Copyright, 1918, by
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| I. | The Arrival | [1] |
| II. | Aunt Annie and Aunty Harriet | [32] |
| III. | Flowing Water | [68] |
| IV. | Bridport House | [87] |
| V. | Alarums and Excursions | [120] |
| VI. | Plot and Counterplot | [149] |
| VII. | A Tragic Coil | [170] |
| VIII. | A Busy Morning | [186] |
| IX. | An Interlude | [210] |
| X. | Time’s Revenge | [232] |
| XI. | A Bomb | [253] |
| XII. | Ardors and Endurances | [273] |
| XIII. | Everything for the Best | [293] |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
| FACING PAGE | |
| Three pairs of eyes met in challenge | [Frontispiece] |
| “How did you come by it, Joe?” | [24] |
| “You give up your young man—simply because of that?” | [198] |
| “We mustn’t build castles,” she sighed, and the light fringed her eyelids | [296] |
THE TIME SPIRIT
CHAPTER I
THE ARRIVAL
I
The fog of November in its descent upon Laxton, one of London’s busiest suburbs, had effaced the whole of Beaconsfield Villas, including the Number Five on the fanlight over the door of the last house but two in the row. To a tall girl in black on her way from the station this was a serious matter. She was familiar with the lie of the land in the light of day and in darkness less than Cimmerian, but this evening she had to ask a policeman, a grocer’s boy, and a person of no defined status, before a kid-gloved hand met the knocker of her destination.