The Red Mouse
A Mystery Romance
By WILLIAM HAMILTON OSBORNE
Illustrated By
THE KINNEYS
A. L. BURT COMPANY
Publishers New York
Copyright, 1909
By Dodd, Mead and Company
Published, January, 1909
To
L. G. S. O.
"'Did you put him in that frame?'"
CONTENTS
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI
XVII
XVIII
Popular Copyright Books
Burt's Series of Standard Fiction.
I
For years—the best years of her life, for that matter, as she oftenreflected in lonely moments—Miriam Challoner had been trying to proveto her own satisfaction that her husband was no worse than the majorityof young men married to rich women, but she could never find thearguments whereby she might arrive at the desired conclusion. It is notto be wondered at, then, that eventually there came a day when theinformation was brought to her that even in the gay andultra-fashionable world in which they moved people spoke of him as "thatmad Challoner," and were saying that he was going a pace that wasrapidly carrying him far beyond the horizon of anything likerespectability—going to the dogs, in truth, as fast as her money couldtake him there.
Now Miriam Challoner was not one of those women who deceive themselves,if not their friends, when they say that if ever they hear of theirhusbands doing such-and-such-a-thing they know perfectly well what theywill do. It is true that, like them, she did nothing; nevertheless, shecould not be persuaded to discuss with any one the humiliating positionin which her husband had placed her.
In a way, this attitude of hers was unfortunate, for it was more or lessresponsible for the note of melancholy cadence which crept into hermind. And so it was that before very long she was dimly conscious of anemotion quite unlike anything that she had hitherto experienced: all thebitterness in her heart had given way to a sickening sensation that she,as well as as he, had been tried in the matrimonial furnace and foundwanting. Somehow, she had fallen grievously in her own estimation!
And society's estimation? Illusions in that direction were hardlypossible; there, too, doubtless she would incur the loss of a certainamount of consideration. And even the non-possession of a high