PART I.—PLAY DAYS

CHAP. PAGE
I.[TWELVE O’ THE CLOCK][11]
II.[PRETENDING][21]
III.[FAMILY MATTERS][35]
IV.[A WINTER SUNDAY][41]
V.[WHICH RUSHES FOURTEEN THOUSAND MILES AWAY][53]
VI.[‘BROWNSES’ HOUSE’][66]
VII.[A WAY TO WEALTH][73]
VIII.[THE PITILESS LONDON STREETS][81]
IX.[TRAVELS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES][98]
X.[THE LAST CHRISTMAS IN ENGLAND][112]
XI.[‘GOING DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS’][124]
XII.[AUSTRALIA][133]
XIII.[MOONDI-MOONDI][142]
XIV.[TRYING TO LIVE][158]
XV.[‘A LITTLE FOLDING OF THE HANDS TO SLEEP’][165]
XVI.[THE END OF PLAY DAYS][175]

[viii]
]PART II.—SCRIBBLING DAYS

CHAP. PAGE
XVII.[RHYME AND RHYTHM][187]
XVIII.[TEN AT TABLE][194]
XIX.[GWENDOLEN TREVALLION AND A SOLDIER BRAVE AND TRUE][208]
XX.[THE ‘GERMAN SAUSAGE’ LAND][218]
XXI.[‘GOOD-BYE, GOOD-BYE!’][226]
XXII.[THE WRITING-ROOM][234]
XXIII.[ENTIRELY EDITORIAL][242]
XXIV.[NEWS FROM THE FATHERLAND][253]
XXV.[THE TRIALS OF WEENIE][266]
XXVI.[MORE LETTERS][276]
XXVII.[FINANCE AND FASHION][285]
XXVIII.[ONE GLORIOUS HOUR][294]
XXIX.[AND THEN NO MORE][307]

[9]
]PART I
PLAY DAYS

[11]
]Three Little Maids

CHAPTER I
TWELVE O’ THE CLOCK

“What’s done cannot be undone; to bed, to bed, to bed.”

There was the listening hush of midnight in the house. No light burned in any of the rooms, but through the windows, where the blinds were up, a woe-begone struggling moon shone palely.

The big bedroom at the front of the house was empty, and the moonbeams lay quiet on the smooth white counterpane of the canopied bed. Even in so faint a light it was plain to see the room was unused; the chairs and sofa held no heaps of flung-off clothes, the dressing-table appointments were in the most precise order, the chill air lay over everything, unbroken by the regular fall and rise of human breath.