XVII. The Incident of the 13th of January]
[CHAPTER XVIII. The Music and the Dance]
[CHAPTER XIX. The "Finis" Message]
[CHAPTER XX. Stobalt of Salaveira]
[CHAPTER XXI. The Bargain of Famine]
[CHAPTER XXII. "Poor England"]
[NELSON LIBRARY]
THE SECRET OF THE LEAGUE.
CHAPTER I
IRENE
"I suppose I am old-fashioned"—there was a murmur of polite dissent from all the ladies present, except the one addressed—"Oh, I take it as a compliment nowadays, I assure you; but when I was a girl a young lady would have no more thought of flying than of"—she paused almost on a note of pained surprise at finding the familiar comparison of a lifetime cut off—"well, of standing on her head."
"No," replied the young lady in point, with the unfeeling candour that marked the youthful spirit of the age, "because it wasn't invented. But you went bicycling, and your mothers were very shocked at first."
"I hardly think that you can say that, Miss Lisle," remarked another of the matrons, "because I can remember that more than twenty years ago one used to see quite elderly ladies bicycling."